It seems that I always leave the Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit with a handful of takeaway items that stick with me for the remainder of the year. The 2015 conference was no exception. The big learnings I took away from this year’s event all seem to relate to healthcare misalignment and the seismic shift taking place in the healthcare industry.
As the overall industry shifts from fee-for-service to value-based care, key stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry remain on different sides of the equation. Manufacturers seek to recoup curative therapy R&D costs, while PBMs seek to lower the plan sponsor costs.
The 2015 edition of the conference both energized and galvanized my resolve to help align the industry to the benefit of all concerned by putting patients first.
My top 5 insights gained from attending the 2015 Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit:
- My intuition was right: There is a great opportunity to improve alignment of pharmacy industry stakeholders by really focusing on patients
- New injectable statins will be the next point of contention between manufacturers and PBMs
- They’re coming: “Uber Injectable Statins” or $1,000 per month for the rest of your life
- The conversation on how to define value in healthcare still hasn’t progressed enough and often doesn’t focus on the patient
- Defining and proving value: the winners will be those with a great answer
I go a bit deeper into detail on each of these points in my recent Specialty Pharmacy Times article.
Let me know your thoughts on aligning healthcare stakeholders on a patient-centric definition of value. You can reach me at moconnor@curanthealth.com