Specialty Pharmacy

For biopharmaceutical firms developing treatments for rare diseases, economic incentives are rarely the only reason to begin developing orphan drugs.

A good response to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors taken to treat rheumatoid arthritis comes along with the added benefit of reduced risk of acute coronary syndrome, a study finds.

The Specialty Pharmacy Association of America (SPAARx) recently announced that Gaston Bernstein, president & CEO of Biomed Pharmaceuticals, and Nuaman Tyyeb, president/managing partner of CareMed Pharmaceutical Services, Inc, will join the SPAARx Board of Directors.

Edmund Pezalla, MD, MPH, national medical director, pharmacy policy and strategy at Aetna, explains how drugs that have been deemed "failures" can sometimes become effective treatments for other conditions.

Specialty Pharmacy Times is proud to announce the launch of the inaugural Specialty Pharmacy Times Industry Guide, a comprehensive directory of organizations, products, and services that will serve as a one-stop guide for industry stakeholders in the specialty pharmacy space.

As the popularity of copay cards for expensive specialty medications increases, health plans are devising new ways to steer patients into using more cost-effective options.

The FDA has asked the manufacturer of the leukemia chemotherapy drug Iclusig (ponatinib) to suspend marketing and sales of Iclusig because of the risk of life-threatening blood clots and severe narrowing of blood vessels.

Results of a phase-2b trial reveal preliminary information about the efficacy of the combination treatment of faldaprevir and deleobuvir for hepatitis C virus infection.

In this video, Todd Speranzo of Avella talks about how to create video content that is compelling to patients.

To improve the care of patients with hemophilia and von Willebrand's Disease (vWD), coagulation factor products should be billed through the pharmacy benefit and provided by specialty pharmacies, the authors of a new study suggest.

In this video from the 2013 Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit, Mark Zitter of Zitter Health Insights discusses stakeholder views on copay cards.

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a known rare side effect of interferon treatment. Investigators confirmed the low incidence if ILD in patients with hepatitis C receiving interferon, but also recorded reductions in lung function in almost half of treated patients.

Investigators in Spain have demonstrated that a regimen of lenalidomide and dexamethasone reduces the risk of disease progression and improves survival in patients with high-risk smoldering multiple myeloma.

A study including 10 million patients covered by 11 health plans suggested that insurance claims could be used to estimate the number of early-stage breast cancer cases as well as the demand for anti-HER2 drugs.

Armada Health Care (Armada), the nation's largest specialty pharmacy group purchasing and channel management organization, is pleased to announce that it is supporting the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) and its efforts on biosimilars within the specialty pharmacy channel.

Specialty Pharmacy Times contributor Quintin Jessee discusses why he chose a career in specialty pharmacy and the new opportunities that are emerging in this industry.

Almost half of members spending more than $50,000 per year on drug costs were being treated with chemotherapy.

Investigators have found that patients with early tumor shrinkage and colon cancer expressing wild-type KRAS genes benefit from addition of cetuximab to standard therapy.

MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc and Onco360 announced a joint collaboration focused on offering MedImpact clients a unique and effective solution for bending the cost curve and delivering quality and value-based oncology pharmaceutical care.

Mark Zitter, CEO at Zitter Health Insights, explains how the growth of Accountable Care Organizations may impact specialty drug management in the near future.

The Center for Pharmacy Practice Accreditation (CPPA) recently announced the development of an accreditation program for specialty pharmacy practices.

Specialty Pharmacy Times spoke with Eric Sredzinski, PharmD, AAHIVE, vice president, clinical affairs at Avella, to find out more about their adherence initiative with Novartis and how the GlowCap can help optimize patient health.

Secukinumab is the first therapy that selectively targets IL-17A in psoriasis to complete a Phase III trial.

Employers and health plans can begin to take control of these specialty drug costs by following 7 steps outlined in a new report released today by Prime.

Negative findings were reported for both clinical and imaging measures in a Phase II randomized trial of riluzole in comparison to placebo in patients with very early multiple sclerosis (MS).

Amid legislative shutdown, some drug review operations tied to residual user fees continue, but all nonemergency activities related to biosimilars have been suspended indefinitely.

A recent study compared the annual cost per treated patient for a health plan for patients taking etanercept, adalimumab, or infliximab.