The ’26 Asembia specialty pharmacy meeting kicks off today, four MHE editorial advisory board members are speaking | Asembia AXS26 Summit

Specialty pharmacy, once a narrow slice of the U.S. prescription drug market, has grown to dominate it in many ways. As specialty pharmacy has grown, so has the Asembia meeting devoted to it.

Nearly 10,000 pharmacists, executives, consultants and other people whose work roles involve specialty drugs are scheduled to attend the meeting in Las Vegas that starts today and runs through Wednesday afternoon. Asembia is a specialty pharmacy group purchasing organization and technology company headquartered in Florham Park, New Jersey, but it has become better known as the sponsor of this specialty pharmacy meeting. The meeting’s formal name is Asembia’s Specialty Pharmacy Summit, or AXS26 Summit, but it is more commonly referred to as just “Asembia.”

Unlike meetings organized by medical groups, no research is presented at Asembia. The presenters at the education sessions are often company executives, not researchers or academics, and their talks often focus on business trends and their company programs or initiatives. For many people who attend the meeting, which is held at the ornate Wynn & Encore Las Vegas, the education sessions are less important than the many private meetings that they arrange in hopes of bringing in new business or keeping existing arrangements strong.

According to Asembia executives, nearly 1,500 companies will have representatives at the meeting, and the meeting has more than 200 exhibitors and sponsors.

Specialty prescription drugs are those that require special handling and dosing and sometimes monitoring of patients. They are more expensive than “traditional” drugs, although “specialty drugs” are not defined in statute or by scientific criteria. The category has emerged more from distribution channels and business relationships and practice from some codified or settled definition.

Like many meetings, Asembia features a celebrity giving a talk that is intended to inspire and entertain, often with little, if any, connection to the subject matter of meeting. Actor Charlie Sheen, known as much for his past drug use (including crack cocaine) as his roles in the movies “Platoon” and “Wall Street” and the TV sitcom “Two and a Half Men,” is scheduled to speak at the meeting’s spotlighted general session. Sheen was featured in “Aka Charlie Sheen,” a confessional, two-part Netflix documentary last year. “His willingness to confront adversity publicly and rebuild his life privately has made him an unexpected but powerful voice on resilience and personal accountability,” says entry on his talk in the Asembia meeting agenda.

Four members of the Managed Healthcare Executive (MHE) editorial advisory board (EAB) are speaking at the Asembia meeting. Luke Greenwalt, MBA, a IQVIA vice president and lead of its Center for U.S. Thought Leadership, is opening the general session tomorrow morning with a presentation titled “Brave New World—State of the Industry: Everything Everywhere All at Once.”

Greenwalt is scheduled to participate in an MHE webinar on May 7 with Ray Tancredi, RPh, MBA, executive vice president of trade relations for Asembia, and Ramesh Srinivasan, Ph.D., M.S, chief strategy and transformation officer of the North American pharmaceutical services of McKesson.

Lucielle Accetta, RPh, M.P.H., MBA, chief pharmacy officer and head of CVS’ specialty pharmacy organization, joined the MHE editorial advisory board last year. She is also scheduled to speak during the general session tomorrow in group format with Tancredi and Rina Shah, Pharm.D., senior vice president of enterprise specialty pharmacy at Walgreens. Their session is titled, “The Future of Pharmacy in America: Aligning Innovation, Access and Outcomes.”

Accetta is also scheduled to speak at a session later on Tuesday with her CVS colleagues about taking a patient-centered approach to clinical data and innovative technology.

EAB member Lindsay Greenleaf, J.D., MBA, head of market access strategy for ADVI Health, a consulting firm that advises pharmaceutical companies and other businesses in the healthcare sector, is speaking Tuesday afternoon at a session titled, “Evolving U.S. Policy and Value Economics: Shaping the Future of Specialty.” Her fellow panelists are Sabrina Aery, a policy and access consultant who held executive positions at Bristol Myers Squibb; Chris Mancill, M.A., head of U.S. market access for AstraZeneca; and Annettee Zoe Powers, Pharm.D, MBA, head of global market access and public affairs for Astellas Pharma. Greenleaf is also speaking first thing Wednesday morning at an ADVI Health “product theater” session that is featuring Rujul Desai, J.D., senior counselor to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz.

Will Shrank, M.D., a longtime member of the MHE’s advisory board and co-founder and CEO of Aradigm, a new cell and gene therapy company, is scheduled to speak at two sessions, one tomorrow on the consequences of the number and expense of drugs currently under development (“The $400B Question: What Does It Take to Win in Market Access Over the Next 3-5 Years” is the title) and a second on Wednesday afternoon about cell and gene therapy reimbursement.