How Can We Sustain the Innovation of Biopharmaceuticals?

Welcome to the Specialty Pharmacy Collaboration Summit Podcast Series. Today we are speaking with Robert Popovian, Senior Director, US Government Relations, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals.

Download the complete podcast & transcript here.

What needs to happen in the US to sustain the innovation initiative of biopharmaceuticals?

Robert: Well, biopharmaceuticals is a complex issue and a lot of people try to make it a very simple one by saying to do regulatory reform through the FDA or provide additional NIH funding to do research. Biopharmaceutical innovation policies are very complex and inter-dependent onto one another. There is no one magic bullet.

So, there are three distinct environments that need to be addressed to really sustain the biopharmaceutical innovation marketplace in the US and that is the investment environment, which is basically appropriate and electoral property protection. For example, tax policy, ability to price medicines according to the marketplace.

There is the regulatory environment, which is the second environment, which requires that we do a better job of streamlining not only the FDA, but other regulatory bodies like the Centers for Disease Control. And then, more importantly, within the regulatory policy framework is how to better do clinical trials and clinical trial recruitment. That needs to be addressed.

Finally, it is the access, which in my opinion is the one that is short shifted a lot of times because unless you address the access environment for biopharmaceutical, no matter if you are investing a lot of money in it or you have a very deregulatory process to get the product out, if the patients are unable to access those medicines because they are too high cost regarding out-of-pocket costs or there is no meaningful way to get access to it because there is no way to communicate that information to the providers, innovation will suffer and patients will suffer long term with that.

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To hear more from Robert, please join him at IIR's Specialty Pharmacy Collaboration Summit, September 15-17 in Boston. Also, you can save an EXTRA $100 off the current rate, $500 in total savings when registering by 7/25 with the code: XP1968BLOG - Register now. 

See you in Boston!

Rising Healthcare Costs | What are the Biggest Challenges?

 

Welcome to the Specialty Pharmacy Collaboration Summit podcast series. Joining us today is Robert Popovian, Senior Director, US Government Relations, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. 

Download the complete podcast & transcript here.

What are the biggest challenges that you face presently with rising healthcare costs?

Robert: Well, healthcare costs are increasing. We are close to about 20% of our GDP is spent on healthcare expenditures and that number is going to continuously go up, just because of the demographics in the United States.

If you look at spending and healthcare in general with regards to pharmaceuticals, pharmaceutical spending has risen slowly and overall healthcare spending – as well as other healthcare segments in the last few years – and the price increases have been pretty much in line with the other segments of healthcare.

The challenge that we have with healthcare expenditures in the United States is that we have a very dysfunctional payment mechanism in the US where we are challenged with an outdated insurance policy model where we don’t necessarily pay for the best interventions in healthcare because of the mechanisms of reimbursement where we have pharmaceuticals vs. hospital payments vs. outpatient payments vs. other services being paid separately. Because of that, no one cost beneficial intervention is the one that is put in the front of the others.


To hear more from Robert, please join him at IIR's Specialty Pharmacy Collaboration Summit, September 15-17 in Boston. Also, you can save an EXTRA $100 off the current rate when registering with the code: XP1968BLOG - Register now. 

See you in Boston!

4 Key Challenges in the Specialty Pharmacy Ecosystem

 Is the Specialty Pharmacy Model Sustainable?

At IIR's all-new Specialty Pharmacy Collaboration Summit on September 15-17, 2014 in Boston, join leading pharmaceutical manufacturers, health plans, and specialty pharmacies as they participate in in-depth sessions, roundtables and panel discussions to address the four key challenges in the specialty pharmacy ecosystem:

1. Adherence

Excellus, Bluecross Blueshield, Denver Health Medical Plan, Tufts Health Plan

Hear from experts in a payer specific panel as they shed light on commercial plan strategies and priorities.

2. Managing Costs and Determining Value of Specialty Drugs

 Pfizer

Robert Popovian, Senior Director, US Government relations of Pfizer will address the optimal methodologies to assess the value and cost proposition of specialty drugs in the evolving payment policy environment 

3. Distribution of Specialty Drugs and Channel Management

 Sanofi + Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University

Develop distribution strategies to sustrain commerical success and learn how to postition withing the channel to gain a competitive adcantage with Richard Peters, MD, PhD, Division Medical Officer, Sanofi and Sylvia Bartel, VP Pharmacy, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard University

4. Sustainability of the Specialty Pharmacy Model

National Association of Specialty Pharmacy + Independent Health

Gary Cohen, BSPharm, RPh, CSP, CEO, National Association of Specialty Pharmacy and Mike Reilly, President, Pharmacy Benefit Dimensions, Independent Health join together to discuss what the future holds for specialty pharmacy

Download the brochure for the full agenda and speaker details

Don't miss out! Register now to save up to $600! Plus take an EXTRA $100 off when you use the code XP1968LINK - $700 in total savings! Click here to register.

See you in Boston!