INDUSTRY at Large
Sanofi Pasteur Raising Awareness about Meningitis
Sanofi Pasteur Raising Awareness about Meningitis Sanofi Pasteur, the National Association of School Nurses, Voices of Meningitis, a public health initiative, and 12-time Olympic Medalist swimmer Dara Torres are coming together to call attention to meningococcal meningitis. Ms. Torres is helping to raise awareness through a series of swim events in Los Angeles, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York. She, along with local teen swim teams, will swim 24 laps to emphasize the urgency of disease prevention. A recent survey conducted by the Voice of Meningitis revealed that 45% of mothers did not know that meningococcal meningitis can cause death within 24 hours of symptoms occurring, and the majority of mothers did not realize the disease can cause hearing loss (75% of mothers) and lead to amputation of limbs, fingers or toes (77%).
U.S. Medicines Market Grows
In 2013, the U.S. total medicines market increased to $329 billion, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. That’s a 3.2% increase over 2012, when spending dipped 1%, which was a historic low. Much of the growth was due to the reduced impact of patent expirations in 2013.
Covance And Lilly Honored for Alliance Excellence
Covance and Eli Lilly and Co. were honored by the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals with a 2014 Alliance Excellence Award for a long-established alliance. The two companies were recognized for their transformative collaboration that has infused greater efficiency and quality into the drug development process and enabled new medicines to advance to market sooner.
Noven Takes Compliance Packaging Award
Noven Therapeutics was recognized as the 2013 Healthcare Compliance Packaging Council’s Compliance Package of the Year for its compliance-prompting design for Brisdelle, which was approved in June 2013 to treat hot flushes associated with menopause. It is the only non-hormonal therapy available for this indication.
Takeda Recognized as Healthiest Company
Takeda Pharmaceuticals has been recognized as one of the Healthiest Companies in America by Interactive Health. The company was one of 67 honorees from across the United States recognized for its efforts to prioritize employee wellness and create an ongoing health culture.
TrialNetworks Wins Disruptive Technology
TrialNetworks and its clinical trial optimization system won the Disruptive Innovator and Technology of the Year award from Partnerships in Clinical Trials 2014. The award honors an individual or a company with a new disruptive technology platform that has increased the efficiency and quality of clinical trials.
Other findings:
» Out-of-pocket costs continue to rise for patients, despite generic medicines now representing 86% of prescriptions, and average out-of-pocket costs falling below $10 overall.
» Patients abandon 3% of prescriptions at the pharmacy, and payers reject another 6% for various reasons linked to formularies and prior authorization required for expensive medicines.
» The largest clusters of innovation are in specialty therapy areas, including oncology, hepatitis C, HIV, and autoimmune diseases, which collectively grew by 11% to $73 billion in 2013.
Personal Robots and New Business Models Emerge as Trends
By 2020 personal robots ranging between $1,500 and $4,500 could enter our lives, technologies such as 3D printing could likely generate revenue of $7.1 billion by 2020, and we will witness the emergence of new business models, according to a new report on mega trends from Frost & Sullivan.
One of the most interesting and important mega trends will be that of connectivity and convergence and the market opportunity it represents in creating a connected life. This “Internet of things" in our home, work, and city environments will bring huge opportunities for growth.
Frost & Sullivan values this whole eco-system — comprising of connected home, work, and city solutions — to be worth $731.7 billion by 2020, with the connected city segment accounting for more than 50% of the revenue.
New business models will emerge as an important mega trend defining ways for businesses to monetize new opportunities. Different types of business models can be witnessed among different stakeholder relationships.
Early Look at Medication Trends In Health Exchanges
In a first look at pharmacy trends in public health insurance exchange plans, use of specialty medications was greater among exchange enrollees versus patients enrolled in a commercial health plan, according to new research by Express Scripts.
In total spend, six of the top 10 costliest medications used by exchange enrollees have been specialty drugs. In commercial health plans, only four of the top 10 costliest medications were specialty.
Other findings:
» More than six in every 1,000 prescriptions in the exchange plans were for a medication to treat HIV. This proportion is nearly four times higher in exchange plans than in commercial health plans.
» The proportion of pain medication was 35% higher in exchange plans.
» The proportion of anti-seizure medications was 27% higher in exchange plans.
» The proportion of antidepressants was 14% higher in exchange plans.
» The proportion of contraceptives was 31% lower in exchange plans.
Specialty Drugs to Increase
Spending on specialty drugs is expected to more than quadruple by 2020 to $401.7 billion, from $87 billion in 2012, according to the most recent edition of the EMD Serono Specialty Digest.
Other findings:
» 87% of Medicare Part D plans require co-insurance for specialty products.
» 54% of commercial plans require a separate cost share for specialty drugs.
» 53% of commercial plans have dedicated cost share tiers for specialty drugs. Of those that do, 42% use a single tier for specialty products. » 42% of plans have a more restrictive specialty drug formulary for health insurance exchange plans.
» 40% of plans based their specialty drug formulary on the overall value to the healthcare system.
