Patient training on specialty drugs becomes major concern for pharmacies

WASHINGTON Many pharmacies have recently placed more emphasis on patient training in an effort to lessen unnecessary risks for patients taking specialty drugs, according to published reports.

The cost of specialty drugs is high, about $400,000 per year for some patients, and failure to comply with the instructions on how to use them can result in even higher costs, especially for biologic drugs (as opposed to traditional oral medications).

ActiveCare Network, which operates clinics for biologic services, explains that the use of injected or infused specialty drugs are now becoming more mainstream, and are being used for such non-life-threatening illnesses as arthritis and allergies. To ensure that there won’t be any complications to patients, it is essential for them to be knowledgeable on how they are used.

According to published reports, 70 percent of new specialty drugs require clinical oversight while the other 30 percent are able to be used individually by the patient, and are known as self-injection drugs.

The problem with patient training is that the attention given to patients using biologic drugs varies among different pharmacies. Like ActiveCare Network, some offer clinics to provide patient training with no additional cost, while others cut down support services in order to cut costs.

Tom Solberg, associate vice president for specialty pharmacy at PBM Prime Therapeutics explains the problems with the lack of patient training, saying, “One of the ways that specialty pharmacies take costs out of the system is to cut [down] on support services. We don’t like to see that trend because we believe that will ultimately drive costs up, not down.”

In an effort to change services provided for patients using specialty drugs, many other companies such as the Rx division of Prime are enhancing their clinical support services, but are very cautious in how much support they provide for patients.