welcome to the OptumRx Drug store insights podcast in this discussion forum we'' ll talk about the most recent and also most impactful occasions in Drug store Benefit Administration with an emphasis on the arising Solutions required to regulate prices and also make certain high quality of care I'' m your host Scott Draeger [Songs] today I'' m signed up with by Mike einshofer Principal Pharmacy policeman at OptumRx Mike can you show to us a bit regarding your professional history and also exactly what a primary Pharmacy policeman is accountable for oh certain many thanks Scott and thanks for having me today so I'' ve been in health care regarding 25 years uh so a pharmacologist you understand throughout a great deal of different elements within the market I began as a retail pharmacist collaborating with a big chain down in in Winston-Salem North Carolina after finishing from the College of Pittsburgh drug store school after a couple of years of doing that I decided I wanted to return to finish school so I sought a service degree I appeared as well as functioned for a wellness system or really a local health center for a duration of time and so my initial truly 6 years of my profession were in direct Drug store technique in retail as well as Hospital settings uh I then started work within a Health insurance plan called UPMC Health Plan in Western Pennsylvania which was a wonderful experience over a variety of years I invested there which is where I truly started to learn exactly how health insurance policy advantages function I started to truly begin to recognize Specialized Drug store and began my occupation after concerning six years at UPMC at Walgreens Specialized Pharmacy which was one of the largest specialty pharmacies in the nation invested a number of years at Walgreens Specialized Drug store in a management function a number of years after that at a at a private equity-backed mid-tier healthcare services company and afterwards regarding a year ago I signed up with Optimus the principal Drug store officer so what does the primary Pharmacy police officer do uh well I'' m incredibly happy with the job that every one of our 15 000 Clinic Pharmacists and various other clinicians throughout the Enterprise do it to promote Pharmacy both insurance coverage and care for our clients we we cover about 60 million plus lives within the United States across several industries including industrial Medicare Medicaid and afterwards we have a big section of our of our organization which is what we call Industrial these are greatly companies regional districts unions all groups that you understand involved us to aid them provide a drug store advantage to their staff members as well as their recipients my work is to help all of those components whether it'' s Medicare Medicaid but especially the the business plan enrollers to understand the types of Drug store programs that are offered and what would certainly function best for their participants treatment Micah as you recall at your occupation 25 plus years in the market what do you see as the the biggest modifications uh within the profession considering that considering that you initially began oh wow you know it'' s extremely various now when I when I started a great deal of the medications were type of mainstream Key Care illness medicines right you if if you'' ve been around enough time you remember the purple pill right you bear in mind Lipitor the these were medications that treated you understand esophageal reflux disease and also high cholesterol right and also they were you recognize they have really you know direct marketed consumers or commercials as well as they treated you know diseases that influenced you understand a large swath of the population those conditions place'' t gone'away yet what ' s took place remains in in in the last you know years approximately for all the you know for most of key carry diseases excuse me if possibly diabetes mellitus as a tiny exception which still has some brand drugs a great deal of the medicines in this group have actually gone generic and also become you recognize a lot a lot more budget friendly than when they were branded yet that'' s how the system ' s created to function right pharmaceutical suppliers have a window of time where they can be the single manufacturer of the medicine in the USA as well as after that afterwards time multiple producers come right into the market the patent no more uses and also you see you see the cost commonly go down precipitously with time as even more producers enter the market so the largest point I see different Scott is that you have a lot of the health care illness like high cholesterol and esophageal reflux illness you see those medicines now very very budget-friendly for a lot of clients however you see specialized drugs appropriate medicines that treat really unusual conditions like cystic fibrosis those didn'' t exist 20 some years earlier and also now they are the fastest growing segment of Pharmacy and this develops a number of of adjustments top it'' s an enormous Enhancement to The Human Condition the these medications are dealing with problems since otherwise were you know had a significant quantity of of Misery or perhaps much more fatal in a lot of cases uh Means Way Beyond a normal life-span currently they end up being chronic conditions and so that'' s a terrific Testament to the science behind all