Analysis

CBI’s 8th Hub and SPP Model Optimization
February 22-23, 2017 | Philadelphia, PA

Don’t miss the 8th installment of the industry’s must-attend meeting for sharing breakthrough strategies surrounding service model design and enhancement to improve access and outcomes!

CBI’s Hub and Specialty Pharmacy Provider (SPP) Model Optimization boasts exceptional networking opportunities and forward-thinking content from a broad array of stakeholders. Join your peers as you prepare to launch, transition or reboot your corporate or product approach to hub services.

Hear Industry Trailblazers Speak on High-Impact Topics, Including:

• Industry Pulse on the Specialty Marketplace and the Changing Healthcare Landscape
• Patient Services Compliance – Zero in on the Top Risk Areas amidst an Era of Ambiguity
• Specialty Data Discovery Dive – Finding the Missing Link in Your Product’s Value Story
• Scorecarding Summit – Measuring Hub Performance and Value
• Advanced SP Contracting Course – Contract Design, Execution of Contract Amendments and Benchmarks to Renegotiate Terms of Agreement
• Payer Approach and Decision-Making Journey for Specialty Drugs
• Beyond Prior Authorization – Syncing Stakeholder Interests for Improved Patient Access
• Insource, Outsource, Hybrid? Utilizing the Best Hub Service Model for Your Product Portfolio and Tap the Top Transition Strategies

Showcasing a dynamic group of key stakeholders from companies including Amgen, Avella Specialty Pharmacy, Bayer Healthcare, Boehringer Ingelheim, CoverMyMeds, GlaxoSmithKline, Intarcia Therapeutics, Lash Group, a part of AmerisourceBergen, MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Nuvera Life Sciences Consulting, Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide, Sobi, Sonexus Health, VirMedica and Triplefin, this is an opportunity you can’t afford to miss!

For more information, please download the complete agenda or visit www.cbinet.com/hubs. Drug Channels readers will save $400 off of the standard registration rate when they use discount code FAZ895.*

*Cannot be combined with other offers or used towards a current registration. Cannot be combined with special category rates. Other restrictions may apply.

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The content of Sponsored Posts does not necessarily reflect the views of Pembroke Consulting, Inc., Drug Channels, or any of its employees.

Well, CVS Health blinked.

In July 2017, CVS Health’s retail pharmacies will become a preferred retail channel for 90-day prescriptions dispensed to OptumRx’s commercial clients. Here’s the press release: OptumRx and CVS Pharmacy Partner to Expand Consumer Choice, Reduce Costs and Improve Health Outcomes.

The surprise announcement echoes the arrangement that OptumRx established with Walgreens. The new deal signals that CVS is starting to counter Walgreens’ aggressive partnering strategies. OptumRx customers also get to choose which chain will be their preferred 90-day at retail provider.

Below, I provide some context for the agreement and outline CVS Health’s two basic strategic options as it competes with Walgreens. I’m very curious to hear how CVS Health will spin this latest move during its upcoming analyst day, on December 15.

Hope everyone enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday! Now that you’ve stretched your stomach, stretch your mind with some food for thought. In this issue:

• Dispensing oncology practices win their battle with PBM CVS Caremark

• 2016 was a record year for generic drug approvals (data below)

• The ASHP’s latest forecast for health system pharmacy

Plus: The FDA approves a new product—with a twist!

P.S. ON SALE! Our 2016 Economic Report on Retail, Mail, and Specialty Pharmacies is now 40% off. The 2017 edition will be released in early February. (FYI: I announced the sale yesterday on @DrugChannels.)

Expanded Access Programs 2017
March 9-10, 2017 | Washington, DC

The evolving political landscape is transforming and expanding patient access to experimental and unapproved drugs. CBI’s Expanded Access Programs is dedicated to the nuances and intricacies of designing and implementing early access programs. This multi-stakeholder event is focused on U.S. and global models for a variety of access management programs, including, but not limited to:

Expanded Access Programs, Early Access Programs, Compassionate Use Programs, Named Patient Programs and Managed Access Programs.

This is your opportunity to take a deep dive into the implications, prevailing policies, and current industry approaches to expanded access programs. Join industry thought-leaders and share key concepts around providing investigational, pre-launch or end-of-lifecycle drugs to patients for treatment purposes.

Visit www.cbinet.com/expandedaccess for more information.

Drug Channels readers will save $400 off of the standard registration rate when they use discount code EAPDCH.*


*Applies to standard rates only and may not be combined with other offers, category rates, promotions or applied to an existing registration. Offer not valid on workshop only or academic/non-profit registrations.

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The content of Sponsored Posts does not necessarily reflect the views of Pembroke Consulting, Inc., Drug Channels, or any of its employees.

CBI’s 12th Life Sciences Trade and Channel Strategies
December 13-14, 2016 | Philadelphia, PA
www.cbinet.com/trade

Don’t miss the must-attend event for industry trade, channel, account and pharmacy strategy professionals!

CBI’s Annual Trade and Channel Strategies Conference boasts incomparable networking opportunities and unmatched, forward-thinking content from a broad array of stakeholders.

Drug Channels readers are eligible for a Thanksgiving week discount. Save $400 off of the standard registration rate when you use code MUT953.* Hurry! You must register by Friday, November 25th!

