Analysis

Informa Connect’s Life Sciences Pricing & Contracting USA
May 21-23, 2024 | New Orleans
Drug Channels readers save 10% with code 24DRCH10*

Whether your daily focus is on Medicaid, Government Pricing, 340B, Drug Price Transparency, Commercial Contracting or Chargebacks, we have you covered! Informa Connect is thrilled to announce Pricing & Contracting USA, an innovative summit that brings together three of the life science industry’s most well-known events (Medicaid & Government Pricing Congress, Drug Pricing Transparency Congress and the Contracts & Chargebacks Summit) together for enhanced learning and networking.

Join us in New Orleans on May 21-23 where you’ll gain critical insight into regulatory requirements, policy initiatives and best practices to enhance pricing and contracting models. Nearly 100 world class speakers are slated to present deep dive sessions, workshops and panels covering these topics and more:

• Wendell Potter, President, Center for Health and Democracy and Publisher, HEALTH un-covered shares an out of the box forecast of upcoming regulations, litigation and policies affecting the industry in what is set to be an action-packed election year.
• Understand the implementation and future of PDABs with Mallinckrodt and the director of the Colorado prescription drug affordability board and the manager of insurance data science.
• Get an OIG Update on AMP cap removal and potential consequences.
• Discuss the nuances of reporting and laws for key Medicaid and GP programs with Genmab and Miree Lee Consulting.
• Listen in as IL HFS Medicaid Drug Rebate Unit reviews rebates, reasonable assumptions, BFSF and best price.
• Hear from Lundbeck, Accord BioPharma, BeiGene and Mirati Therapeutics as they discuss best practices in operating a pricing review board.
• Join Bioventus, Amneal Pharma and CSL Vifor for an overview of the contracting process, types purposes and key considerations.
• Explore the commercial impact of GP decisions and vice versa with Pfizer.
• Hear from PhRMA and BIO on landscape of drug pricing transparency pressures.
• Hyman, Phelps & McNamara review the enforcement and penalties landscape within state drug pricing reporting.
• Novo Nordisk takes a deep dive into confidentiality concerns within SPTR.
• Hear from United Therapeutics and Lundbeck as they discuss synergizing MDRP and SPTR.
• Listen in as Takeda and Sanofi discuss IRA and AMP Cap Removal and how policy changes and evolving regulations will transform the contracting atmosphere.
• And more!

View the agenda for Pricing & Contracting USA to see the complete picture – the program, speakers, and more, and visit www.informaconnect.com/pricing-contracting-usa for further details and to register. Drug Channels readers will save 10% off when they use code 24DRCH10 and register prior to April 19, 2024.*

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

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The content of Sponsored Posts does not necessarily reflect the views of HMP Omnimedia, LLC, Drug Channels Institute, its parent company, or any of its employees. To find out how you can publish a guest post on Drug Channels, please contact Paula Fein (paula@DrugChannels.net).

Today’s guest post comes from Josh Marsh, Vice President and General Manager of Sonexus™ Access and Patient Support at Cardinal Health.

Josh discusses factors that drive manufacturers to insource versus outsource patient support services. He shares data from a Cardinal Health survey of biopharmaceutical companies and offers four factors to consider when evaluating your patient support program.

To learn more, download the results from Cardinal Health’s survey: Insourcing and Outsourcing Trends for Patient Hubs.

Read on for Josh’s insights.

Next week, Drug Channels Institute (DCI) will release our 2024 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers. It’s the 15th edition of our popular and comprehensive examination of the entire U.S. drug pricing, reimbursement, and dispensing system.

For 2023, DCI estimates that U.S. prescription dispensing revenues reached $621 billion in 2023, driven by accelerating GLP-1 prescriptions and an expanding post-pandemic market. The table below—one of 262 in our new report—provides DCI's first look at the 15 largest organizations that battled for those revenues.

For a sneak peek at the complete report, click here to download our free report overview (including key industry trends, the table of contents, and a list of exhibits). We’re offering special discounted pricing if you order before April 7, 2024.

How will the most consequential change in federal drug pricing policy affect the largest pharmacies and PBMs? Find out at my upcoming live video webinar, Drug Channel Implications of the Inflation Reduction Act, on April 5, 2024, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET. Click here to learn more and sign up.

Today’s guest post comes from Logan Melchione, VP of Patient Affordability at Paysign.

Logan discusses the evolution of patient support programs. She then outlines how these programs must evolve to stay relevant and valuable.

To request an analysis of your copay savings program and learn more about Paysign’s patient affordability solutions, contact affordability@paysign.com or visit paysign.com/rx.

Read on for Logan’s insights.

On March 19, 2024, Drug Channels Institute will release The 2024 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers. This report—our fifteenth edition—remains the most comprehensive, fact-based tool for understanding the entire U.S. drug pricing, reimbursement, and dispensing system. This unique, encyclopedic resource is your ultimate guide to the complex web of interactions within U.S. prescription drug channels.

