2021 Outlook: With 20 Biosimilars Available, U.S. Market Is Heating Up
As of the beginning of February, the FDA had approved 29 biosimilars. For various reasons, mostly patent litigation by reference drug companies, only 20 of those products actually have launched onto the U.S. market....
Shields’ Purchase of Excelera Will Help With Payer Contracts
As more health systems are creating their own specialty pharmacies, two major players in the space are coming together. In mid-January, Shields Health Solutions unveiled a deal to purchase ExceleraRx Corp. for an un...
Specialty Pharmacy, Infusion M&A Activity Is Slowing Down
The level of merger and acquisition (M&A) activity within the specialty pharmacy and home infusion arenas that has been occurring for numerous years has certainly depleted the number of companies available for d...
New FDA Specialty Approvals
✦ Jan. 14: The FDA granted an additional indication to Pfizer Inc.’s Xalkori (crizotinib) to treat children at least 1 year old and young adults with relapsed or refractory, systemic anaplastic large cell lympho...
News Briefs
✦ Implementation of the most- favored-nation (MFN) model continues to be stalled. Following court rulings in December that temporarily blocked its Jan. 1 enactment (RSP 1/21, p. 8), the U.S. District Court for the...
Centene Boosts Specialty Drug Expertise With Pair of Deals
Centene Corp. celebrated the end of 2020 by closing on its acquisition of specialty pharmacy PANTHERx Rare, LLC on Dec. 30, then started 2021 with an agreement to acquire Magellan Health, Inc. The deals will strengt...
Race for COVID Vaccines, Therapies Topped Past Year’s Trends
As we look back over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has been top of mind for many involved in pharma commercialization and coverage. Less than a year after scientists sequenced the COVID genome, the FDA grante...
FDA Approves First Oral Therapy For Prevention of HAE Attacks
When the FDA approved BioCryst Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s Orladeyo (berotralstat) last month, the drug became the first oral treatment for prophylaxis to prevent hereditary angioedema (HAE) attacks. According to Zitt...
Innovative Drugs Were Some Top 2020 Specialty Trends
While the COVID-19 pandemic and pharma’s efforts to counter it were the top pharma concerns in 2020, that wasn’t the only innovation within the specialty pharmacy arena. AIS Health spoke with a variety of indust...
Court Rulings Temporarily Block MFN Model Implementation
As expected by some in the pharma industry, judges in two U.S. district courts have temporarily blocked implementation of the administration’s most-favored-nation (MFN) model that was set to take effect Jan. 1. Wh...