Dan Steiber, RPh

Oncology pharmacists can help ensure patient access to lifesaving therapies.

The industry has been ushered into a new age of medicine.

Oncology pharmacists play a significant role in clinical pathways.

Oncology pharmacists can affect not only the efficacy of advancements in our health care system but also the scope of health care progress in our country.

This month, I thought it would be beneficial to share a handful of examples from among the many Next Generation Pharmacist-nominated candidates.

As a direct result of the global pandemic, the landscape for oncology health care professionals has changed.

With the explosion of new therapies for cancer, the role of the oncology pharmacist continues to expand.

The NASP annual meeting has become one of the premiere events in the specialty space, and this year’s virtual format allowed it to achieve new programming heights.

By their training, pharmacists are natural problem solvers, and our education has taught us how to use resources to find an answer and often a solution. The world is waiting for a pharmaceutical solution to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Meaningful breakthrough therapies are receiving accelerated approval based on evidence of impact on a surrogate end point rather than evidence of impact on the actual clinical benefit for which the drug is intended.

In this time of crisis, the scope of pharmacy practice has been expanded and pharmacists can provide even more care.

The industry has concentrated its efforts on developing new therapies with few or no competitors.

Now is the time for pharmacists to stand even taller and provide more help to their communities.

As the growth of specialty continues at a record pace, pharmacy must keep up with new distribution trends as an oncology product’s supply chain of a product can take many paths.

The growth area for pharmacy revenue is increasingly apparent in the specialty space, a trend driven by the approvals of new oncology agents with characteristics that are ideal for the specialty pharmacy setting.

As new specialty products have begun to dominate the developmental pipeline, specialty pharmacy has entered the mainstream of the supply chain to the point where we can arguably refer to much of the channel as “traditional specialty.”

ECRM’s innovative event brought together leaders from across specialty pharmacy.

With an increasing portfolio of specialty products and dollar volume, the value of these treatments must continue to be demonstrated. 

Focusing on cost alone could diminish the vital service aspects behind successfully caring for a patient in a specialty pharmacy.

Specialty pharmacies and managed care organizations will need to work together to truly balance the scale between cost and improved patient outcomes.

In the development of a specialty pharmacy strategy, there are many key stakeholders, but none more important than the pharmacy, payer, and product. Each has its own mission and goals; however, at some point they must all come together.

Many factors come into play when establishing a distribution model, and the 3 P's-Pharmacy, Payer, and Product-are all key stakeholders and part of the story.

Choosing the right distribution strategies for a new product is a critical process for the pharmaceutical manufacturer. A number of variables need to be weighed that the team should be evaluating, often led by the supply chain team.

As industry invests billions into self-administered oncolytics, specialty pharmacy steps in. This special issue focuses on the cutting-edge, real-world practices and successes of specialty pharmacy in oncology.

As the population ages, the care of seniors is expanding and specialty pharmacists will play a more active role in patient management and collaboration with other health care providers.