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    • This is a Non-Federal dataset covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov.

    Prescription Drug Wholesale Acquisition Cost (WAC) Increases

    Metadata Updated: November 23, 2025

    This dataset is comprised of data submitted to HCAI by prescription drug manufacturers for wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) increases that exceed the statutorily-mandated WAC increase threshold of an increase of more than 16% above the WAC of the drug product on December 31 of the calendar year three years prior to the current calendar year. This threshold applies to prescription drug products with a WAC greater than $40 for a course of therapy. Required WAC increase reports are to be submitted to HCAI within a month after the end of the quarter in which the WAC increase went into effect. Please see the statute and regulations for additional information regarding reporting thresholds and report due dates.

    Key data elements in this dataset include the National Drug Code (NDC) maintained by the FDA, narrative descriptions of the reasons for the increase in WAC, and the five-year history of WAC increases for the NDC. A WAC Increase Report consists of 27 data elements that have been divided into two separate Excel data sets: Prescription Drug WAC Increase and Prescription Drug WAC Increase – 5 Year History. The datasets include manufacturer WAC Increase Reports received since January 1, 2019. The Prescription Drugs WAC Increase dataset consists of the information submitted by prescription drug manufacturers that pertains to the current WAC increase of a given report, including the amount of the current increase, the WAC after increase, and the effective date of the increase. The Prescription Drugs WAC Increase – 5 Year History dataset consists of the information submitted by prescription drug manufacturers for the data elements that comprise the 5-year history of WAC increases of a given report, including the amount of each increase and their effective dates.

    There are two types of WAC Increase datasets below: Monthly and Annual. The Monthly datasets include the data in completed reports submitted by manufacturers for calendar year 2025, as of November 7, 2025. The Annual datasets include data in completed reports submitted by manufacturers for the specified year. The datasets may include reports that do not meet the specified minimum thresholds for reporting.

    The Quick Guide explaining how to link the information in each data set to form complete reports is here: https://hcai.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/QuickGuide_LinkingTheDatasets.pdf

    The program regulations are available here: https://hcai.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/CTRx-Regulations-Text.pdf

    The data format and file specifications are available here: https://hcai.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Format-and-File-Specifications-version-2.0-ada.pdf

    DATA NOTES: Due to recent changes in Excel, it is not recommended that you save these files to .csv format. If you do, when importing back into Excel the leading zeros in the NDC number column will be dropped. If you need to save it into a different format other than .xlsx it must be .txt

    Submitted reports that are still under review by HCAI are not included in these files.

    DATA UPDATES: Drug manufacturers may submit WAC Increase reports to HCAI for price increases from previous quarters. CTRx staff update the posted datasets monthly for current year data and as needed for previous years. Please check the 'Data last updated' date on each dataset page to ensure you are viewing the most current data.

    Due to regulatory changes that went into effect April 1, 2024, reports submitted prior to April 1, 2024, will include the data field "Unit Sales Volume in US" and reports submitted on or after April 1, 2024, will instead include "Total Volume of Gross Sales in US Dollars".

    Access & Use Information

    Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. Non-Federal: This dataset is covered by different Terms of Use than Data.gov. License: See this page for license information.

    Downloads & Resources

    Dates

    Metadata Created Date November 27, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date November 23, 2025

    Metadata Source

    Harvested from State of California

    Other Data Resources

    Additional Metadata

    Resource Type Dataset
    Metadata Created Date November 27, 2024
    Metadata Updated Date November 23, 2025
    Publisher Department of Health Care Access and Information
    Maintainer
    Identifier df92eda2-8763-44aa-8d17-d493032367fe
    Data First Published 2019-07-01T18:35:52.367436
    Data Last Modified 2025-11-07T22:51:44.265462
    Category Health and Human Services
    Public Access Level public
    Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
    Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
    Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
    Harvest Object Id a6871495-3055-43b4-84e1-edac0f479840
    Harvest Source Id 3ba8a0c1-5dc2-4897-940f-81922d3cf8bc
    Harvest Source Title State of California
    License http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by
    Source Datajson Identifier True
    Source Hash bc2f4dda810cbff7db11697b500bd6ed53783a73eff4ca031c84ddb9ba0c32c8
    Source Schema Version 1.1

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