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Asembia's Specialty Pharmacy Summit Rewind 2026 | 6/6 · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:04
Speaker 1: Are you making the right impression with your potential patients
0:07
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0:11
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0:14
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1:02
Speaker 2: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
1:05
Speaker 2: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
1:21
Speaker 1: Each year asembia's Specialty, Pharmacy Summit is at the epicenter
1:25
Speaker 1: of the pharmacy industry, providing a unique opportunity for stakeholders
1:30
Speaker 1: throughout the industry to understand challenges, generate solutions, and define
1:34
Speaker 1: the future. This is the Pharmacy podcast Networks Assembia twenty
1:38
Speaker 1: twenty six rewind. We are dedicated to bringing you inside
1:45
Speaker 1: coverage of the pharmacy Nation's biggest events with on the
1:48
Speaker 1: street style interviews with keynote speakers, attendees, exhibitors, and recurring
1:53
Speaker 1: guests who make each year special. Stay tuned each week
1:57
Speaker 1: for a new episode of this special six part series
2:00
Speaker 1: on the Assembia twenty twenty sixth summit held this year
2:03
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas.
2:08
Speaker 3: I'm Nicole McClure, president of Finch Marketing, and you're listening
2:12
Speaker 3: to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
2:16
Speaker 4: Nicole McClure has been our partner here at Assembia twenty
2:20
Speaker 4: twenty six. Nicole, this has been really freaking cool to
2:24
Speaker 4: be a partner together in this coverage of this show.
2:27
Speaker 5: It's been awesome.
2:28
Speaker 3: It's been great.
2:29
Speaker 5: Yeah, So things have changed.
2:33
Speaker 4: When I came to what was Armada Health Healthcare, huge
2:39
Speaker 4: organization really doing well. But now Assembia it's it's the collective,
2:45
Speaker 4: it's technology, it's the payers, it's the manufacturers, the specialty pharmacies.
2:52
Speaker 4: What do you like about coming to Assembia?
2:55
Speaker 3: I think it's just a few things, just conversations, you know,
2:59
Speaker 3: connecting with those different types of vendors that are out there.
3:04
Speaker 3: You know, AI has definitely been a big one for
3:06
Speaker 3: this conference, so just kind of learning more about what
3:08
Speaker 3: everybody's doing as far as AI goes. So it's just
3:13
Speaker 3: a very like energetic type conference. I feel like you
3:16
Speaker 3: come away with just new and unique ideas.
3:19
Speaker 4: Another thing that I recognize is you have these gargantuan,
3:23
Speaker 4: multimillion dollar organizations that are here, and then you have
3:28
Speaker 4: the teeny tiny startup specialty pharmacies that are here. I
3:32
Speaker 4: feel like Pharmacy podcast Network and definitely Finch Marketing plays
3:38
Speaker 4: with that organization. It's like, you know what, we really
3:42
Speaker 4: want more attention around, you know, blood disorder treatment or
3:47
Speaker 4: hyperlipidemia treatment or something, but they just don't know how
3:51
Speaker 4: to do it themselves. Talk to us about marketing in
3:54
Speaker 4: the specialty pharmacy space and how it's different than independent
3:57
Speaker 4: community pharmacy.
3:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean specialty it's much more targeted to manufacturers
4:03
Speaker 3: or providers. I would say that's probably the biggest difference.
4:07
Speaker 3: So for us, we approach it in the sense that
4:11
Speaker 3: we can really help them hyper focus their messaging to
4:15
Speaker 3: the right target audience. You know, with a lot of
4:18
Speaker 3: digital marketing, it's easy to just kind of, you know,
4:21
Speaker 3: splash it out there for everyone, and you can oftentimes
4:24
Speaker 3: create a lot of waste with your messaging. And especially
4:27
Speaker 3: for those startup companies, they don't have, you know, the
4:30
Speaker 3: millions of dollars to spend on marketing that the big
4:33
Speaker 3: ones do, so that's where we can really help them
4:36
Speaker 3: to target their message to make sure it gets to
4:39
Speaker 3: the right people.
4:40
Speaker 5: All right.
4:41
Speaker 4: And when I keep thinking of that, I think of
4:44
Speaker 4: the types of content to build a robust campaign so
4:49
Speaker 4: that you're not just putting content out there, but you're saying,
4:52
Speaker 4: I'm going to time this. I want the press release
4:54
Speaker 4: to come out. I want the blog to come out.
4:57
Speaker 4: I want the new website, you know, to come out.
4:59
Speaker 4: I want follow up. I'm gonna be at a conference
5:03
Speaker 4: talk to us about like a campaign driven exercise that
5:07
Speaker 4: Finch Marketing has helped in the specialty space.
5:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I mean I think that's the benefit of
5:13
Speaker 3: using one marketing company for everything, right, because I mean,
5:18
Speaker 3: marketing can be definitely a fragmented thing of a we're
5:21
Speaker 3: going to use this company for you know, the sales side,
5:25
Speaker 3: this for social media whatever, but with Finch Marketing we
5:29
Speaker 3: handle all of it. So it's kind of that start
5:31
Speaker 3: to finish messaging. So if you're launching a new product, service,
5:36
Speaker 3: or maybe you're just a new company out there, we
5:38
Speaker 3: can build a strategic plan to help make sure that
5:43
Speaker 3: all the messaging is cohesive across multiple platforms. So yeah,
5:46
Speaker 3: it is about that timing of let's release. Make sure
5:50
Speaker 3: your website is looking good. That's a I mean, you
5:54
Speaker 3: and I have talked about that a lot of you know,
5:57
Speaker 3: we It doesn't you can do all the marketing in
6:00
Speaker 3: the world, but if your website is not easy to read,
6:05
Speaker 3: easy to understand, has a good flow to it has
6:08
Speaker 3: good SEO, it doesn't matter, right, So that's a lot
6:10
Speaker 3: of times our first step is doing that website review
6:13
Speaker 3: to make sure that it is the best that it
6:16
Speaker 3: can be. And then it's yeah, it's timing out. Let's
6:19
Speaker 3: do a press release and let's do social media ads
6:23
Speaker 3: or you know, just organic messaging to help the grow
6:28
Speaker 3: the messaging for the business. And then it's coming in
6:31
Speaker 3: with targeted email campaigns that are hitting those prescribers in
6:35
Speaker 3: the specialty that you're looking for and so all of
6:38
Speaker 3: those different things work together with each other to help
6:42
Speaker 3: an overall growth.
6:44
Speaker 4: Everything that you said has a brand to it that
6:48
Speaker 4: ties back to that website and things, the way that
6:51
Speaker 4: things look, the professionalism, so that it's not different where
6:55
Speaker 4: it's looking. The consumer of the content might be like, well,
7:00
Speaker 4: I saw your newsletter, I saw your website, and they
7:03
Speaker 4: really they don't even match, right.
7:04
Speaker 5: It doesn't.
7:05
Speaker 4: And Pharmacy Podcast Network went through a grolling, not groeling
7:10
Speaker 4: because of Finch Marketing, because you are our marketing company,
7:13
Speaker 4: but grolling because of me, because of my dysfunction and
7:16
Speaker 4: getting the content together. It's like, yeah, I know, tell
7:21
Speaker 4: me how you really feel. But it was like it
7:24
Speaker 4: was like getting my teeth cleaned or something. And it
7:27
Speaker 4: was like, all right, now that it's up and ready
7:30
Speaker 4: when my new when my newsletter comes out and I
7:33
Speaker 4: see a three percent, five percent, sometimes twelve percent open rate,
7:37
Speaker 4: and then all of a sudden, I'm getting comments and
7:39
Speaker 4: I'm getting leads. And it's because of the branding, and
7:42
Speaker 4: it's because of the semblance, and it's because of the consistency.
7:48
Speaker 4: And we can't We're a small organization. We can't do
7:52
Speaker 4: that ourselves. Like I rely on finch for the consistency
7:55
Speaker 4: and the infrastructure of my marketing. I think that that
7:58
Speaker 4: when I'm saying that I want our specially pharmacies that
8:01
Speaker 4: are listening to the show right now, to realize that's
8:03
Speaker 4: what you need too, right right.
8:06
Speaker 3: And I think a lot of times, you know, we
8:08
Speaker 3: see when we start talking to somebody, is people just
8:12
Speaker 3: do their website. They have somebody do it, and they
8:14
Speaker 3: forget it. They don't as the business owner. They don't
8:17
Speaker 3: go back and look at it, you know, has it
8:19
Speaker 3: been refreshed recently, that sort of thing. And so that's
8:22
Speaker 3: where one of our top priorities has always to do
8:25
Speaker 3: that website review, and so we do a thorough look
8:28
Speaker 3: at what is your flow, like, what is the messaging like?
8:32
Speaker 3: Does it look like it's from the two thousand? You know,
8:34
Speaker 3: I can't tell you how many websites I've come across
8:38
Speaker 3: that back to your point, they may have this great
8:41
Speaker 3: social media and everything, but then you go to their
8:44
Speaker 3: website and it looks like it's twenty years old. So
8:47
Speaker 3: it's definitely a disconnect. And any company that maybe is
8:52
Speaker 3: thinking about using your business, I guarantee you they're going
8:56
Speaker 3: to your website first before they even pick up the
8:58
Speaker 3: phone or shoot you an email. Well, and if that
9:02
Speaker 3: doesn't look on point, you know, social media all that
9:04
Speaker 3: stuff is good too, but you can definitely lose sales
9:08
Speaker 3: with a bad website, and so that's where it's so
9:12
Speaker 3: important to make sure it also looks great. But the
9:16
Speaker 3: SEO the GEO is also good too, because we see
9:20
Speaker 3: that a lot of times as well, where kind of
9:22
Speaker 3: an awesome looking website but the back end hasn't been
9:25
Speaker 3: built correctly and so nobody's finding out about it. So
9:28
Speaker 3: that's kind of where those things go hand in hand.
