Growth, Consolidation Among Top Trends in Specialty Pharmacy

At the Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit 2019, Matt Farber, MA, Senior Director of Patient Care and Advocacy at Walgreens discussed top trends in specialty pharmacy that are likely to continue to impact the industry.

Transcript

So there are a number of emerging trends in the specialty pharmacy space that will impact the overall landscape and therefore care for patients. We are living in a constantly shifting landscape of specialty pharmacy where we see more and more specialty pharmacies being launched or opening, whether those are independent specialty pharmacies or hospital-based or health-system based specialty pharmacies. But in that same time we continue to see consolidation and that consolidation can be SPs buying other SPs, that can be SPs merging with health insurance companies or PBM-based companies as well. So there's a lot of that constant shifting going on. At the same time, the role of pharmacies continue to grow. It also means that there's more attention being brought to specialty pharmacies. I think you're starting to a see a lot more recognition of some of the common aspects of pharmacy that a few years ago might have really not been a big issue for many out there. So, for example on Capitol Hill, lawmakers are talking about DIR fees, they're talking about PBMs, they're talking about things that really just a few years ago they did not. And I think it's because we've seen such massive growth. You know, we're seeing potential changes in the rebate structures with pharma companies, again the more you grow the more attention you're going to get. And as these issues get brought up and start to get addressed, it'll definitely have impacts on all of us as they get vetted out.