Interviews

Miruna Sasu, PhD, MBA, president and CEO of COTA Healthcare, discusses the medicines discovery process and how real-world data can be used to evaluate patient and tumor response to treatment regimens.

Anna Brewster, services and volunteer manager at The Food Chain, a London-based charity that provides short-term assistance to persons living with HIV (PLWH), discusses how education provided through the Eating Positively program connects the importance of food and proper nutrition to health outcomes.

While 2023 is a big year with at least 7 adalimumab biosimilars expected to come to market, 2024 will be even more important because all the products will be on the market and formulary decisions can be made, said Sonia T. Oskouei, PharmD, BCMAS, DPLA, vice president of biosimilars at Cardinal Health.

Miruna Sasu, PhD, MBA, president and CEO of COTA Healthcare, delves into how real-world data and evidence generation have changed, both within the past year and since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Marking Women's Health Month, Sharon Phares, PhD, MPH, chief scientific officer of the National Pharmaceutical Council, detailed how value assessments can address health care imbalances for women.

The US Preventive Services Task Force has never evaluated a multicancer screening test for endorsement, which may make the process even longer, said Patricia Deverka, MD, MS, senior researcher, deputy director at the Center for Translational and Policy Research and Precision Medicine, University of California San Francisco.

Colette Romero, whose child has eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), describes some of the coping strategies her family uses to encourage her son to keep healthy.

Gene therapies in the pipeline to treat hemophilia will be very expensive, but they also seem to be very efficacious, and multiple could hit the market between now and 2024, said Ray Tancredi, RPh, MBA, CSP, divisional vice president, specialty pharmacy development and brand Rx/vaccine purchasing, Walgreens.

While CMS has started making changes to address health equity through policy and payment models, commercial plans are waiting to see the outcomes before they follow suit, said Jayson Slotnik, partner, Health Policy Strategies, Inc.

Marc-Andre Cornier, MD, professor and director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina, discusses the importance of a combined approach to weight loss.

After the Oncology Care Model (OCM) expires at the end of June, Tennessee Oncology will take what it learned from the model and apply it to commercial value-based care arrangements and potentially the next Medicare model, said Leah Owens, DNP, RN, executive director of care transformation at Tennessee Oncology.

Debra Patt, MD, PhD, MBA, executive vice president of Texas Oncology, discusses how community oncology practices have heightened their outreach efforts to entice patients back in for cancer screenings and the importance of thinking outside the box to overcome staffing shortages in the oncology space.

The impact that the adalimumab biosimilars will have in 2023 is going to depend on when they all get to market, said Doug Long, MBA, vice president, industry relations, IQVIA.

Anna Marzec-Bogusławska, MD, MPH, managing director, National AIDS Center, Warsaw, Poland, discusses how stigma and discrimination permeated the beginning of the HIV/AIDS epidemic the country in the early 1980s and ways that advocates stepped up to overcome peoples’ fears.

Good telehealth is not about the technology, but rather the quality of service from the licensed professional, said Geoffrey Boyce, CEO of Array Behavioral Care.

Elaine Siegfried, MD, professor of pediatrics and dermatology, Saint Louis University Health Sciences Center, speaks on safety considerations for the use of Janus kinase (JAK) inhibitors in pediatric patients with atopic dermatitis.

Roxana Siles, MD, FAAAAI, staff in the Department of Allergy and Immunology at Cleveland Clinic and codirector of the Asthma Center at Cleveland Clinic, addresses the placebo effect seen in clinical trials of chronic cough treatment.

Hilary Baldwin, MD, medical director, Acne Treatment and Research Center, discusses new therapies for acne and unmet needs for the condition.

Marc-Andre Cornier, MD, professor and director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina, describes the genetic factor that contributes to obesity risk.

Biomarker testing is having growing importance to ensure that patients are started on the correct therapy for the best outcomes, said Sneha Sharma, PharmD, director, specialty clinical solutions, Magellan Rx.

Addressing rural care is a way of addressing health inequities, and the Biden administration’s recent investment in rural care reflects its commitment to addressing health equity, said Ryan Urgo, MPAP, managing director, health policy, Avalere.

Alexis Garcia, PharmD, senior director of business development at Tabula Rasa HealthCare, explains the importance of up-to-date data when implementing medication therapy management programs.

The pandemic drove telehealth usage, but it has challenges that might prevent doctors from prescribing new therapies, said Doug Long, MBA, vice president, industry relations, IQVIA.

Health plans and payers have plenty of options for how to analyze the effectiveness of digital therapeutic tools, as there are several effective strategies, according to Soumya Vishwanath, PharmD, of Magellan Rx Management.

Value-based payments were a benefit during the pandemic, but it remains to be seen if patients are interested in keeping those changes in care delivery as the pandemic recedes, said Jayson Slotnik, partner, Health Policy Strategies, Inc.

Sharon Phares, PhD, MPH, discussed her new appointment as the chief scientific officer of the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC) and her main priorities in honor of Women's Health Month.

The intent of metastatic disease treatment is palliative, not curative, so we try to prolong life and provide quality of life as much as we can, said Hatem Soliman, MD, medical director of the Clinical Trials Office, Moffitt Cancer Center.

The approval of aducanumab (Aduhelm) was very controversial. There are 3 promising Alzheimer disease drugs in the pipeline with trials evaluating the efficacy, and there is a huge unmet need for these therapies, said Ray Tancredi, RPh, MBA, CSP, divisional vice president, specialty pharmacy development and brand Rx/vaccine purchasing, Walgreens.