9:31
Speaker 4: Yep, that makes sense, all right, Someone's listening to us,
9:34
Speaker 4: They're like, wow, yeah, I need to check up, need
9:37
Speaker 4: to go to the dentist of marketing.
9:40
Speaker 5: So how do people get a holdie?
9:42
Speaker 3: You can find us at Finch Marketingsolutions dot com.
9:45
Speaker 4: Finch Marketingsolutions dot com. I know you're also active on LinkedIn,
9:49
Speaker 4: So Nicole with two l's, it's not.
9:52
Speaker 3: Like one makes it easier to find though.
9:55
Speaker 5: Yes, and I COO L L E. Nicole McClure.
9:59
Speaker 4: Thanks so much for being part of our team here
10:02
Speaker 4: at a SEMI. This has been awesome working with you,
10:04
Speaker 4: and thanks so much for everything you're doing for pharmacy.
10:07
Speaker 6: Yeah, thank you appreciate it.
10:12
Speaker 7: Hey, this is Seth Cheney with six on nine Health
10:15
Speaker 7: and you're listening to the Pharmacy podcast.
10:19
Speaker 4: Seth first time at ASSEMBIA. What do you think of
10:22
Speaker 4: this event?
10:24
Speaker 7: Is fantastic, tons of energy out here on the exhibit floor,
10:28
Speaker 7: lots and lots of meetings, lots of new relationships, loving it.
10:31
Speaker 8: So we.
10:33
Speaker 4: Both have a very special friend who is one of
10:37
Speaker 4: the superstars inside of SMB. He doesn't give himself enough credit.
10:41
Speaker 4: He's always behind the scenes. Shout out to Chris Benz.
10:44
Speaker 9: Shout out to Chris.
10:45
Speaker 4: How about you and Chris Benz look like Ice could
10:47
Speaker 4: be cousins.
10:48
Speaker 7: Yeah, yeah, you know, the beard follows through here pretty well.
10:51
Speaker 7: You know, I feel like that's the that's an indication
10:54
Speaker 7: that you've been through the thick of it. Chris certainly
10:57
Speaker 7: brought me in and here's ten I think there's over
10:59
Speaker 7: ten thousand people, and I was hoping to meet with
11:03
Speaker 7: every one of them, but I don't know if I'm
11:05
Speaker 7: gonna have the time to be honest with the team.
11:07
Speaker 5: It's like, it's not a two month event, it's a
11:09
Speaker 5: two day event.
11:10
Speaker 7: That's absolutely right. I don't know if you could get
11:12
Speaker 7: it done in two months. Even that seems ambitious. But man,
11:15
Speaker 7: what incredible energy in healthcare.
11:17
Speaker 4: Talk to us about the new market access reality. I mean,
11:22
Speaker 4: this is a big deal. It's for real, it's here.
11:25
Speaker 4: Talk to us about what that means.
11:27
Speaker 7: Yeah, So from my perspective, MFP, and you know, more broadly,
11:34
Speaker 7: the IRA is driving a lot of rethinking about commercial strategy.
11:39
Speaker 7: It really wasn't a dagger into healthcare, and it's it's
11:44
Speaker 7: creating some new innovative opportunities though, and so we're looking
11:47
Speaker 7: more for what does pricing pressures create. It creates alternative channels,
11:53
Speaker 7: It creates new ways of doing business, new ways of
11:55
Speaker 7: engaging with patients. So I see that opportunity and we're
11:58
Speaker 7: looking to take advantage of it.
12:00
Speaker 4: So seth, let's back up for a second for listener's sake,
12:02
Speaker 4: who might not have been able to meet you or
12:04
Speaker 4: come to assembia.
12:06
Speaker 5: What is six ZHO nine health?
12:07
Speaker 7: Yeah, So six oh nine was just a number that
12:10
Speaker 7: I kept seeing about the end of my journey at
12:14
Speaker 7: Lily as it was coming to an end about after
12:16
Speaker 7: about a decade, and six o nine resembles a broken chain.
12:20
Speaker 7: I think a lot of healthcare resembles broken and fragmented systems,
12:24
Speaker 7: both inside pharma but even even more broadly outside with
12:28
Speaker 7: how pharma has to interact with the healthcare ecosystem. And
12:32
Speaker 7: so six o nine is all about stitching together technology
12:35
Speaker 7: and data so that parties that haven't interacted before and
12:41
Speaker 7: had transparency before can all.
12:44
Speaker 4: Right, So this means we're building this new commercialization for
12:48
Speaker 4: operating system for systems for better market access.
12:52
Speaker 5: To tell me how that works.
