Enhancing Patient Access Through Navigation Assistance

Jeffrey Stark, MD, vice president and head of medical immunology at UCB, discusses the Bimzelx Navigate program and several of its key components such as the Bimzelx Navigate bridge, the copay assistance program, the nurse navigator program, and the digital patient portal.

Stark emphasizes that the program aims to empower patients and address their diverse needs beyond simply providing the medication. He expresses satisfaction with the positive feedback received, particularly regarding the nurse navigator program.

This transcript has been lightly edited; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

Can you tell us more about Bimzelx Navigate and how it helps ensure that patients can access and afford their prescribed treatment? What feedback have you received from users of this program?

We recognized that to meet the needs of patients, it's necessary not only to bring a therapy to market and market that therapy to the community, but also to meet the more holistic needs that patients may have. That was really the idea behind the Bimzelx Navigate program. It is a comprehensive and holistic patient support program that has several components that are important to it.

One of those is the Bimzelx Navigate bridge, and this means that patients who are either commercially insured but whose prescription may be delayed for some reason [or patients who experience] difficulty in achieving insurance coverage, for example, those patients can receive Bimzelx [bimekizumab-bkzx]
at $15 per dose for up to 2 years or until their commercial coverage is approved, whichever comes first. That's an important aspect of the program that allows patients to proceed with their therapy when they and their treating provider feel like they need it, and surmount some of those barriers that they may experience.

In addition, once insurance approves Bimzelx, there is a co-pay assistance program so that those commercially insured patients can pay as little as $5 per dose. Recognizing that even in the setting of insurance coverage there are patients who struggle with financial difficulties in affording their medications, this provides patients with additional support that they may need.

One of the parts, though, that I think I'm very excited about with the Navigate program is actually the nurse navigator program, which provides patients with a single point of contact to help them with a diverse body of needs that they may have. This nurse navigator is not someone who provides medical advice. In fact, those questions are always deferred right back to the treating provider who is the appropriate person to make those decisions. But if the patient has questions about insurance coverage, the status of seeking coverage for their medication, injection training, financial assistance, even just talking through things and offering the emotional support that that patient may need in the moment, this is something that those nurse navigators are able to provide. We've been really happy to see that going well and to hear positive stories of that from the nurse navigator program.

Then finally, as part of the Bimzelx Navigate program, there is a digital patient portal as well, which offers a variety of support tools, resources, educational resources, for example; medication dosing reminders; the ability of the patient to track their medication shipment, etc. It's really about meeting the needs of the patient and also putting them in the driver's seat when it comes to their therapy.