This time of the year is filled with nostalgia. We look forward to our family traditions and take comfort in what we know. We long for people and moments that have passed. I find it striking that while personally so many of us are filled with holiday anticipation and bustle, a similar undercurrent can be found within one of the highest volume specialty classes – inflammatory conditions such as Crohn’s Disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis to name a few. FPS has been reporting on the pipeline for both novel therapies and emerging biosimilars, it’s no secret of activity. Patients, plan sponsors or even our children opening a magazine or turning on the TV can tell you Humira, Entyvio, Stelara, Skyrizi, Rinvoq (and the list goes on!) are soaring in prevalence.
Another similarity of this winter season to the current inflammatory drug market is that sometimes it gets a little messy. When reading a recent article, US Gastroenterologist Projections Suggest Significant Shift (globenewswire.com), I found myself caught in the storm of information. I had to reread the article several times thinking of how busy professionals will digest the barrage of information. Will the authors of these clinical updates be unbiased and thorough in content? In this one article alone, we are hit with the familiarity of old drugs in new dosage forms Zymfentra (Infliximab) subcutaneous option which is the alternative to brand Remicade; Entyvio’s has new subcutaneous option and the new drugs like Omvah, a novel IL-23 drug which compares most closely with Stelara IL 12/23 and Velsipity is an oral drug for ulcerative colitis. This article did not even include the biosimilar availability coming on a parallel track!
Festive lights, music and décor are beautiful but can sometimes make our heads spin when it becomes too much. We are grateful to have numerous therapeutic options to treat such debilitating diseases, but we cannot allow the confidence that comes with familiarity to inhibit our ability to manage the chaos. FPS has had the pleasure of meeting with so many incredible PBMs over the past several weeks. These middle market PBMs have provided hope this season that they have invested in the clinical infrastructure to manage (yes manage, not just pay claims!) the daily evolution of options for the old and the new and even the old that looks new. Some are requiring precision medicine tests to ensure patients are on the right treatment, not wasting the patient’s time with inadequate care and the employers’ financial resources. I challenge everyone not to fall victim to accepting a standard GPO formulary that prefers the highest rebatable or admin fee drug, but rather partner with a PBM who shares the same jovial spirit of doing what’s right clinically for each individual patient.
Cheers to a safe and healthy holiday season!
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