12:54
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, So there was an opportunity as I was
12:56
Speaker 7: finishing up at Lily, I was working in the market
12:58
Speaker 7: access side at the same time that Directed Patient was
13:01
Speaker 7: getting launched and really an exciting time at Lily GLP
13:04
Speaker 7: once particularly Resetmental was getting off the ground, really really
13:08
Speaker 7: exciting time. And what I saw was this new kind
13:13
Speaker 7: of pricing headwinds that was coming in, This new AI
13:17
Speaker 7: opportunity was coming in as a tailwind, and so looking
13:21
Speaker 7: to harness those things to modernize capabilities with the way
13:24
Speaker 7: that market access teams work all the way from deal
13:26
Speaker 7: development to contract administration and even to the EHR side
13:30
Speaker 7: of things. And so we actually got an opportunity to
13:35
Speaker 7: compete in a mass challenge competition in Boston, and I
13:39
Speaker 7: was really excited. I put a team together of people
13:42
Speaker 7: that I had worked with when I was at Lily,
13:45
Speaker 7: both on the commercial side but even in the digital
13:47
Speaker 7: health innovation side, put it together in just a few weeks,
13:50
Speaker 7: and we competed highly.
13:52
Speaker 9: In fact, we made it. There was one hundred and
13:54
Speaker 9: sixty teams.
13:55
Speaker 7: And we got to the top five and competed very
13:58
Speaker 7: highly around pricing, eligibility and of course this was a
14:01
Speaker 7: Lily challenge that they had pushed out to the startup
14:04
Speaker 7: community there in Boston. So it was really excited to
14:06
Speaker 7: take my technology background and my new kind of commercial
14:09
Speaker 7: chops I learned from some of the best in the
14:11
Speaker 7: business and compete with what really is some of the
14:15
Speaker 7: best and brightest in the technology industry out of Boston.
14:18
Speaker 9: It's very exciting.
14:19
Speaker 4: All right, Products and Development, share with us a little
14:23
Speaker 4: bit about how six o nine health is helping to
14:27
Speaker 4: move that ecosystem forward and what part of it you play.
14:30
Speaker 7: Yeah, So the in particular, we built a prototype that
14:34
Speaker 7: we're still it's out there and accessible today. We're looking
14:37
Speaker 7: for a manufacturer partner that wants to take that to
14:39
Speaker 7: the next level and access andexus dot AI and The
14:43
Speaker 7: idea there is that it's a pricing eligibility intelligence layer
14:48
Speaker 7: that you can bolt on top of to your commercial
14:50
Speaker 7: analytics solution and it'll help you do things like class
14:53
Speaker 7: of trade association. Making sure that you can visualize and
14:57
Speaker 7: see how different entities out in the world and what
15:01
Speaker 7: pricing classifications they kind of fit into. It really helps
15:04
Speaker 7: on the operational side. There's a lot of that complexity
15:07
Speaker 7: is continually growing as you see consolidation and m and
15:11
Speaker 7: A happening out in the market, and so the idea
15:14
Speaker 7: is to take technology to take some of the manual
15:16
Speaker 7: work of lining up what you had at a state
15:19
Speaker 7: and time in your contract and aligning it to what's
15:21
Speaker 7: happening in the real world. And so that prototype was
15:23
Speaker 7: one of four ideas around could you build a suite
15:27
Speaker 7: of applications that would connect from designed to prove this
15:31
Speaker 7: methodology of WW how market access is going to need
15:34
Speaker 7: to operate here in the very near.
15:35
Speaker 4: Future, designing it, going through a process of preparing the
15:40
Speaker 4: clinical readiness you're going to execute it, definitely have a
15:45
Speaker 4: chance to understand it, and then that's the proof of
15:48
Speaker 4: that system.
15:49
Speaker 9: Absolutely yeap into end.
15:51
Speaker 7: The idea is that as you look you can we
15:55
Speaker 7: help be a strategic partner and that could build some cohesion.
15:58
Speaker 7: Today there's not a lot of cohesion in your HGP
16:01
Speaker 7: go to market strategy. And then as you look at
16:03
Speaker 7: health systems, and now as you look at direct a
16:06
Speaker 7: patient from a pharmacy angle, and as you look to
16:08
Speaker 7: even direct to employer as an emerging category. So the
16:12
Speaker 7: idea is from design that you can start to think
16:14
Speaker 7: about those different customer types and how they should intertwine
16:17
Speaker 7: into a cohesive strategy. Today, the vendors that support these
16:20
Speaker 7: areas aren't very cohesive. They don't think about it the
16:22
Speaker 7: way the farmer company thinks about cohesion with the brand
16:24
Speaker 7: across its customer types. And so the idea there is
16:28
Speaker 7: to really get grounded in a design strategy that can
16:31
Speaker 7: be that can flow well into prepare and happy to
16:36
Speaker 7: jump into that as well.
16:37
Speaker 8: Yeah, let's talk.
16:38
Speaker 5: About being prepared and what that means.
16:40
Speaker 7: So one of the big things that I did at
16:42
Speaker 7: ELI Lilly was I learned quite a bit about how
16:45
Speaker 7: data about drugs flows into compendia and how it flows
16:49
Speaker 7: into the prescriber's experience in the side the EHR. So
16:53
Speaker 7: I got pretty deep into that and what what What
16:58
Speaker 7: is good to understand is that there are implications for
17:01
Speaker 7: your brand. There are real brand impacts that sometimes don't
17:04
Speaker 7: surface until some of that data starts to flow in.
