It may not feel that way to patients, but the meteoric rise in prices for drugs has slowed, causing both CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance to report that pharmacy revenues are suffering as brand-name drug prices have come under pressure—both from generic substitutes and from slowing price inflation.

The Wall Street Journal reports that CVS, at least, isn't terribly worried about the slowing prices. According to CVS finance chief Dave Denton, although the present ding to the company's bottom line comes from the generics, in the long run they could actually be more profitable since they have a higher profit margin than name-brand medications.

According to Denton, "You're going to see continued dampening going forward as you think about the pipeline of generics coming into the markets…The introduction of generics can really dampen the top line but affect the bottom line in a positive way."