Fourth Armada Specialty Rx Summit draws 1,000
LAS VEGAS —The specialty pharmacy market is a lot less fragmented than it was just a few years ago, a fact that is reflected clearly in the rapid growth of the Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit. Held here last month at the Wynn resort and casino, the Summit drew more than 1,000 attendees from the retail, manufacturer and wholesaler communities. Four years ago, at the group’s inaugural meeting, a little more than 20 people attended.
“That’s a 30-fold increase since our first meeting,” host Lawrence Irene, Armada Health Care CEO, announced to the massive group—more than 40% of which represented providers of all sizes, from independents and small regionals to such titans of pharmacy as Walgreens and CVS.
Behind the interest: A growing market emerging from infancy with myriad opportunities to improve care and health outcomes—and vastly expand the role pharmacy plays in the delivery of health care in America. The challenge: To successfully navigate a sea of operational challenges beyond the inherent complexity of the therapies being delivered. From claims adjudication, to managing formularies, and compliance and adherence, benefit design, every aspect of specialty pharmacy seems “hard,” explained keynote speaker Stan Blaylock, Walgreens SVP and president of the company’s managed care division, Walgreens Health Initiatives.
At a time when even the healthcare services market is not immune to the violent changes in the economy, and overall pharmaceutical growth has slowed to a crawl, specialty pharmacy continues to explode. Standing at about $70 billion to $80 billion today, it is a market expected to top $500 billion in the next 15 to 20 years, Blaylock noted.
Judging from the growth in the pipeline over the past 15 to 20 years, and the high cost of most of these drugs, that estimate could prove too conservative. In 1990, the specialty market included just 10 drugs, with 100 more in development. Ten years later, the number of specialty drugs on the market was almost 100, with 369 more in development. By 2007, the number had reached 300 on the market, and more than 1,500 in development.
The top 10 specialty items—including such drugs as Enbrel, Remicade, Humira and others—generated worldwide sales of nearly $50 billion last year.
In addition to an exploding new product pipeline, Blaylock also pointed to several other key trends that are shaping the specialty market, including:
Higher patient copays, deductibles and co-insurance
Heightened payer focus around intensity of management and overall cost of care
More products requiring professional administration
Pricing pressure on all industry stakeholders
Continued consolidation—both among providers and manufacturers
Convergence of specialty pharmacy and home infusion
Biosimilars
The summit also included a special Managed Care Leadership Panel, offering some perspectives from such big payers as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota, HealthNet of California and others, on the question of cost versus value in specialty pharmacy therapy management.
In addition to the general sessions, the Summit also featured more than 20 individual breakout sessions, including one on the specialty pharmacy pipeline by CVS Caremark clinical adviser Deborah Cooper. Another by former Rite Aid pharmacy executive Greg Drew—discussed how specialty pharmacy is evolving among the big pharmacy chains.