Can’t Miss Keynotes Featuring:

• Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., President, Pembroke Consulting, Inc.; Author, Drug Channels

• William Roth, Founding Partner, Blue Fin Group

Industry Trailblazers Speak on High-Impact Topics Transforming Trade Strategy, Including:

Pharmacy and Wholesale Business Economics | Organized Commercial Customers | Payers’ Channel Management Strategies | Government Regulations and Policy | Shift to IDNs and HMOs | Network Strategies and Distribution Trends | Pharmacy and Provider Models | Valeant/WBA Relationship | Reimbursement | Site-of-Care Reform | Vertical Integration | Globalization | Channel Considerations for Brands, Generics, Specialty and Biosimilar Products | Serialization | Co-Pay Programs

Over 50 participating companies thus far:

AbbVie | Alcon | Alexion | Alkermes | AmerisourceBergen | Amgen | Astellas | AstraZeneca | Bayer HealthCare | Biogen Idec | Blue Fin Group | Boehringer Ingelheim | Bracco Diagnostics | Bristol Myers Squibb | BTG International | Daiichi Sankyo | Depomed | Diplomat | Eli Lilly | Elwyn Pharmacy Group | Emmaus Life Sciences | FFF Enterprises | Genentech | Gilead | Goldman & Sachs | Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania | Indivior | Jazz Pharmaceuticals | Johnson & Johnson | Lilly USA | Mallinckrodt | Merck | Mylan | Novartis | PDX | Pembroke Consulting | Pfizer | Purdue Pharma | Radius Health | Relypsa | Rx Sourcing Strategies | Sanofi| Smith Drug Company | Sunovion | Takeda | Teva | Texas Oncology | Therigy | UCB | ZS Pharma

For more information, please download the complete agenda or visit www.cbinet.com/trade.

*Cannot be combined with other offers or used towards a current registration. Cannot be combined with special category rates. Other restrictions may apply.

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The content of Sponsored Posts does not necessarily reflect the views of Pembroke Consulting, Inc., Drug Channels, or any of its employees.

In Latest CMS Forecast Shows Big Drug Spending Growth Through 2025, I examined the July 2016 drug spending forecasts from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

Alas, last week’s election exploded these projections. Today, I analyze CMS’s official pre-election insights about payment for outpatient prescriptions drugs in 2025. I then speculate on how these figures might change under the new administration, which wants to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Based on the most well-known Republican proposals, I project a rebound in the employer-sponsored market compared with the CMS baseline projections.

But never forget a truism of the projection business: A good forecaster is not necessarily smarter than everyone else—he merely has his ignorance better organized.

ICYMI, the Roche Group recently made a startling disclosure: For the first half of 2016, the 340B Drug Pricing Program accounted for 18% of Genentech’s volume.

I estimate that at that rate, hospitals and other 340B-covered entities claimed discounts on about $3.4 billion in purchases annually from Genentech. With profit margins averaging 58%, that figure translates into about $2 billion in financial benefits.

Where did the money go? Who benefited from these funds? Did financially needy patients have to pay their Part B coinsurance for 340B-purchased drugs from Genentech? We have no idea, because hospitals and their lobbyists fight any call for them to disclose or account for how they use their 340B profits.

I suspect that the Trump administration will take a dim view of the lack of transparency and excesses that have occurred in the 340B program. Expect significant change in 2017 and beyond.

Specialty Therapies 2017
January 26-27, 2017 | Las Vegas, NV

Head to Las Vegas this January to share and learn strategies for managing the high cost of specialty therapies management. Through thought-provoking sessions, panels and keynotes, take your organization to the next level in 2017!

What topics are on tap for Specialty Therapies 2017?

• Optimizing value-based contracting strategies
• Improving integration of medical and pharmacy benefits
• Analyzing the effect of specialty therapies on alternative payment models
• Considering the impact of PCSK9 inhibitors
• Reducing costs and improving quality through implementing clinical pathways
• Ensuring access to high-cost specialty drugs through coupons and co-pays
• Analyzing the role of IDNs in generating specialty data
• Considering orphan drugs and the reinvention of specialty pharmacy

PLUS! Don’t miss a Keynote from CMS on the Oncology Care Model.

For more information, please download the complete agenda or visit www.cbinet.com/specialtytherapies. Drug Channels readers will save $400 off of the standard registration rate when they use discount code FKD639.*

*Cannot be combined with other offers or used towards a current registration. Cannot be combined with special category rates. Other restrictions may apply.

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The content of Sponsored Posts does not necessarily reflect the views of Pembroke Consulting, Inc., Drug Channels, or any of its employees.

Today’s guest post comes from Dirk Rodgers, a Regulatory Strategist for Systech International and author of the great RxTrace blog.

For those don’t know, the Drug Quality and Security Act (DQSA) was signed into law by President Obama on November 27, 2013. Title II of DQSA, the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), outlines steps for building an electronic, interoperable system to identify and trace certain prescription drugs as they are distributed in the United States.

In today’s essay, Dirk speculates about the future of the DSCSA under the new administration. He provides a useful framework for thinking about a crucial new uncertainty facing the drug channel. Pay particular attention to his third possibility.

Dirk is my go-to source for information on the DSCSA. If you want to get smarter on track-and-trace, then click here to subscribe to RxTrace. Bonus: Drug Channels readers get a special discount when they use coupon code DCNOV16.

Here we go again.

On Tuesday CVS Health lowered its profit outlook, due partly to “the projected loss of more than 40 million retail prescriptions related to marketplace changes, including new retail pharmacy networks that are excluding CVS Pharmacy drugstores.” Its stock closed down 12%, before bouncing back slightly in yesterday’s post-Trump healthcare rally.

CVS Health placed the blame squarely on Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA), which has aligned with Prime Therapeutics and displaced CVS retail pharmacies from the TRICARE retail network.

Call it competitive judo: Walgreens has used the strength of CVS Health’s integrated PBM/retail model against the CVS retail pharmacy business.

The lesson? Don’t bet against Stefano Pessina, our global channels overlord and executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of WBA. Read on for my analysis of the latest pharmacy showdown.

Post-election trivia question: In 2010, which former drug wholesale CEO (and future U.S. ambassador?) encouraged Donald Trump to run for President? Answer below!