Specialty Pharmacy

FLINT, Mich. — Diplomat Pharmacy on Friday announced that it would be dispensing a recently approved treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. The specialty pharmacy will be dispensing Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and Sanofi’s Kevzara (sarilumab).

The drug is administered once every two weeks as a subcutaneous injection, and can treat moderate to severely active rheumatoid arthritis that’s is intolerant of or unresponsive to one or more disease-modiying antirheumatic drugs.

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Pharmacy technology solutions provider QS/1 and Asembia have announced a new partnership. Asembia’s Asembia1 specialty pharmacy workflow platform will be integrated with QS/1’s software platform as a result of the partnership.

AUSTIN, Texas — A new survey from Innovatix is highlighting concerns home infusion providers have as the 21st Cures Act enters its fifth month. Under the law, which was signed by President Barack Obama in December 2016, the payment structure for infusion drugs under Medicare Part B changed from an average wholesale price to an average sales price.

NEW YORK — CVS Health has a “very strong balance sheet” and will “look into opportunities” in the merger and acquisition space that can help the retailer become even more helpful to its clients, president and CEO Larry Merlo said Wednesday during the UBS Healthcare Conference at the Grand Hyatt here.

PRINCETON, N.J. — Bristol-Myers Squibb announced Wednesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted a supplemental Biologics License Application that seeks to extend the use of Opdivo (nivolumab) to patients with hepatocellular carcinoma after prior sorafenib therapy. The FDA granted the application priority review and previously granted Opdivo orphan-drug designation for the treatment of HCC.

The FDA action date on the application Sept. 24.

STOCKHOLM — A new report from the QuintilesIMS Institute outlines a number of challenges that health systems need to overcome in order to maximise the benefits that precision medicines offer to patients.

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday granted accelerated approval to a treatment for patients whose cancers have a specific genetic feature (biomarker). This is the first time the agency has approved a cancer treatment based on a common biomarker rather than the location in the body where the tumor originated.

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday expanded the approved use of Hoffman La Roche’s subcutaneous Actemra (tocilizumab) to treat adults with giant cell arteritis. This new indication provides the first FDA-approved therapy, specific to this type of vasculitis.