12 chapters, 500+ pages, 262 exhibits, nearly 1,100 endnotes: There is nothing else available that comes close to this valuable resource.

We are providing you with the opportunity to preorder this thoroughly updated, revised, and expanded 2024 edition at special discounted prices. This means that you can be among the first to access our new report. Those who preorder will receive a download link before March 19.

• Review pricing/license options and place a preorder.

• Download a free pre-publication overview (including key industry trends, the Table of Contents, and a List of Exhibits).

You can pay online with all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) or via PayPal. Click here to email us if you would like to pay by corporate purchase order or check.

Email Paula Fein (paula@drugchannels.net) if you’d like to bundle the report purchase with access to DCI’s video webinars.

Special preorder and launch pricing discounts will be valid through April 8, 2024.

Read on for more details.

Dr. Adam J. Fein, president of Drug Channels Institute (DCI) and the author of Drug Channels, invites you to join him for DCI’s latest live video webinar:

Drug Channel Implications of the Inflation Reduction Act
This event will be broadcast live on
Friday, April 5, 2024, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET

This post describes the event and explains how to purchase a registration. The webinar will be broadcast from the Drug Channels studio in beautiful downtown Philadelphia.

This event is part of The Drug Channels 2024 Video Webinar Series.

WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

In 2023, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) began to alter the Medicare Part D program and trigger changes in beneficiary out-of-pocket spending, drug prices, pharmacy economics, and market access strategies. The IRA’s impact will extend far beyond the Medicare program into many aspects of the overall drug channel.

In this all-new webinar, Dr. Fein will unpack the intended and unintended consequences of the IRA for the commercial market and drug channel participants, including:

• What’s ahead for brand-name drug list and net prices

• The coming battles over high-list/high-rebate products

• The Medicare Advantage boom and the collapse of the stand-alone PDP market

• The gross-to-net bubble outlook for Part D

• The IRA’s spillover impact on the gross-to-net bubble in commercial markets

• How the IRA will impact Medicaid rebates and change the 340B Drug Pricing Program

• What’s ahead for utilization management

• Retail pharmacies’ coming financial challenges

• The uptick in consolidation of physician practices

• Biosimilar market uncertainties

• And much more!

PLUS: During the webinar, Dr. Fein will give participants an opportunity to unmute themselves and ask live questions. The webinar will last 90 minutes to accommodate audience questions.

As always, Dr. Fein will clearly distinguish his opinions and interpretations from the objective facts and data. He will also draw from exclusive information found in DCI's new 2024 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers.

Please note that Dr. Fein will focus on the IRA’s patient and commercial market impacts. The potential effect of the IRA on manufacturers’ new drug research and development strategies is beyond the scope of this webinar.

Read on for full details on pricing and registration.

Today’s guest post comes from Era Prakash, Vice President of Product Management at Cencora.

Era contends that workflow integration can help biopharma companies address challenges that limit provider utilization of patient support programs. She also outlines three major challenges related to the provider workflow technology market.

Click here to learn more about Cencora's Access Network technology solution, which offers an in-workflow, digitized enrollment process.

Read on for Era’s insights.

February is longer than usual this year, which means that you’ll have extra time to leap into our monthly curated selection of noteworthy news. In this issue:

• An update on the retail pharmacy shakeout

• Arguing for high drug prices

• A leading researcher provides a 340B reality check

• Physicians don’t want pharmacists getting uppity

Plus, Dave Grohl fights for your right to…have healthcare price transparency?

P.S. Join my nearly 53,000 LinkedIn followers for daily links to neat stuff. You can also find my daily posts at @DrugChannels on Twitter/X, where I have more than 17,400 followers. (I recommend that you follow me on LinkedIn, because the quality of comments and engagement is much higher than they are on Twitter. Sorry, no Threads.)

Today’s guest post comes from Nicole Grycan, VP of Commercialization at Phil, Inc.

Nicole discusses how hubs can improve access and adherence. She outlines four success factors for manufacturers that use a digital hub partner.

To learn more, register for Phil's upcoming webinar: Improving Access, Coverage, and GTN with a Digital Hub.

Read on for Nicole’s insights.

Like many of you, I have believed that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA) will encourage Medicare Part D plans to adopt low-list-price products over their high-list/high-rebate counterparts, thereby popping the gross-to-net bubble.

Actually, maybe not.

Below, I explain why the IRA will encourage Part D plans to prefer high-list, high-rebate specialty drugs, even as the government and manufacturers will prefer a low-list-price version. Just another IRA-inflicted hit for biosimilars?

The warped incentives don't stop there. Even more weirdly, both products with a negotiated maximum fair price (MFP) and low-list-price products will raise total costs for the healthcare system and increase beneficiary premiums.

Did I get this latest unintended consequence right? Or have I been spending too much time underwater in Bikini Bottom? Read on and see what you think. As always, I encourage you to share your own thoughts with the Drug Channels community on social media.

P.S. Want to learn more? Join me on April 5 for DCI's next live webinar: Drug Channel Implications of the Inflation Reduction Act. Official announcement coming soon!