AllianceRx Walgreens Prime, the combined central specialty and home delivery pharmacy formed by Walgreens and pharmacy benefit manager Prime Therapeutics, on Thursday announced the availability of several new limited distribution drugs for its specialty patients.
"Continually expanding on our industry-leading limited distribution drug list demonstrates our passion and commitment to making sure patients have access to the medications they need, including those that may be hard to find," Joel Wright, CEO AllianceRx Walgreens Prime, said. "We are pleased to offer these medications as additional options to help treat patients who have been diagnosed with these serious conditions, and continue to work with Walgreens at the community-based specialty pharmacies as well."
The four drugs now available for AllianceRx Walgreens Prime and Walgreens patients include Austedo (deutetrabenazine), Fasenra (benralizumab), Hemlibra (emicizumab-kxwh) and Symdeko (tezacaftor/ivacaftor and ivacaftor). The new drugs treat rare conditions such as Huntington's disease, severe asthma and cystic fibrosis, or offer improved treatment protocols for hemophilia in adults and children.
Austedo, distributed by Teva Pharmaceuticals USA, is used to treat involuntary body movements associated with Huntington's disease, an incurable, hereditary brain disorder.
Fasenra is an add-on maintenance treatment of patients with severe asthma aged 12 years and older. Fasenra is the only respiratory biologic that provides direct, rapid and near-complete depletion of eosinophils (a type of disease-fighting white blood cell) within 24 hours.
Hemlibra prevents or substantially reduces bleeds in adults and children with hemophilia A (congenital factor VIII deficiency). Manufactured by Genentech, Hemlibra is the only medicine that can be self-administered once weekly by injection.
Symdeko, manufactured by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, treats CF in people 12 years old and older who have two copies of the F508del mutation or one mutation that is responsive to Symdeko. This drug is also now available at select Walgreens community-based specialty pharmacies.