Latest Conference Articles

A trio of posters presented at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting show that high healthcare utilization leads to substantial costs among individuals living with HIV, but prompt initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimens after diagnosis can help contain costs in both Medicaid-covered and commercially insured patients.

Michael Steinman, MD, professor of medicine, University of California, San Diego, discusses effective strategies for improving medication management for patients and how these strategies can improve outcomes, such as medication adherence.

A study found that out of hundreds of specialty drugs, only 16% were covered in the same way by 17 commercial payers in the United States, meaning that 84% of those specialty drugs had differing coverage, explained James D. Chambers, PhD, MPharm, MSc, associate professor, Institute for Clinical Research and Health Policy Studies, Tufts Medical Center.

Panelists discuss what PCSK9 inhibitors are, the evidence to support them, and challenges with operationalizing them in practice.

Gene therapy provides an opportunity for every patient to become not a patient, to become an individual, and you can’t put a cost on that, explained Sophie Schmitz, BA, MA, managing partner, Partners4Access.

The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review will work with drug manufacturers, patients, and clinical experts to get supplemental information of newly approved drugs, explained Steven Pearson, MD, MSc, president, ICER.

Several efforts are underway nearly a year after the Trump administration released its blueprint to lower drug prices in May 2018, but tracking their outcomes depends on what metric is used to define drug prices, according to a session at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy Annual Meeting, held March 25-28 in San Diego, California.

Utilization management tools and formulary designs are components of a multifaceted strategy to curb opioid overdose death rates, but they must be applied in a flexible manner, according to speakers at the Academy of Managed Care annual meeting.

Crescent Moore, PharmD, PhD, BCPS, senior consultant, BluePeak Advisors, discusses changes to Medicare Part D expected to come in 2020 and their implications.

Aimee Tharaldson, PharmD, senior clinical consultant in emerging therapeutics for Express Scripts, presented her look at the development pipeline to a crowded room at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Annual Meeting, held March 25-28 in San Diego, California.

In a session at the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy Annual Meeting held March 25-28 in San Diego, California, speakers discussed the value-based contract process in Medicaid from both the manufacturer and the payer perspectives.

At the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC)'s 45th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, Ali McBride, PharmD, MS, BCPS, BCOP, clinical coordinator of hematology/oncology in the Department of Pharmacy at The University of Arizona Cancer Center and president of ACCC, discussed the role of biosimilars in oncology and how familiar oncologists and their teams are with them.

Biomarker testing will start to evolve to look more at combination therapies, said Jarushka Naidoo, MB BCh, of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

The move to value-based care has increased the use of palliative care, and new research has found that conversations about end-of-life care should be happening earlier, said Toby C. Campbell, MD, MSCI, of the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center.

A presentation Saturday at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida, outlined several key updates for treatment in ovarian cancer based on new studies and approvals for poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors and bevacizumab.

While no one country has perfected use of digital health, there are some takeaways from what other countries are doing successfully, according to John D. Halamka, MD, MS, chief information officer, Beth Israel Deaconess Health System.

We're getting better at identifying which patients with ovarian cancer will respond to poly ADP-ribose polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, but we have a long way to go, said David M. O'Malley, MD, professor of medicine, Department of Gynecology, and director of Gynecologic Oncology Clinical Research at the James Cancer Center, Ohio State University.

Although there is still a need for more education around the use of biosimilars in cancer, it seems oncologists have become more knowledgeable in the past few years, said Gary H. Lyman, MD, MPH, of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

On the last day of the 2019 National Comprehensive Cancer Network Annual Conference, a thoracic oncologist and palliative care physician shared strategies and specific phrases for guiding end-of-life discussions that have been developed, tested, and studied at the University of Wisconsin.

Erich Mounce, chief operating officer, OneOncology, drew on his experience from West Cancer Center to discuss how community oncology can improve access to care and other inequalities in cancer care.

The proposals that will have the biggest impact on community oncology and cancer care delivery in general are those that are still pending, explained Ben Jones, vice president, Government Relations & Public Policy, McKesson Specialty Health.

As more cancer survivors live longer, the challenges increase for those responsible for coordinating care among primary care providers, specialists, and oncologists. The concept of survivorship continues to evolve to include life long after cancer treatment, according to updated guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Germline testing at diagnosis, along with tumor testing, have the potential to identify candidates for investigational poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors, and updated guidelines call for their expanded use.

CancerIQ is reducing barriers that make it difficult to utilize genetic testing to predict or pre-empt a patient’s cancer diagnosis, explained Feyi Olopade Ayodele, MBA, chief executive officer at CancerIQ.

More and more, care is moving into the home with new tools and technologies that can monitor patients, but this raises the question of how to handle this new data, said John D. Halamka, MD, MS, of Beth Israel Deaconess Health System.

Multigene testing provides a lot of information that providers have to be familiar with in order to adequately explain it to their patients, said John H. Ward, MD, Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.

CMS’ proposal that patients be enrolled in a clinical trial or registry to get Medicare coverage for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies will help improve access, for the most part, but there is the risk that some organizations will choose not to offer this treatment, said John W. Sweetenham, MD, of Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah.

Guideline updates discussed Thursday at the 2019 National Comprehensive Cancer Network Annual Conference reflect recent practice-changing clinical trials involving pembrolizumab and chemotherapy.