17:06
Speaker 7: There you can start to see to prescribers really know
17:09
Speaker 7: how to prescribe the drug right. There's some inefficiencies that
17:12
Speaker 7: can come just by the nature of the systems that
17:15
Speaker 7: these things cascade into. And so your idea is designing
17:18
Speaker 7: that strategy right, but beginning to execute it in a
17:21
Speaker 7: way to where it conforms and meets that execution layer
17:24
Speaker 7: so that you don't have a bunch of problems right
17:27
Speaker 7: post launch, which is where all the chaos happens and
17:29
Speaker 7: pharma launch strategies, and so that's really what prepares all
17:33
Speaker 7: about is really working with some of the best and
17:34
Speaker 7: brightest I am not a farm D but I worked
17:37
Speaker 7: with some of the best and brightest farm D companies
17:40
Speaker 7: when I was at Lily, and looking to continue to
17:43
Speaker 7: build upon that and expand on that intelligence and bring
17:46
Speaker 7: that so that we have less friction between pharma's handoff,
17:50
Speaker 7: if you will, from when they're delivering drugs to when
17:53
Speaker 7: the healthcare ecosystem is ready to receive it.
17:57
Speaker 8: Seth.
17:57
Speaker 4: I want to thank you for being part of the
17:59
Speaker 4: post show. Congratulations on the work that you're doing at
18:03
Speaker 4: six o nine Health and hope to see you at
18:06
Speaker 4: ASSEMBIA twenty twenty seven.
18:08
Speaker 9: I'll be here and great to meet you, Todd.
18:10
Speaker 7: I'm looking forward to reconnecting with you and I get
18:12
Speaker 7: to tell you a story about how we got traction
18:15
Speaker 7: and looking forward to also telling you about the impact
18:19
Speaker 7: that we're gonna have on patience. I'm very excited about
18:21
Speaker 7: what we're doing here.
18:22
Speaker 9: Thank you, Thank you, sir.
18:26
Speaker 10: Hi, this is Natalie Ryan Clinking Value Specialty, Pharmacy and
18:29
Speaker 10: restore X and you are listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
18:34
Speaker 4: Natalie, Welcome to the ASSEMBIA coverage here twenty twenty six.
18:38
Speaker 8: How are you.
18:39
Speaker 5: I'm great, all right.
18:41
Speaker 4: I got to start this show out shout out to
18:43
Speaker 4: my friend John. To James, one of my favorite people
18:46
Speaker 4: in pharmacy. He's the first person that I engaged with
18:49
Speaker 4: way back in the day from Value Drug Company.
18:53
Speaker 5: So shout out to John. He's out here.
18:56
Speaker 10: He helps us with the number of things.
18:57
Speaker 5: Hi, he's like the Jack of all tra aids, the
19:00
Speaker 5: Swiss Army knife of Value Drug Company.
19:03
Speaker 10: Absolutely all right to know something in the industry, you
19:06
Speaker 10: reach out to an e or if.
19:08
Speaker 4: You want to know anybody in Pittsburgh, especially like the
19:11
Speaker 4: center of Pittsburgh in pharmacy, and he knows them all right.
19:15
Speaker 4: So always have known Value Drug Company as a trusted
19:20
Speaker 4: partner in the independent pharmacy space, independent community pharmacy space,
19:25
Speaker 4: the expansion into some of the chain pharmacies that are
19:29
Speaker 4: working hard. I haven't really spent a lot of time
19:31
Speaker 4: understanding where your role is in the specialty space, but
19:35
Speaker 4: that excites me because if you're bringing that same quality
19:38
Speaker 4: that you have in independent pharmacy especially, I think that's
19:42
Speaker 4: good for the industry.
19:43
Speaker 5: So talk to us about Value specialty pharmacy. Thank you
19:46
Speaker 5: so well.
19:47
Speaker 10: Value Drug Company obviously is a regional wholesaler cooperatively owned
19:51
Speaker 10: by over three hundred members, and our pharmacy was created
19:56
Speaker 10: in twenty eleven and the reason we were actually created
19:59
Speaker 10: is to serve the specialty needs of those co op
20:02
Speaker 10: members and the independent pharmacies. So a lot of our
20:06
Speaker 10: referrals came from those pharmacies initially, but then as we
20:10
Speaker 10: you know, we always need to diversify and increase your
20:13
Speaker 10: your volume. We also do physician direct sales efforts and
20:19
Speaker 10: try to help with those niche products, especially with patients
20:22
Speaker 10: that may not have the resources and understanding of the
20:26
Speaker 10: specialty pharmacy process.
20:28
Speaker 4: Natalie is part of that, the access to the product too.
20:31
Speaker 10: It is it is a lot of our patient focuses
20:34
Speaker 10: are in mental health, in m AT therapy, you know,
20:38
Speaker 10: helping patients get access to medications that are under RIM's
20:41
Speaker 10: programs or prior authorization that they can't get in their
20:44
Speaker 10: independent pharmacies and wandering compliance and making sure that when
20:49
Speaker 10: they're getting these medications and jecticles in the doctor's office,
20:52
Speaker 10: that they're really keeping up with their therapy, focusing on
20:55
Speaker 10: the other portions of their health that complement the medication.
