Asembia’s Specialty Pharmacy Summit

The way the drugs have taken off, combined with the number of people in the U.S. who are obese, have made the GLP-1s "an acute problem for every U.S. payer,” says George Van Antwerp, MBA, a manager director at Deloitte.

The GLP-1s and some of the migraine drugs are included in this category of drugs that are priced to cost between $5,000 and $15,000 a year and are dispensed at a retail pharmacies, George Van Antwerp, MBA, a managing director at Deloitte, explains.

GLP-1s, artificial intelligence and the Inflation Reduction Act are among the topics featured in the education sessions of the specialty pharmacy meeting in Las Vegas. The keynote speaker is William McRaven, a retired four-star admiral and former chancellor of the University of Texas system.

Over 7,000 people attended the meeting in Las Vegas this week.

Ed Paiewonsky, Director, Medical Outcomes Science Liaison at Alnylam Pharmaceuticals, discussed results of the Alnylam Rare Disease Trend report at this year's Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit.

Elizabeth Johnson, CEO of MedicoCX shared the importance of trust in healthcare and how it's been missing in drug development, marketing and delivery. Johnson said one way drug companies could build trust is including patients sooner so they're part of the process beyond clinical trials.

Kelsey Lang, principal of Avalere, breaks down the three provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, which was discussed today at the annual Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas.

Connie Sullivan, president and CEO of the National Home Infusion Association, addressed the benefits of home-based infusion care, the types of treatments offered to patients and its reimbursement considerations. Sullivan presented on this form of care during the Asembia 2023 Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Vegas this week.

Ray Tancredi, VP of Walgreens mentioned in the last decade or so there have been many oncology drug approvals. Over time, the number of approvals decreased each year.

Cate Lockhart, executive director of the Biologics and Biosimilars Collective Intelligence Consortium, shared results yesterday of a survey that look at biosimilars on the pharmacy benefit side of coverage versus medical benefit. The survey also shared how payers and those on the pharmaceutical side are anticipating the introduction of Adalimumab (Humira®), as well as what to look for in the future of the biosimilar pipeline.

But payers may be putting undue emphasis on interchangeability, said a panelist at session on biosimilars at the 2023 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit.

Adam Fein, Ph.D., talked about some surprising trends in specialty pharmacy and healthcare at the 2023 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit. The number of specialty pharmacy locations may be peaking. And that "gross-to-net bubble" in drug prices that Fein has written about so much — well, it may be shrinking.

Today at the annual Asembia Specialty Summit in Las Vegas, Sarah Marche, VP of Pharmacy at Highmark Health, spoke alongside other professionals from various stakeholders within the industry who are invested some way in digital therapeutics.

Today at Asembia 2023 Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas, Alexander Pham, VP of Client Services & Strategy at Clearway Health, talked about their collaboration with safety net hospital, OU Health, alongside the Chief Administrative Officer of OU Health, Jigar Thakkar. In this interview, Pham talked about how the Clearway and OU Health partnership helped build a specialty pharmacy program, alleviate financial burden, and more.

Ray Tancredi talked about the upcoming pipeline and more in this interview with Managed Healthcare Executive.

“It was like, we’re going to take off your head, we are going to come after you,” said Seema Verma, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator in the Trump administration, during an on-stage interview at the 2023 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit.

A relatively small number of cell and gene therapies have become a clinical reality. But now the specialty pharmacy industry, and healthcare more generally, is bracing for a wave of cell and gene therapies that will force change and adaption. And, yes, the new therapies will be extremely costly.

A little-known provision of the Inflation Reduction Act will allow people with Part D coverage to "smooth out" their annual out-of-pocket costs as an average payment over months.

Daybue (trofinetide) is the first treatment for Rett syndrome. The pivotal trial for treatment for a lifelong condition was only 12 weeks long.

Politics and policies were among the main topics at the meeting in Las Vegas. But the 6,000 attendees also heard about biosimilars, the gross-to-net price gap and the ripple effects of the CMS’ Aduhelm coverage decision.

At the 2022 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit, healthcare policy experts at Avalere shared insights into the politics of a less ambitious Build Back Better bill and the healthcare provisions it might include. If a "skinny bill" doesn't get passed, the healthcare action of the Biden administration might shift to CMS Innovation Center and payment models, including a successor to the Oncology Care Model, they said.

Ryan Urgo, Managing Director, Health Policy at Avalere addressed the Biden administration’s healthcare priorities and if the Build Back Better legislation will include provisions that deal with drug prices? Urgo spoke at this year's annual Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas on the subject, as well.

Many patients don’t fill their prescriptions because of the cost. TailorMed is a software platform that connects patients to possible sources of financial assistance.

Drug manufacturers are challenging the discounted drug program, but if they are blamed for the closing of rural hospitals that depend on 340B funds, the challenge may have a serious downside, warned an expert on the program.

Jayne Hornung, Chief Clinical Officer, Pharmacy, MMIT addresses the difference between digital therapeutics in the pharmacy and medical benefit space, and digs into the potential causes of the slow uptake in digital therapeutics among payers during this year's Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas.

Doug Long, vice president of Industry Relations at IQVIA spoke on how the current inflationary trend in the economy affects healthcare spending and prices, as well as the trend of specialty drugs accounting for half of the drug spend in healthcare. Hear more of what he shared with our team at this year's Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas.

In a session on ecommerce and pharmacy, Amazon Pharmacy executives said they want to make the online pharmacy experience easy to navigate and pricing transparent.

In their general session, Adam J. Fein, PhD of Drug Channels Institute, and Doug Long of IQVIA reviewed the current specialty pharmacy space, ongoing trends and future expectations.

The former FDA commissioner and Asembia keynote speaker was sanguine about the future course of the COVID-19 pandemic and biosimilars. He is concerned, though, that the CMS Aduhelm coverage decision set a bad precedent.

Jayson Slotnik, partner at Health Policy Strategies, Inc, addresses the most recent developments in value-based contracting and how it affects specialty pharmacy at this year's Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas.