Dr Timothy Murphy: Strong Communication Is Necessary for Practices Stocking Multiple Biosimilars

With multiple biosimilars approved for a reference product and different payers preferring particular products, communication between the clinical pharmacy team and the managed care team is crucial, said Timothy Murphy, MD, FACP, medical oncologist/hematologist with Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers.

Transcript

How are community oncology practices handling the challenge of stocking multiple biosimilars for the same reference product and balancing the needs of various payers?

Fortunately, those issues play to the power of community oncology, and particularly Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers. We have a strong clinical pharmacy team—they work very closely with our managed care team. To your point, some payers are now preferring a particular product vs another. In the old days, we could have one type of medication in that class, but now we're going to have to keep inventory with multiple.

That takes a strong pharmacy-led team. It takes strong education on the pharmacy techs. It takes strong leadership from the managed care team. That communication piece is vital. Once the physicians got buy-in—they trusted the process—I think we're well positioned to handle this transformation, which is happening in real time.