According to our recent payer coverage analysis for alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency 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: Market Access, Branding & Marketing, Specialty, Payer

New biosimilars for Janssen Biotech, Inc.'s Remicade (infliximab) have helped to moderate costs for Crohn's disease as they’ve launched over the last two years, but plans still rely on utilization management strategies to keep the cost of treating the condition under control, experts tell AIS Health.

Additional biosimilars — notably, three biosimilars for AbbVie Inc.'s Humira (adalimumab) — eventually will enter the marketplace as well, but the Humira biosimilars currently are mired in patent litigation and likely won't launch until 2023, says April Kunze, Pharm.D., senior director, clinical formulary development and trend management strategy at Prime Therapeutics LLC.

Topics: Specialty, Market Access, Payer

Express Scripts Holding Co. and CVS Health Corp. have in recent months unveiled new programs that appear designed to transition away from the PBM status quo, AIS Health reported.

One factor driving both new programs could be a proposed rule that's still under review by the Office of Management and Budget, which might remove prescription drug rebates' safe-harbor protections from the federal antikickback statute. But one industry expert says it looks less likely that may actually transpire.

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

As the FDA continues to approve drugs targeted toward specific biomarkers, the agency has granted accelerated approval to another tissue-agnostic oncology treatment. While the gene fusion is fairly rare, Loxo Oncology, Inc. and Bayer Corp.'s Vitrakvi (larotrectinib) has shown high overall response rates across multiple solid tumors. Not surprisingly, the medication comes with a high price tag — but also a refund for qualified patients who do not respond within three months of initiating treatment, AIS Health reported.

On Nov. 26, the FDA gave accelerated approval to Vitrakvi for the treatment of adult and pediatric patients with solid tumors that have a neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase (NTRK) gene fusion without a known acquired resistance mutation; are metastatic or where surgical resection is likely to result in severe morbidity; and have no satisfactory alternative therapies or that have progressed after treatment.

 

Topics: Payer, Specialty, Market Access, Product Release

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for prostate cancer 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: Market Access, Branding & Marketing, Specialty, Payer

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for cystic fibrosis (CF) 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: Market Access, Branding & Marketing, Specialty, Payer

At the annual Medicaid Health Plans of America conference, Express Scripts Holding Co. Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer Steve Miller, M.D., had a simple message for health plan leaders: "You have to think long term if you're going to have better outcomes," AIS Health reported.

One area in which Medicaid is not heeding that call, Miller said, is how it approaches treating and preventing HIV.

Topics: Specialty, Market Access, Payer

According to our recent payer coverage analysis for growth hormone 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: Market Access, Branding & Marketing, Specialty, Payer

Therapy for chronic migraine — a condition that's been notoriously difficult to treat and which often leads to significant direct and indirect health care costs — has been upended with the recent approval of three injectable monoclonal antibody products in a new preventive medication class that’s significantly more effective than older preventive migraine drugs, a researcher says.

These new calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) inhibitors — Amgen, Inc. and Novartis AG’s Aimovig (erenumab), Teva Pharmaceuticals’ Ajovy (fremanezumab) and Eli Lilly and Co.’s Emgality (galcanezumab) — also may usher in an era of value-based contracting for migraine products, with plan sponsors willing to pay more to get better results, Machaon Bonafede, Ph.D., outcomes research practice leader at IBM Watson Health, told attendees Oct. 23 at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Nexus annual meeting, AIS Health reported.

 

Topics: Payer, Specialty, Market Access, Product Release

New biosimilars for Janssen Biotech, Inc.'s Remicade (infliximab) have helped to moderate costs for Crohn's disease as they’ve launched over the last two years, but plans still rely on utilization management strategies, including site-of-service programs, to keep the cost of treating the condition under control, experts tell AIS Health.

Additional biosimilars — notably, three biosimilars for AbbVie Inc.'s Humira (adalimumab) — eventually will enter the marketplace as well, but the Humira biosimilars currently are mired in patent litigation and likely won't launch until 2023, says April Kunze, Pharm.D., senior director, clinical formulary development and trend management strategy at Prime Therapeutics LLC.

 

Topics: Payer, Specialty, Market Access, Product Release