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Bridging the gap between the hospital and alternate-site care
Volume 1 • Number 4 • Fall 2012
specialtypharmacycontinuum.com
In This Issue Clinical
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Latest findings on hepatitis C treatment from The Liver Meeting
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New studies support use of alemtuzumab in patients with MS
Disease State Spotlight
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Diplomat pharmacist shares her expertise on managing hereditary angioedema
Shows Raising the Evidence Bar Sandy Profession Can In Specialty Pharmacy Take a Punch I H n mid-September, Aetna announced that it would cease reimbursing for most uses of repository corticotropin injection (H.P. Acthar gel), a highly purified preparation of adrenocorticotropic h hormone designed d i d for f extended d d release. l The drug’s manufacturer, Questcor, markets it for a number of indications, including
drug’s use in a given indication. “Specialty drugs already represent 20%-plus in terms of medication spending, and the pipeline is close to 50% specialty drugs,” said David Calabrese, RPh, MPH vice MPH, i presii dent of clinical services and chief pharmacy officer for pharmacy benefit manager Catamaran (formerly SXC
Ask the Expert
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Specialized HIV pharmacies may improve care
Policy
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N. Lois Adams, RPh, MBA speaks out on the meningitis outbreak.
Operations & Mgmt
Bosutinib approved as new second-line option for CML
Corporate Spotlight Cigna see page 7
Connexus see page 13
urricane Sandy slammed into the heavily populated New York-New Jersey metropolitan area on Monday night, Oct. 29, flooding or destroying countless homes, plunging millions into darkness and severely testing the preparedness of hospitals and health care providers across the region. To prepare for the storm, the nurses, pharmacists and drivers who staff the Walgreens Infusion Services branch in Eatontown, N.J., began to draw up contingency plans on the previous Friday for what was looking more and more like a major assault on the New Jersey shore. Their attention focused on the center’s
infantile spasms, multiple sclerosis, neuromuscular conditions and nephrotic syndrome—but Aetna declared that the clinical evidence of the drug’s g supep riority to less costly steroids was insufficient to justify reimbursement for any indications beyond infantile spasms. Moves like these are likely to become more common in specialty pharmacy, as payers set higher bars for the quality of the evidence supporting a particular
see SANDY, Y page 4
Payers Rank Value of Key Pharm Services Specialty gets high marks on core services, lower ones in clinical areas
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Health Solutions). “Therapies in general are becomingg more complex p and more targeted, and that means you will need mechanisms to ensure appropriate use. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll see even tighter scrutiny around the use of [specialty] products.” Questcor may be able to convince Aetna to reconsider its decision on
pecialty pharmacies are hitting the mark with payers on core functions, such as direct distribution and performance guarantees for accuracy, but they are falling short on what might be considered “cognitive” services, such as enforcing preferred product selection, tracking patient interventions and managing drug waste, misuse and abuse. Those are some key findings based on survey responses from 102 payers,
see EVIDENCE, page 22
see PERFORMANCE, page 18
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FDA Approval Pfizer’s new oral RA treatment, Xeljanz, approved
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The Book Page Handbook on Injectable Drugs: 17th Edition Lawrence A. Trissel, FASHP
See page 26.
See page 27.
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