Health plans must take the lead on diversity

Even though the Inflation Reduction Act will require plans to justify formulary placement of negotiated drugs, payers have more of an incentive to steer patients to lower-cost alternatives.

Managed Healthcare Executive's Managing Editor Peter Wehrwein, and Editor Briana Contreras, had a discussion in July with Mostafa Kamal, president and CEO of Prime Therapeutics, an organization in which Kamal acquired this position that same month.

In a population-based cohort study, researchers explored the mortality of vitiligo as there is limited information about risks of mortality among these patients. The researchers investigated all-cause and cause-specific mortality of patients with vitiligo compared with controls without vitiligo using a nationwide database.

Briana Contreras, an editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, had the pleasure of catching up with MHE Editorial Advisory Board Member, Ateev Mehrotra, MD, MPH, who is a professor of healthcare policy at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Professor of Medicine and Hospitalist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

The FDA indicated there were no concerns about the safety or labeling of lebrikizumab, which is being reviewed to treat patients with moderate-to-severe atopic dermatitis.

The FDA has approved several new therapies this week, including a new two-component Pompe therapy, an extended-release drug for major depression without sexual side effects, and an eye drop for drug-induced dilation. Additionally, the agency has set review dates for several products, including odronextamab for blood cancers, sotatercept for pulmonary arterial hypertension, and Dupixent in young children with eosinophilic esophagitis.