20:58
Speaker 4: All right, I'm independ a community pharmacy in Brownsville, Pennsylvania.
21:04
Speaker 4: That's my hometown. I'm a value drug company, you know, customer.
21:11
Speaker 4: All of a sudden, one of my clients, one of
21:14
Speaker 4: my patients gets a prescription. It's especially medication. That's when
21:19
Speaker 4: I pull the lever and I reach out to value specialty.
21:21
Speaker 5: Is that how that works?
21:22
Speaker 10: Absolutely so. Our Intake team is phenomenal. They work with
21:26
Speaker 10: our pharmacies, especially those who only use us, you know
21:29
Speaker 10: once in a while, you know, and explain the process
21:31
Speaker 10: in terms of transferring the prescription over to us, letting
21:34
Speaker 10: us do a complete benefits investigation, as well as talking
21:37
Speaker 10: about patient responsibility. So patient copays and those things are
21:42
Speaker 10: large impact and we never want anyone to choose not
21:44
Speaker 10: to have their specialty pharmacy medication filled because of financial
21:48
Speaker 10: So we then reach out to the pharmacy giving them
21:51
Speaker 10: the feedback, hey, you're going to be able to take
21:52
Speaker 10: care of your patient and kind of a time frame
21:55
Speaker 10: fort that looks like.
21:57
Speaker 4: The front end of this whole situation. And from the
22:00
Speaker 4: patient's perspective, I'm a forty six year old man just
22:05
Speaker 4: found out I have cancer.
22:07
Speaker 5: It's devastating news. Oh it's not.
22:11
Speaker 4: It's not like a super duper dangerous situation. Maybe the
22:14
Speaker 4: physician says, hey, you got a great chance of being okay,
22:16
Speaker 4: you just have to get on therapy. I know my
22:19
Speaker 4: local community pharmacy. I reach out to them. I already
22:22
Speaker 4: trust them, they know my family members, they know my situation.
22:26
Speaker 4: That's part of care. Like what frustrates me. I love
22:30
Speaker 4: this industry. I love pharmacy. Pharmacists are my favorite providers.
22:34
Speaker 8: But if.
22:37
Speaker 4: The patient, if I'm looking at this through the patient's
22:39
Speaker 4: lens and I have to transfer my care to some
22:44
Speaker 4: male orderish type of specialty pharmacy that I.
22:47
Speaker 5: Don't know them.
22:48
Speaker 4: All they are is like a name and an eight
22:51
Speaker 4: hundred number and I'm calling That's just not the same
22:54
Speaker 4: care car. That's the health care part, the care part
22:58
Speaker 4: of healthcare. I feel safer when I get to stay
23:02
Speaker 4: in my community and I get to get to talk
23:04
Speaker 4: with my local community pharmacists to our plethoras of information.
23:08
Speaker 4: They just don't talk about a hyperlipidemia, drug medication or
23:13
Speaker 4: whatever is going on. So talk to us about the
23:15
Speaker 4: empathy part of this and the connection part of this
23:18
Speaker 4: that keeps people feeling like they get to use their
23:21
Speaker 4: hometown pharmacy instead of being shipped off to a big
23:25
Speaker 4: specialty pharmacy.
23:26
Speaker 10: Sure, and that's one of the biggest pieces is also
23:29
Speaker 10: us as a specialty pharmacy having a great relationship with
23:31
Speaker 10: our care site pharmacies, that's what we call them, our
23:34
Speaker 10: co oper parasite pharmacies, and they talk with the patients directly, Hey,
23:38
Speaker 10: I'm sending you to value specialty pharmacy. They're affiliate with me.
23:41
Speaker 10: We're partners in this process and this journey for you.
23:44
Speaker 10: And you know when we pre talk to the patient, Hey,
23:47
Speaker 10: I'm coming from value specialty pharmacy on behalf of julon
23:51
Speaker 10: to James's pharmacy and make that connection with them, and
23:55
Speaker 10: it's trust. You're absolutely right, And I would say a
23:57
Speaker 10: lot of the empathy of our team. Many of our
23:59
Speaker 10: team members have come from they've worked in community pharmacy,
24:03
Speaker 10: so they've seen the patients face to face. They know
24:05
Speaker 10: what's going on there and how it's really important to
24:07
Speaker 10: make that connection. And I thought it was me challenging,
24:11
Speaker 10: you know, connecting with patients over the phone. I also
24:13
Speaker 10: used to seeing them in person and treating them in
24:15
Speaker 10: the impatient setting. And if you're committed to it, you
24:19
Speaker 10: can have that same relationship with your patients in that
24:22
Speaker 10: In that aspect, one of the other things in certain
24:25
Speaker 10: states where legislature permits, we're also able to utilize that
24:29
Speaker 10: pharmacy that that patient goes to send the medication back
24:32
Speaker 10: there so they can pick up everything a one time,
24:34
Speaker 10: So that eases the care as well and just makes
24:38
Speaker 10: it kind of completes the care circle, if you will,
24:41
Speaker 10: with their local pharmacy.