these developments but they likewise deal with small populaces as well as are consequently really expensive therefore the large adjustment here is just how do the advantages sort of advance to make sure that participants who in individuals that need these high expense treatments can manage them right because the you recognize a great deal of these are biologic as well as a whole lot of them are relatively new to the marketplace which indicates you know you won'' t have that type of competition that'' ll that ' ll come years later on therefore we need to see to it that the benefits are designed in a manner that plans can afford them you know within their advantages and participants can manage them you understand when they require access to them early you chat you likewise discussed you understand a treatment of chronic problems and also just how the market has evolved with the induction of increasingly more common drugs are are there generics offered for specialty medications and does that help kind of blunt these high prices that consumers are seeing yep they'' re around definitely is Scott as well as so the main disease is in in specialized you understand it'' s it ' s oncology or cancer it ' s cystic fibrosis it'' s rheumatoid joint inflammation'it ' s multiple sclerosis and after that there ' s great deals of other extremely uncommon genetic illness you know that have actually truly small person populaces mostly the the ones I just go through the ones which you understand the leading 4 cancer CF rheumatoid joint inflammation several sclerosis they all have generics in them and also inflam in and also there'' s other inflammatory conditions besides rheumatoid like psoriasis as well as psoriatic arthritis which all type of obtain abided together in a general classification of inflammatory illness they all have some variation of generics um I'' d state the greatest growth imminent and the one that doesn ' t have generics is rheumatoid joint inflammation which'' s since that group is largely biologic in nature which means it'' s not a common medication that treats us a great deal the majority of the medications in in the inflammatory area are injectable and they'' re in fact intricate molecules that are made by not off a you know off a conveyor belt yet they'' re made in these huge bioreactors right that in fact use an organic mechanism to produce the drug therefore standard generic kind of both from Regulatory and for producing viewpoint that it'' s various as well as so in in the biologic area you have what'' s called biosimilars biosimilars in the United States began to arise several years ago the majority of the medicines however to day are on the clinical side so they'' re infused products beginning in February of next year it'' ll be a large event since the globe ' s largest drug which is deals with inflammatory conditions like psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn'' s a medication called Humira will start to face biosimilar competition and also this is an actually essential development for the entire market because it'' ll currently introduce straight competitors for Humira and you called we understand and as we'' ve seen across you know not just in the biosumal area however simply in you recognize as a whole competitors you know rises as even more competitors enter the market costs often tend to decrease with time and we'' re extremely optimistic that as that biosimilar market for human wrestlers to develop early next year that we'' ll beginning to see some much required expense competitors emerging within the inflammatory room Mike you stated rheumatoid joint inflammation and particularly Humira for our audiences can you give some context what would certainly a normal pair today spend for a prescription of Humira well I don'' t I put on ' t wish to maybe highlight any kind of one certain medicine yet yet generally specialty medicines can range anywhere from a couple of thousand bucks to upwards of a hundred thousand dollars or even more per prescription the average specialty clients around you understand you can both operate at around fifty thousand bucks a year however once again there'' s some you understand that can span right into the Many millions so Mike just how do consumers pay for these medicines that'' s an excellent concern as well as you recognize this is just one of one of the most fiercely sort of debated topics that you see in the political circles today and also it'' s a really truly actually crucial subject I wish to spend some time on we truly require to focus on exactly how healthy is the insurance benefit layouts within our the market that all of us take part in right not just the price of the drug a great deal of the research study out there sustains you recognize over three billion bucks for a true unique new therapy to make it to the market so the solution isn'' t simply well the medicines ought to be cheap because then you'' d have no technology in the industry where we need to look is exactly how do we accessibility inexpensive programs for members as well as individuals that require these medications you understand if you have a 10 thousand dollar drug right which is approximately the cost of a dental oncology an oral cancer cells drug if it'' s ten thousand bucks and also you reduced the price by eighty percent right it'' s still not economical to most U.S residents therefore once more back