Brad McElya, Pharm.D., on Drug Approvals and First-in-Class Drugs | Asembia's AXS25 Summit
McElya, senior director, clinical pharmacy at Walgreens, notes that approximately half of the drugs approved by the FDA last year were first-in-class drugs.
In a second segment from an interview with Managed Healthcare Executive before he gave his drug pipeline talk today at Asembia's AXS25 Summit in Las Vegas, Brad McElya, Pharm.D., senior director, clinical pharmacy, at Walgreens, discussed focusing on drugs that are "first in class" — the drugs that work in a new way to tackle a disease. He noted that 24 of the 50 novel drugs approved by the FDA last year were first-in-class medications. McElya mentioned the 2024 approval of Rezdiffra (resmetirom), a treatment for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), and that he expected to see "some activity" in MASH treatment in this year's pipeline. He said he also expected to see some first-in-class treatments of hemophilia and also "brain penetrants."
Healthcare hasn't been a priority of the second Trump administration so far, panelists at the Asembia agreed. Medicaid may loom large, though, as the administration and congressional Republicans look for ways to slash government spending as a way of offsetting major tax cuts.
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