Since its launch in 2018, Civica Rx, the new not-for-profit generic drug and pharmaceutical company run by health systems and hospitals, tells AIS Health it has made solid progress in its ongoing effort to address persistent shortages of certain drugs administered within hospitals' four walls.

According to Civica spokesperson Debbi Ford, Civica first aims to provide 14 vital drugs, "mostly sterile injectables such as anesthesia medications, antibiotics, and pain medications and expects to deliver these products this year," she says.

 

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

As innovations in digital capabilities continue to be used with various health care products, Proteus Digital Health, Inc. is developing a suite of what it terms digital medicines. And while the company has been working on such products for a few years, it recently came out with the first such product within the oncology space, AIS Health reported.

Proteus is partnering with Fairview Health Services and the University of Minnesota Health to offer oral capecitabine combined with an ingestible sensor to treat stage 3 and stage 4 colorectal cancer patients.

 

Topics: Specialty, Industry Trends, Product Release, Provider, Payer

Biosimilars are one way that payers had hoped to bring down spending on pharmaceuticals, but as of yet, these products have had little impact in the United States. As of mid-January, the FDA had approved 17 biosimilars, but only a handful actually are available in the U.S. However, the products may pick up more traction in 2019, with some significant ones potentially coming to market, AIS Health reported.

According to Lynn Nishida, R.Ph., vice president of clinical product at WithMe Health, "More biosimilars are in the pipeline, but, sadly, expect continued issues of patent litigations that delay marketing of biosimilars soon after their approval or force biosimilar manufacturers to consider launching products at risk" before a lawsuit has been settled, potentially setting themselves up to be responsible for paying damages if they lose the case.

 

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

Payers typically use tools such as prior authorization and utilization review to manage cystic fibrosis treatments, but PBM experts say they are on the cusp of implementing more innovative strategies that might help to improve adherence while addressing the cost of cystic fibrosis drugs, AIS Health reported.

Cystic fibrosis, an inherited chronic disease that attacks the lungs and digestive organs, is caused by mutations in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene. CFTR modulators and other therapies carry a high price tag, typically costing $250,000 to $368,000 per year. Other drugs, most of which do not have generic equivalents, can add tens of thousands of dollars to that total.

 

Topics: Specialty, Industry Trends, Product Release, Provider, Payer

The specialty pharmacy and infusion therapy spaces have certainly seen their share of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity over the years. Some challenges within those industries may have helped slow down 2018 activity a bit, observes Reg Blackburn, managing director at The Braff Group. And for 2019, we may see more of the same, AIS Health reported.

As far as specialty pharmacy trends in 2018, Blackburn points out that "the largest specialty pharmacies continue to get even larger. Payer- and chain-owned dominate. Most new entity growth is coming from large academic hospitals starting their own specialty pharmacies."

 

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

With the FDA approving multiple novel new therapies over the past couple of years, we should expect to see more of the same moving forward. But that innovation is not cheap, and the pharmaceutical industry likely will continue to offer products at higher price points than ever before, AIS Health reported.

As payers struggle to rein in high specialty drug prices, many have turned to copay accumulator programs, and this trend shows no signs of slowing. "There was an increased focus on copay accumulator programs in 2018," comments Amy Nash, Pharm.D., president of RelianceRx, the specialty pharmacy affiliate of Independent Health. She tells AIS Health she expects to see "further refinement of copay accumulator programs from payers and additional strategies from pharma to prevent them."

 

Topics: Specialty, Industry Trends, Product Release, Provider, Payer

Biosimilars are one way that payers had hoped to bring down spending on pharmaceuticals, but as of yet, these products have had little impact in the United States. As of mid-January, the FDA had approved 17 biosimilars, but only a handful actually are available in the U.S. However, the products may pick up more traction in 2019, with some significant ones potentially coming to market, AIS Health reported.

According to Lynn Nishida, R.Ph., vice president of clinical product at WithMe Health, "More biosimilars are in the pipeline, but, sadly, expect continued issues of patent litigations that delay marketing of biosimilars soon after their approval or force biosimilar manufacturers to consider launching products at risk" before a lawsuit has been settled, potentially setting themselves up to be responsible for paying damages if they lose the case.

 

Topics: Specialty, Product Release

Blockbuster pharmaceuticals scheduled for launch in 2019 are expected to have a significant impact in treating certain cancers, spinal muscular atrophy, inflammatory conditions and some mental illnesses, according to Express Scripts Holding Co. With specialty medications managed through the pharmacy benefit now accounting for 41% of health plans' total pharmacy spend, the PBM asserts it is crucial for plans to understand the product pipeline and create strategies to manage new, costly drug therapies, AIS Health reported.

On the new drug front, Prime Therapeutics, in its December 2018 monthly update on the specialty pipeline, cites an annual wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of $203,100 for Pfizer’s Daurismo (glasdegib), an oral drug approved by the FDA in combination with intravenous low-dose cytarabine to treat newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia in elderly and certain other adult patients. The Blues-affiliated PBM also points out that Loxo Oncology's Vitrakvi (larotrectinib), approved by the FDA to treat adult and pediatric patients with certain solid tumors, has an average annual WAC for an adult patient of $393,600.

 

Topics: Specialty, Product Release

The Orphan Drug Act (ODA) offers multiple incentives to manufacturers that bring a drug to market with an orphan designation. A recently released U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report revealed that while the number of applications both received and granted for this designation has grown, FDA reviewers were not consistently recording or evaluating required information that is mandated to consider granting this designation, AIS Health reported.

The report, titled Orphan Drugs: FDA Could Improve Designation Review Consistency; Rare Disease Drug Development Challenges Continue (GAO-19-83), shows that from 2008 to 2017, both orphan designation applications received as well as orphan designations granted rose.

 

Topics: Specialty, Market Access, Product Release, Payer

A small study suggests it might be possible to shorten the length of expensive drug treatment for chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV), potentially cutting treatment time in half for 50% of patients. But managed care pharmacy clinicians say the results are far from ready to implement widely, and it’s possible the new approach might not even save money, AIS Health reported.

The study, conducted at Loyola University Chicago and three medical centers in Israel, involved only 22 patients. It used a technique called modeling-based response-guided therapy, which estimated how long it would take to completely eliminate the hepatitis C virus.

 

Topics: Specialty, Product Release, Data & Analytics, Payer