24:42
Speaker 4: All Right, The last and most important question of our
24:45
Speaker 4: interview Are you ready?
24:46
Speaker 10: Yes?
24:47
Speaker 4: Are you a Steeler fan or an Eagles fan? Because
24:50
Speaker 4: you're in the center of Pennsylvania.
24:51
Speaker 10: Oh, we're Steelers fans. The right answer, Play Renegade.
24:56
Speaker 5: Let's play the Renegade.
24:57
Speaker 4: I just got back from the draft and I got
25:00
Speaker 4: to spend time down. I didn't actually go to the
25:02
Speaker 4: physical trap. I was on a riverboat one on the
25:05
Speaker 4: Monaga Hala, and it was such a good time. But
25:08
Speaker 4: I love Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh is my favorite city. I wish
25:11
Speaker 4: the weather was a little bit better, give us a
25:13
Speaker 4: little bit more sunshine. Did you know that Pennsylvania Western
25:16
Speaker 4: Pennsylvania only gets seventy eight days of pure sun, like
25:19
Speaker 4: a bright sunshiny day.
25:21
Speaker 5: It's just not enough for me.
25:23
Speaker 10: It's not enough, And I'll tell you that's why I'm
25:24
Speaker 10: staying an extra day here tomorrow. I need that four
25:26
Speaker 10: hours of sun before I get back on that plane.
25:28
Speaker 4: Natalie, thank you so much for sharing with us here
25:31
Speaker 4: at a Sembia twenty twenty six. Big fans of Value
25:34
Speaker 4: Drug and I hope to do more with Value Drug especially,
25:37
Speaker 4: so thank you, thanks so much.
25:42
Speaker 1: This year's Ambia twenty twenty six press coverage is sponsored
25:45
Speaker 1: by Panther rx rare Pharmacy.
25:49
Speaker 5: Panther Rx every Day is Rare Disease Day.
25:52
Speaker 1: As the largest independent specialty pharmacy dedicated exclusively to rare
25:57
Speaker 1: and orphan conditions, their mission is simple but powerful, and
26:01
Speaker 1: power patients to live fuller lives through personalized, compassionate care.
26:05
Speaker 1: Through their innovative rare care model, panther Rx delivers hyper
26:09
Speaker 1: personalized support across the entire patient journey, connecting patients, prescribers, manufacturers,
26:16
Speaker 1: and payers with seamless access to life changing therapies. Their
26:20
Speaker 1: expert teams go beyond dispensing medication. They provide clinical guidance,
26:24
Speaker 1: financial assistance, coordination, prior authorization support, and ongoing patient engagement,
26:30
Speaker 1: ensuring that individuals living with rare and complex conditions are
26:34
Speaker 1: never navigating care alone. With nationwide reach, industry leading patient satisfaction.
26:39
Speaker 1: In a relenting focus on innovation, panther Rx continues to
26:43
Speaker 1: set the standard for what specialty pharmacy should be. We
26:46
Speaker 1: hope you find value in the podcast coverage of the
26:48
Speaker 1: ASSEMBA twenty twenty sixth summit, The super Bowl of Specialty Pharmacy,
26:52
Speaker 1: where panther Rx Rare is helping redefine access in the
26:56
Speaker 1: future of rare disease care. Learn more at panther x
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Speaker 1: rare dot com. That's panther xare dot com.
27:17
Speaker 11: Hey, this is Ludigorsky, CEO of Taitoman and you are
27:20
Speaker 11: listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
27:24
Speaker 4: Shrelick is back at the Assembia twenty twenty six coverage
27:29
Speaker 4: of this amazing conference.
27:31
Speaker 5: I caught the super Bowl of Specialty Pharmacy. Shrelick. It's
27:33
Speaker 5: so good to see you.
27:34
Speaker 8: It's so fun to be here again.
27:36
Speaker 4: Hey, I look forward to these. This is becoming a tradition.
27:39
Speaker 4: I think this is your third time doing Assembia coverage, right, I.
27:43
Speaker 11: Think so, maybe I think the fourth. Actually the first
27:46
Speaker 11: one you remember vividly. It was next to the.
27:48
Speaker 5: Pool, right.
27:50
Speaker 4: Assembia is still good to us. They gave us two
27:52
Speaker 4: places that year. I think that was twenty twenty three,
27:56
Speaker 4: and we had a pool front cabana and we had
28:01
Speaker 4: the main booth and now we're just in the booth.
28:03
Speaker 4: But this is a good spot where centralized, kind of
28:06
Speaker 4: in the middle of the show showroom floor. How's the
28:10
Speaker 4: samba been for you this year?
28:11
Speaker 8: Amazing?
28:12
Speaker 11: I agree with you. Like my sports and analogy are
28:15
Speaker 11: not football. It's soccer, so let's call it like the
28:17
Speaker 11: World Cup of a specially pharmacy. But it's been amazing,
28:21
Speaker 11: Like we have a big group here first and for
28:24
Speaker 11: most it's so fun to meet our customers and just
28:26
Speaker 11: sit together, see what they're seeing, how they're doing, and
28:30
Speaker 11: also share some insights across our network and then just network.
