Skylar is an associate editor for The American Journal of Managed Care® (AJMC®) and The Center for Biosimilars®, and joined AJMC® in 2020. She is responsible for covering all aspects of the ever-changing global biosimilar industry and produces content that is accessible and informative for all health care stakeholders.
She has a BA in journalism and media studies from Rutgers University. You can connect with Skylar on LinkedIn.
Katie Lockhart Details How the Specialty Drug Pipeline Is Expected to Affect Payers
April 1st 2022Pipeline forecasting can provide payers better insight into which expensive specialty drugs coming down the pipeline they should be keeping their eyes on, according to Katie Lockhart, MA, manager at Magellan Health.
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Dr Soumya Vishwanath Gives an Overview of the Therapeutic Gaps in Behavioral Health Disorders
April 1st 2022Soumya Vishwanath, PharmD, senior manager of formulary strategy at Magellan Rx Management, highlighted the therapeutic gaps that need to be addressed to ensure that patients with behavioral health disorders are well cared for.
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Jeffrey Casberg Highlights Regulatory, Legal Barriers That Impact Drug Launch Dates
March 31st 2022Jeffrey Casberg, vice president of pharmacy at IPD Analytics, discussed some of the regulatory and legal hurdles that generic and biosimilar companies have to face on the road to market launch.
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Michael Ciarametaro Talks About Balancing Drug Price Reform With Encouraging Innovation
March 30th 2022Michael Ciarametaro, MBA, vice president of research at the National Pharmaceutical Council, discusses the balance between lowering drug prices and encouraging innovation in new drug classes for serious diseases.
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Review Reveals Evidence Gaps in Managing Pruritus in Patients With CKD on Dialysis
March 30th 2022A literature review pointed out the limited current research that has been conducted on how to manage pruritus in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) treated with hemodialysis, suggesting that more data is needed to improve symptom burden in these patients.
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Study Concludes Greater Focus Needed on MAFLD Due to CKD Risk Association
March 24th 2022Investigators confirmed an association between fatty liver disease related to metabolic dysfunction (MAFLD) and chronic kidney disease (CKD), and stressed a greater focus on treating MAFLD is needed to help manage risks.
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New Risk Prediction Model for MM Outcomes Found Easy to Use, Implement in Clinical Practice
March 22nd 2022A new frailty-based outcome prediction model for multiple myeloma (MM) was found to be an easy-to-use tool in clinical practice and produced valid results based on a large real world cohort of patients with a new MM diagnosis, according to a recent study.
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Panel on Prior Authorization Reveals Role PBMs Play in Biosimilar Uptake in Oncology
March 22nd 2022During the recent Association of Community Cancer Centers’ 2022 Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, panelists suggested that the laser focus on rebates by pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) may be hindering uptake of biosimilars, thereby keeping some off of formulary lists.
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Multi-Tiered Risk Stratification Model for MM May Perform Better Than Standard Systems
March 18th 2022Risk stratification is a difficult process for multiple myeloma (MM), and authors concluded that their multi-tiered model may provide a greater risk assessment benefit than standard stratification systems.
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Finerenone Reduces Heart Failure Risk in Patients With CKD, T2D
March 15th 2022Finerenone (Kerendia) was found to reduce risk of heart failure and improve other cardiovascular outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) regardless of heart failure history.
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Julie Reed Previews 2022: The Year of Expanded Access to Biosimilars
March 14th 2022As the United States awaits market introduction for adalimumab biosimilars in 2023, 2022 is going to be the year of expanding access to biosimilars, according to Julie M. Reed, the new executive director of the Biosimilars Forum.
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Addressing Low Vitamin D Levels May Reduce Risk of Peripheral Neuropathy in MM
March 11th 2022Researchers found that low levels of vitamin D and the prevalence of peripheral neuropathy were common in patients with multiple myeloma, suggesting that addressing the former could help prevent the latter.
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Study Finds Decorin May Have Protective Effect in Multiple Myeloma
March 8th 2022Decorin, a highly conserved, class 1 small leucine-rich repeat proteoglycan expressed in the extracellular matrix, may have a protective effect in a subset of patients with multiple myeloma, investigators concluded.
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More Early Palliative Care May Be Needed to Individualize Pain Management in MM
March 4th 2022Investigators concluded that early palliative care may be needed for more patients with multiple myeloma (MM) as pain can manifest in different ways and severity levels depending on disease state, suggesting that a more individualized approach is critical for pain management.
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Study on Types of Pain in MM Reveals Communication Inadequacies Between Physicians, Patients
February 28th 2022A study showed that patients with multiple myeloma (MM) deal with physical, social, and emotional pain and that physicians did not fully comprehend the extent to which patients experienced pain, suggesting improved communication between parties is warranted.
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Study Highlights Unmet Exercise Needs Among Patients With MM
February 25th 2022Health care providers need to foster a greater push for physical activity as a part of survivorship care for patients with multiple myeloma (MM), investigators concluded after finding that only 25% of patients were active.
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The Biosimilars Forum's Julie Reed Predicts How Interchangeability Will Impact Biosimilar Uptake
February 25th 2022Julie M. Reed, the new executive director of the Biosimilars Forum, offers her opinion on how interchangeability will impact US biosimilar uptake now that the FDA has given the designation to 2 biosimilars.
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Dr Robert Gabbay Talks About Adding Finenerone as a Recommended Drug in New ADA Guidelines
February 24th 2022Robert Gabbay, MD, PhD, of the American Diabetes Association (ADA), breaks down the reasoning behind the organization's decision to add Bayer's Kerendia (finerenon) as a recommended drug for kidney disease prevention.
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Fixing COVID-19–Based Disparities Requires Addressing All SDOHs, Not Just Health Care Access
February 23rd 2022The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant disparities in mortality and made ever-present systemic issues worse for historically underserved communities, signaling that greater efforts to address social determinants of health (SDOHs) are needed now more than ever.
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Review Outlines Unmet Need for Digital Health in Elderly Patients With MM
February 22nd 2022Access to digital health tools to improve patient outcomes and quality of life are lacking among patients with multiple myeloma (MM) who are elderly, at risk of relapse, or live in rural communities, suggesting more tools and guidelines are needed for these populations.
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FDA Grants Breakthrough Device Designation to Foundation Medicine’s ctDNA Tracker
February 15th 2022Foundation Medicine’s circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) detection and monitoring assay, FoundationOne Tracker, was granted a Breakthrough Device Designation from the FDA, streamlining the approval and review processes to give patients and providers earlier access to the device.
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