With the cost of diabetes drugs still growing, PBMs and payers are looking for more innovative strategies to hold down costs, AIS Health reported. For some, that might include a strategy similar to the one recently unveiled by CVS Health Corp.’s Caremark unit. The plan, called RxZERO, offers a slimmer formulary for the diabetes drug class, but with no out-of-pocket costs for members.

Mike Schneider, a principal in the commercialization and market access practice at Avalere Health, says the plan is innovative. “You’ve seen Express Scripts do something where they’re offering specific insulins at very low out-of-pocket costs, but this is the first time I’ve seen a PBM come up with a way to eliminate out-of-pocket costs completely,” he tells AIS Health.

As part of long-awaited guidance that CMS issued to states on Jan. 30 outlining how they can test-drive a fixed federal Medicaid budget and more program flexibilities, the Trump administration invited states to try out something else that hasn’t been done before: implement a closed drug formulary for a portion of their Medicaid population, AIS Health reported.

"For the first time, participating states will have more negotiating power to manage drug costs by adopting a formulary similar to those provided in the commercial market, with special protections for individuals with HIV and behavioral health conditions," CMS said in its press release unveiling the Healthy Adult Opportunity demonstration, which states can apply for via a Section 1115 Medicaid waiver.

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for neutropenia 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.

On Jan. 31, CMS released the 2021 Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (NBPP), which is the annual omnibus regulation that outlines the rules of the game for Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange plans. But that was only after a trade group for safety-net health plans sent a strongly worded letter warning the Trump administration that the clock is ticking for issuers to finalize their 2021 premiums and benefit designs.

In its Jan. 27 letter, the Association for Community Affiliated Plans (ACAP) complained to CMS that the proposed 2021 NBPP “appears to be stalled at the Office of Management and Budget.” (The OMB completed its review of the regulation on Jan. 29.) Insurers need to submit qualified health plan (QHP) applications starting in early May, ACAP pointed out. “Building in a minimum 30-day comment period in addition to 30 days for the Department to review, revise, and release the final [rule] would allow just one month for issuers to operationalize and implement necessary updates,” the group wrote. “This timeframe will not allow issuers sufficient time to prepare products and operations for Benefit Year 2021.”

So far, biosimilar uptake has been relatively slow in the U.S. since the 2015 launch of Sandoz Inc.’s Zarxio (filgrastim-sndz), the first product to use the 351(k) approval pathway. But recent and pending launches have resulted in therapeutic classes with more than one biosimilar, which may be the push that payers need to begin preferring them over their reference products and, in turn, realizing savings in some costly therapeutic classes.

Although the FDA had approved 26 biosimilars as of the end of January, only half of them are available in the U.S., with many of the drugmakers tied up in patent litigation with reference drug manufacturers.

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for multiple sclerosis 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.

Sanofi S.A. is cutting its losses on its PCSK9 inhibitor, exiting the U.S. market for the drug completely after various tactics, including slashing prices and promoting value-based contracts to payers, failed to spark sales for the high cholesterol treatment. But at the same time, Novartis International AG is betting big on the PCSK9 market by acquiring the manufacturer of an investigational PCSK9 that has strong Phase 3 results, AIS Health reported.

Sanofi, which had partnered with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals on Praluent (alirocumab), will turn the U.S. marketing of Praluent over to Regeneron beginning in the first quarter of 2020, and availability of the drug is not expected to be affected.

With Medicaid demonstration programs that include work requirements struck down in three states, it's become increasingly clear that such waivers may not survive legal scrutiny. So Nebraska, which last month submitted its own Section 1115 waiver application, is trying a different tactic, AIS Health reported.

In its application to CMS, the state proposes to modify voter-approved Medicaid expansion by creating two tiers of coverage: Basic, which includes "comprehensive medical, behavioral health and prescription drug coverage" as required by federal law, and Prime, which is the Basic package plus vision, dental and over-the-counter medication coverage.