Asembia

Patients on specialty medications may face many barriers that prevent them from getting on or staying on therapy, but a specialty pharmacy integrated into a health system can help address these issues, explained Ryan Nix, PharmD, MMHC, of Vanderbilt Specialty Pharmacy.

Innovation in the specialty pipeline, drug costs, health care policy updates, and collaboration were key topics at this year's Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit.

In 2024, the Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit celebrated 20 years and speakers highlighted the conversations around improving access and affordability taking place at the meeting.

In a session during the final full day of conference activity at AXS24, experts from CVS Health and Surescripts emphasized the need to simplify the prescribing workflow for specialty medication through proactive messaging, automation, and interoperability.

While the novel payment models for expensive cell and gene therapies have been effective, they need to continue evolving, said Joe DePinto, MBA, of McKesson.

Representatives from ICON plc and Symphony Health joined forces at AXS24 to discuss the challenges of managing high-cost specialty drugs and how they influence self-funded employer benefit plan design and employee access to specialty medications.

In the US, a disease is considered rare when it affects fewer than 200,000 persons, or 1 in every 1500 individuals, with an estimated total of 25 to 30 million Americans overall living with a rare disease at any given time.

The health-system specialty pharmacy has the unique ability to coordinate better with the provider and take a team approach that reduces the chances of dropping the ball on the patient’s care.

There are multiple levers that need to be pulled to allow biosimilars to come to market more broadly in the US, explained Fran Gregory, PharmD, MBA, vice president of emerging therapies, Cardinal Health.

Doug Long, MBA, vice president of industry relations at IQVIA, covered a bevy of stakeholder investment–related topics in his presentation at AXS24 on trends in specialty pharmacy, chief among them challenges facing the industry, obesity medications, generics and biosimilars, new product launches, and the outlook for the US market.

When the same product comes to market with additional indications, irrational pricing decisions result in ever-increasing prices instead of volume translating to lower costs, said Jon Mahrt, MBA, of OptumRX.

Optum Life Sciences and Takeda Pharmaceuticals are partnering on an innovative virtual care pilot program for inflammatory bowel disease meant to both continue the mission of the current value-based health care landscape and raise the bar for personalized care delivery optimization.

The real-time monitoring of patients through medically integrated dispensing (MID) programs can reduce costs of care and remove barriers, said Christie Smith, PharmD, MBA, vice president, pharmacy and payer strategy, Cencora.

Just as it is important for retail analysts to understand the choices their customers make and why they may choose not to purchase a specific item, so is it important for the specialty pharmacy industry to understand the actions of prescribers and how the often inefficient prior authorization process affects patient outcomes.

Payer coverage of biosimilars is always shifting as new ones come to market, explained Tasmina Hydery, PharmD, MBA, BCGP, associate director in digital solutions, Cencora.

Asembia AXS24, which has record registration this year, will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, April 28-May 2, at the Wynn & Encore Las Vegas.

During their session at Asembia’s AXS24, Sarah Butler and Lindsay Greenleaf of ADVI Health will examine the current status of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and future considerations in health care in the context of the upcoming presidential election.

The most popular content from our Asembia coverage largely covered biosimilars.

Elizabeth Johnson, LPN, PACS, BPCA, CEO of MedicoCX, co-CEO of Healthcare Advocate Summit, and an Asembia 2023 presenter, discusses why more empathetic approaches that take into account the full range of the patient experience are needed to improve patient-focused health care.

Panelists from Optum Life Sciences, OptumRx, and Takeda discussed the importance of collaboration in creating successful value-based agreements (VBAs) at Asembia 2023.

The American Journal of Managed Care® interviewed 2 presenters at Asembia 2023, gaining insight on how the specialty pharmacy pipeline is growing and how health systems and payers can affect the accessibility and affordability of new specialty therapies.

“As we look over the next decade, the climb is going to be steep, it's going to be challenging, but success is still possible,” said Luke Greenwalt, vice president of market access at IQVIA, during his session at Asembia 2023.

Speakers at the 2023 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit outlined how artificial intelligence (AI) tools for pharmaceuticals, such as parcel tracking, could reduce operational costs for specialty pharmacies and mitigate drug delivery issues for patients.

A panel on women’s health disparities at the 2023 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit addressed the current challenges women face regarding health care as well as how digital tools, collaboration between clinics and governments, and more detailed and inclusive research can help improve health equity for all women.

Sebastian Pistritto, chief marketing officer at ParcelShield Holdings, LLC, talks about how technology such as artificial intelligence helps to evaluate data to assist in medication delivery service decision-making, depending on the need of the pharmacy and its patients.

The 2023 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit featured Juliana (Julie) Reed, executive director of the Biosimilars Forum, who spoke on the challenges still facing the biosimilars industry and how they may impact the success of adalimumab biosimilars in the United States.

A panel at Asembia 2023 discussed what their organizations are doing to improve diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at their organizations, and what others can learn from these efforts.

Naveen Mansukhani, director of operations and account management of Retail Pharmacy Services at Cardinal Health, talks about how the responsibility for saving costs does not just fall on one department or person, but is collaborative and requires strategy.

Connie Sullivan, president and CEO of the National Home Infusion Association (NHIA), discusses why at-home infusion is beneficial to patients and why so many patients reported feeling satisfied with home administration.

Although digital tools can be immensely helpful for creating a personalized, convenient interaction between patients and the health care system, they should not be the end-all be-all method to improve the patient experience, according to a panel discussion at the 2023 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit.