AMCP 2024: Key Takeaways From Leading Speakers

The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy's (AMCP) 2024 annual conference brought together industry leaders to discuss the latest trends and challenges. We spoke with several prominent speakers about their key takeaways from the event.

• Adam Colborn, JD, director of Government Relations for AMCP, an expert on biosimilar regulations and emerging trends, shared his insights on the evolving regulatory landscape.
• Jenny Craven, PharmD, BCPS, senior clinical pharmacist and Pharmacy Lead for Emerging Therapies at University of California Davis Health, discussed her experience in developing successful real-world evidence programs for patients.
• Andy Killpack, PharmD, director of Specialty Clinical Solutions at Prime Therapeutics, offered his perspective on the conference's focus areas.
• Jennifer Mathieu, senior vice president of Professional and Government Affairs at AMCP, provided updates on healthcare policy, advocacy, and strategy.
• Leslie Fish, PharmD, senior vice president of Pharmacy at IDP Analytics, LLC, shared her thoughts on program development and implementation for managed care patients.
• Kimberly Westrich, MA, chief strategy officer for the National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC), discussed NPC's research on biopharmaceuticals and their impact on patient lives.

Transcript:

What are your key takeaways or favorite things from the AMCP conference?

Colborn: Well, my favorite thing, from AMCP so far, has got to be spending time in New Orleans. It's an incredible city that I've never been to before. I'm appreciative of the chance to see the city and the culture.

I think the programming has been really strong as well. There was a lot of good information on innovative therapies, we have stuff on cell and gene therapies. There was a session on prescription digital therapeutics, which I think is a really exciting area, and starting to think about how we cover and pay for these new therapies. It's a completely new modality, so we'll have to work through some issues there. I think it's been really exciting to see all of these experts come together and think about how we can push the profession forward.

Craven: My key takeaway is, I really appreciate all the engagement. I think our presentation presented kind of the other side. I know a lot of people in our audience don't deal with the onboarding necessarily, at the health care system level. There are a lot of payers and manufacturers, and so they kind of have their tasks they're focused on, but I think it was helpful to hear some of the feedback that we received after our presentation to really hear about some of the challenges that they weren't aware of maybe that we are experiencing. I think just continuing that relationship, and that dialogue with the manufacturer and the payers is so vital and helpful to this process.

Killpack: I think AMCP is a great forum, it provides opportunity to have conversations that are much needed between manufacturers and payers alike. We're trying to do what's best for patients here, so coming together, brainstorming, coming up with solutions to make it so that patients can receive these life changing treatments, is something that has to happen and AMCP is a great forum for that to occur.

Mathieu: I love the fact that we're in New Orleans, I think that's a really big draw to come here and be here with all of the food, music, and culture. I would say, probably my favorite thing that I've seen just here at AMCP Annual is the amount of programming related to legislation and regulation.

It's obviously what I do professionally but we have had sessions on PBMs [pharmacy benefit managers], federal and state legislation and regulations, PDTs [prescription digital therapeutics], biosimilars, [and] we've had several sessions on the patient perspective and how to incorporate that into managed care pharmacy and formulary decision making. The list goes on and on. It's very exciting to see how innovative AMCP is, not only with our strategic priorities, but to see them reflected in our educational programming is really exciting.

Fish: I would say I've been in the business a very long time, and that it always surprises me how much change there is. Just when I think that there's not going to be any more change, there is. The other thing that really surprises me—well it doesn't surprise me, but I'm very happy about it—is the general public, laypeople, and the medical community are really looking at drug pricing, and what can we do to make it more favorable so that everybody wins in health care.

Westrich: One of my favorite things from AMCP, and this is probably an evergreen answer, but it's true, every time I come here, my favorite thing is meeting the next generation of researchers. There are so many students and young researchers here at AMCP, and having the opportunity to talk to them.

National Pharmaceutical Council, my organization, sponsors the student reception, we're also sponsoring the student breakfast. And being able to just talk with them about their passions, what brought them into managed care pharmacy, what research areas they're passionate about, it gives me a whole new fresh inspiration for what brought me into the field and the types of research I'm interested in. It's always one of my favorite things, going through that rebirth of meeting the next generation of researchers and finding out what they're excited about.