to the answer we have to look Beyond just the medication cost and also yes you understand pbms awaken every day to hold suppliers responsible for cost of the medications they give the market that'' s among the major jobs that we do as well as we do an actually great task at it however at the very same time we need to locate Solutions within the coverage side and also safeguard clients uh you recognize from what we call Financial toxicity so they can get the medicines that they require make you you detail several of the challenges from the patient point of view um what concerning the payer viewpoint the clients that you that you speak to day in day out you recognize what sort of approaches are readily available to those entities as well as as well as what do they require to consider or what should they consider when taking on these strategies yeah that'' s a fantastic inquiry so very first is not even regarding specialized the the initial thing I I speak with a company about is what'' s their non-specialty protection appear like due to the fact that what we discover Scott is most employers that we speak with are worried regarding specialty since you recognize it'' s grown eight times even more than the non-specialty side over the past 13 years the typical side of of medicine costs has actually increased mostly in according to rising cost of living specifically costs have risen significantly higher than that regarding Eightfold higher so naturally and also currently it'' s regarding 50 of the of the employer spend is on specialty medicines however once again as I said earlier that 50 is coming from one to 2 percent of the populace so employers are rightfully a little worried around what'' s the long-lasting view on being able to manage the this kind of benefit uh and also as well as the answer is initial consider your non-specialty side since we still see employers that will cover particular medications you understand acne lotions that cost hundreds of bucks each right and that have the same components in different formulations that are you understand extremely really extremely economical like down in you know down in the 10 20 30 array so number one is let'' s deal with all of what we take into consideration to be the the waste within the benefit today which maximizes some extra funds that is after that they'' re then readily available for the much more costly therapies then when you check out specialty it'' s looking over the lengthy term and also you need to maintain two things in mind you recognize one is we intend to make certain that every individual that has a clinical need for one of these medicines has accessibility to it to do that as well as maintain it cost effective for the employer we have to find price Solutions primary of program is a medical need process right into onto itself acknowledging that not all Physicians technique versus the very same best techniques and and as well as you understand within the clinical literary works and FDA authorizations to ensure that'' s where the previous off process comes into area simply to make certain that patients that are prescribed these high cost therapies wouldn'' t be much better matched with a different or even no therapy whatsoever in case that occasionally we locate a a significant drug communication that makes the therapy that physician wishes to prescribed just not clinically appropriate for the person'' s particular specific circumstance the the third thing is to consider points like exactly how do we find various other price Solutions uh that lower the general expense through the benefit design you desire to have a capability to you'' ll hear the term refund sprayed appropriate and essentially all our rebate is it stands for the pbm'' s capacity to speak to a maker and also have the supplier supply a price cut for that specific drug when it'' s accepted for a person this is what drives substantial cost for our plan enrollers because absent that remedy makers would have the ability to charge whatever they desire in the market there'' d be very little control over the clinical need demands to access a specific treatment and expenses would increase dramatically as a result of both of those points because again suppliers would certainly not have sort of this checks as well as equilibriums procedure that pbms have in the industry that need them to not just reveal proof of exactly how their product is mosting likely to work yet likewise work out with us on the cost in exchange for their setting within our formulary if 2 drugs are offered in the marketplace and also they both are medically doing the precise very same point we will discuss with each producer to number one develop a relationship with the one that we really feel is one of the most most economical choice for a lot of individuals always recognizing Scott that there'' s an exemption process that exists when a person can ' t take advantage of the medication that profits the most that'' s why we have an extremely robust exceptions process we take really seriously to ensure that those private clients needs are accommodated also so Mike I I really appreciated our discussion thanks significantly for investing a long time with us today oh thank you Scott international [Songs] thanks for listening to the pharmacy insights podcast listen again for more conversations on one of the most vital concerns in Drug store care services [Songs]
