Radar on Specialty Pharmacy

CLL Has Many Effective Drugs, And Costs Are Expected to Rise

Among the different forms of leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is one of the most common in adults. The FDA has approved multiple treatments for the condition, making it a potential target of value-based ...
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Many Payers Will Parity Prefer Xtandi, Chemotherapy in mHSPC

In December, the FDA gave another indication to Pfizer Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc.’s Xtandi (enzalutamide) for the treatment of men with metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer. Many commercial payers ha...
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As Step Therapy Use Grows, Opinions Vary on Its Usefulness

Step therapy has long been a go-to utilization management strategy for payers, as it is often applied to specialty drugs. But as more and more costly medications come onto the market, the practice has become near...
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New FDA Specialty Approvals

✦ Jan. 8: The FDA expanded the label of Keytruda (pembrolizumab) to include the treatment of people with bacillus Calmette-Guérin-unresponsive, high-risk, non-muscle invasive bladder cancer with carcinoma in situ...
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News Briefs

✦ Pfizer Inc. unveiled its launch strategy for three biosimilars. Zirabev (bevacizumab-bvzr) launched Dec. 31 at a wholesale acquisition cost (WAC) of $61.343 per 10 mg, a 23% discount to that of reference drug Av...
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Diplomat and BioScrip Deals Illustrate Changing Industries

As independent specialty pharmacies and infusion providers continue to be squeezed by various market pressures, 2019 saw an end to two long-time industry presences. In August, BioScrip, Inc. and Option Care Enterpri...
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Multiple Oncology Biosimilars Could Prompt Preferencing

An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Neupogen (filgrastim) and Neulasta (pegfilgrastim) are Pfizer Inc. treatments. They are Amgen Inc. products. This version has been corrected. So far, biosim...
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HHS Importation Efforts Move Ahead, but Questions Remain

Late last month, the Trump administration moved ahead with a proposed rule and draft guidance that could open the door to drug importation. The moves, it contended, would lower U.S. prescription drug prices. But ske...
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Novel New Drugs, 10 Biosimilar Approvals Were 2019 Standouts

While arguably the biggest news within the specialty pharmacy arena in 2019 was the U.S. approval and launch of the $2.1 million gene therapy Zolgensma (onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi) (RSP 6/19, p. 1), plenty of oth...
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Troubles for Industry Veteran Diplomat Began Few Years Ago

Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc.’s sale to OptumRx (see story, p. 1) will mark the end of a specialty pharmacy that is nearly half a century old. Diplomat began operations in 1975 as a small, regional operation, and, in...
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