Though PBMs are most known for the influence they have on prescription drug costs, some firms are increasingly focused on offering high-touch condition management services that give them a more active role in patient care, AIS Health reported.

For specialty PBM AscellaHealth, LLC, that means harnessing a variety of resources to help better manage treatment for hemophilia, a notoriously expensive disease state.

 

Topics: Industry Trends, Market Access, Data & Analytics

Industry trade groups that would like rebates preserved in the Medicare Part D purchasing system were thrilled to see a Sept. 13 report from the HHS Office of Inspector General that they viewed as dispelling the oft-purported "myth" that rebates are responsible for high drug prices, AIS Health reported.

The report examining the more than 1,510 brand-name drugs with Part D reimbursement and rebates between 2011 and 2015 found that rebates did not always go up when unit reimbursement grew.

 

Topics: Industry Trends, Data & Analytics, Provider, Payer

Two newly approved narcolepsy medications offer novel, possibly more effective options to people for whom older medications aren't working well, but most health plans are requiring patients and providers to try generic alternatives first, AIS Health reported.

The FDA approved Jazz Pharmaceuticals' Sunosi (solriamfetol) for adults with narcolepsy or obstructive sleep apnea in March and Harmony Biosciences, LLC's Wakix (pitolisant) in August. Sunosi was launched in July, and Wakix is expected to be launched later this year. 

Topics: Specialty, Market Access, Product Release, Provider, Payer

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for immune thrombocytopenic purpura treatments, combined with news from key healthcare influencers, market access is shifting in this drug landscape.

To help make sense of this new research, MMIT's team of experts analyzes the data and summarizes the key findings for you. The following are brief highlights. To read the full piece, including payer coverage, drug competition and prescriber trends, click here.

Topics: Specialty, Market Access, Payer, Branding & Marketing

For large, self-insured U.S. employers, their No. 1 concern related to pharmacy benefits is how to finance treatments that come with seven-figure price tags.

That's one finding of the National Business Group on Health (NBGH) 2020 Large Employers' Health Care Strategy and Plan Design Survey, AIS Health reported. Among the 147 employer respondents, 86% said they were either concerned or very concerned about "the impact of million-dollar treatments getting approved by the FDA."

 

Topics: Industry Trends, Provider, Payer

The FDA has approved nearly 10 therapies for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) over the past couple of years. Because most of them target a specific biomarker, it's critical that people diagnosed with the condition undergo genetic testing to determine whether they fall into a particular patient subgroup, AIS Health reported.

"Prior to two years ago, we had no new drugs for over a decade, and now we have eight new drugs approved in just the last two years, so the whole field has changed," said Daniel J. DeAngelo, M.D., Ph.D., chief, division of leukemia, institute physician, professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School, in an interview published on the website obroncology.com.  

 

Topics: Specialty, Industry Trends, Market Access, Provider, Payer

With concerns mounting about how health plan sponsors will pay for breakthrough treatments with ultra-high price tags, some major insurers are offering up new solutions aimed at easing that burden, AIS Health reported.

Cigna Corp. "appears at the forefront" of initiatives to cope with super-high-cost drugs, as Citi analyst Ralph Giacobbe puts it, given that the firm recently introduced a new solution that would help clients pay for and manage two gene therapies: Luxturna and Zolgensma. 

Topics: Specialty, Market Access, Product Release, Provider, Payer

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for schizophrenia treatments, combined with news from key healthcare influencers, market access is shifting in this drug landscape.

To help make sense of this new research, MMIT's team of experts analyzes the data and summarizes the key findings for you. The following are brief highlights. To read the full piece, including payer coverage, drug competition and prescriber trends, click here.

Topics: Specialty, Market Access, Payer, Branding & Marketing

This past quarter saw two new gene therapies: Novartis AG subsidiary AveXis, Inc.'s Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi) received FDA approval May 24 for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, and bluebird bio's Zynteglo (autologous CD34+ cells encoding βA-T87Q- globin gene) received conditional marketing authorization from the European Commission for transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia.

While only a handful of therapies in the broader regenerative medicine/advanced therapy (RM/AT) space are available globally, a new report shows that is likely to change, as there are more than 1,000 products in the pipeline, AIS Health reported.

 

Topics: Specialty, Industry Trends, Product Release, Data & Analytics

The FDA in August put out a statement addressing "data accuracy issues" with Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi), a new gene therapy to treat spinal muscular atrophy in people less than two years old who have bi-allelic mutations in the survival motor neuron 1 gene, AIS Health reported.

The FDA approved the drug from AveXis, Inc., which was acquired by Novartis AG last year, on May 24. On June 28, AveXis notified the FDA that there was "a data manipulation issue that impacts the accuracy of certain data from product testing performed in animals submitted in the biologics license application (BLA) and reviewed by the FDA."  

 

Topics: Specialty, Industry Trends, Market Access, Provider, Payer