Specialty Pharmacy

As the pharmacy industry continues to change, certified pharmacy technicians have the opportunity to step into new roles, taking on more responsibility in helping their pharmacy teams as well as the patients they serve.

Autumn Zuckerman, director of specialty pharmacy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and JoAnn Stubbings, a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy, discuss the role of specialty pharmacists in guiding patients throughout their journey.

The intention of risk evaluation and mitigation strategy programs is to ensure that the patient gets potentially dangerous drugs that are monitored appropriately.

The approval is based on an interim analysis from the phase 3 IMpower110 study, which showed atezolizumab monotherapy improved overall survival by 7.1 months compared with chemotherapy in people with high PD-L1 expression, according to a press release.

The placement of clinical pharmacists at the nexus of functional pharmacogenomics and in specialty pharmacy care makes good sense.

The anti-cancer medicine venetoclax may improve the current therapy for estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer.

Ripretinib is indicated for adult patients who have received prior treatment with 3 or more kinase inhibitor therapies, including imatinib, according to an FDA press release.

The NASP Challenge is an unique opportunity to identify innovative ideas and creative solutions focused on enhancing the specialty pharmacy patient jouney.

Jonathan Ogurchak, PharmD, CSP, discusses the improtance of combining technology with the personal touch in specialty pharmacy.

At the PQA 2020 Annual Meeting on Thursday, speakers discussed some of the drivers of medication adherence in community pharmacy.

Survey finds that nearly two-thirds of specialty pharmacists spend more than 15 minutes on the phone to fill 1 prescription, whereas 79% of specialty pharmacists seek additional information from clinicians at least 3 times in an average day.

Although the average wholesale price of the agents is more than $13,000, the investigators found that 9% of patients had a 0% co-pay throughout the 6-month period.

Ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cause of death from cancer among women in the United States, according to a press release.

Gregory Leighton, RPh, vice president of clinical solutions and patient access for Asembia, discusses how patient support services and hub providers can be used to focus on an individual’s needs and lifestyle for improving medication adherence.

Evolocumab, when used with diet, can be used as monotherapy or in combination with other lipid-lowering agents for the prevention of cardiovascular events.

This new study showed for the first time that an enzyme, known as fatty acid synthase (FASN), specifically may be responsible for causing cognitive deficits.

Sacituzumab govitecan-hziy, approved by the FDA on April 22, 2020, is the first in its class to treat metastatic, triple-negative breast cancer in patients who have received at least 2 prior therapies for metastatic disease.

More than 25% of US patients have not filled a prescription or have reduced their prescribed dose because of high costs.

Selpercatinib is the first therapy approved specifically for cancer patients with rearranged during transfection (RET) gene alterations.

In outpatient breast cancer clinics, oral chemotherapies are becoming more common for various malignancies, but hematologic and non-hematologic toxicities can cause challenges for patients.

Oral oncolytics has become increasingly common as treatment for patients with cancer over the past several years.

According to the investigators, the cells are called ductal macrophages and function by consuming dying milk-producing cells, which need to be cleared away after milk production stops.

The objective of the study was to develop an education program that increased confidence and knowledge of pharmacists managing CDK4/6 inhibitors.

Christian G. Downs, JD, MHA, executive director of the Association of Community Cancer Centers, discusses cancer politics and policy today.

Non-small cell lung cancer is a the most common type of lung cancer with up to 90% of all lung carcinomas falling into the non-small cell category.

"Approximately 40% of melanomas are considered to be ‘cold,’ meaning that they lack sufficient infiltration of immune cells within the tumor."

Thom Cohn, chief strategy officer, Asembia, discusses the impact of emerging digital tools and other therapies on patients and prescribers.

A majority of the patients who responded maintained their response for at least 1 year.