28:34
Speaker 8: I think that.
28:35
Speaker 11: Everybody's here, and as a company that is dealing with
28:38
Speaker 11: all sides of the ecosystem, it's.
28:40
Speaker 8: Just a great opportunity to meet everybody.
28:43
Speaker 4: Just in case the listeners don't know, give the listeners
28:47
Speaker 4: a summary of Tailor Matt and what you do.
28:50
Speaker 8: Absolutely so tell me what it is.
28:51
Speaker 11: A tech company, we have a medication success platform that
28:54
Speaker 11: basically looks at all of the barriers that patients have
28:57
Speaker 11: from access for the big and adherence and products that
29:02
Speaker 11: are deployed across the largest network in the country covering patients, providers, pharmacies,
29:06
Speaker 11: and life sciences companies.
29:08
Speaker 5: So what's the sweet spot?
29:10
Speaker 4: Is it specialty pharmacy or is it going and do infusion?
29:14
Speaker 5: Like what are the other sectors that you're assisting in?
29:17
Speaker 11: So I think that unique thing about tailorment in our network,
29:20
Speaker 11: there is no sweet spot. This sweet spot quote unquote
29:23
Speaker 11: is the complete opposite of a sweet spot. It's everywhere
29:26
Speaker 11: we see a barrier. We actually as a company back
29:29
Speaker 11: in twenty eighteen, started in infusion. We have a massive
29:31
Speaker 11: footprint in community and collegy practices in fusion centers, AICs
29:36
Speaker 11: and more than nine.
29:37
Speaker 8: Hundred and fifty hospitals.
29:39
Speaker 11: But as we started scaling and we saw that the
29:41
Speaker 11: various of patients are seeing, especially around affordability, which is
29:44
Speaker 11: kind of core to what we do, really extends beyond infusion.
29:49
Speaker 11: As of twenty twenty one, we started building our specially
29:51
Speaker 11: pharmacy network and that drove us to basically cover every
29:55
Speaker 11: type of medication encounter, specialty, infusion, retail, home delivery, everywhere
30:01
Speaker 11: prescriptionion is written were dispensed.
30:03
Speaker 4: Sure like, I see an increase in tailor mad being
30:07
Speaker 4: out there. I'm seeing posts on LinkedIn stories, I'm seeing
30:12
Speaker 4: things being shared in blog form and reporting. So the
30:16
Speaker 4: last time we spoke, Tailormed had built the industry's largest
30:19
Speaker 4: affordability network. How does that network impact patients and providers
30:23
Speaker 4: and bringing pharmacies all together?
30:26
Speaker 11: So, first, thanks for noticing we're doing a good job
30:29
Speaker 11: trying to get the message out. But I want to also,
30:32
Speaker 11: in a second, explain why it's such an important moment
30:35
Speaker 11: in time for us to share these stories.
30:37
Speaker 8: But your question.
30:38
Speaker 11: First, the impact is identifying when patients are initially prescribed
30:44
Speaker 11: a high cost drug, whether it's spatialty infusion, retail or not,
30:49
Speaker 11: and then proactively identify opportunities to remove any barriers that
30:53
Speaker 11: they have. The impact, measured in dollars has been more
30:57
Speaker 11: than seven point four billion since we started, the amount
31:00
Speaker 11: of secured assistance we created for patients across our providers,
31:05
Speaker 11: our pharmacies. And it's the impact for patients, but it's
31:08
Speaker 11: also the financial impact for our customers, reducing bed dead
31:11
Speaker 11: and uncommitated care for providers, increasing efficiencies across all of
31:16
Speaker 11: the teams with AI, and also we think about specially pharmacies.
31:19
Speaker 11: That's the ability to reduce prescription abandonment and drive their
31:23
Speaker 11: revenues and being able to dispense more of those high
31:26
Speaker 11: cost drugs. But your question, this has been everything that
31:30
Speaker 11: we've been talking about since you first met me, the affordability, affordability,
31:34
Speaker 11: affordability and the affordability network. Over the last couple of years,
31:38
Speaker 11: what we saw is that we are very uniquely positioned
31:43
Speaker 11: to bridge a structural gap that exists in the industry,
31:48
Speaker 11: and that gap is you have patients Prostabalani spenced in
31:52
Speaker 11: one part, I'm using my hands here and on another
31:55
Speaker 11: part we can see it, ye, but I envision it.
31:58
Speaker 11: So life sciences companies and other types of great companies
32:01
Speaker 11: are trying to provide solutions for patients to address other barriers,
32:05
Speaker 11: whether it's coverage and access, adherents and persistence. But there
32:09
Speaker 11: is a discomc because they don't know when a patient
32:12
Speaker 11: is prescribed medication in an ACP office, and even if
32:16
Speaker 11: they would have known, they can't reach those patients. And
32:19
Speaker 11: we're there and we're building this network to try and
32:22
Speaker 11: address all of those barriers upstream, and it gives us
32:25
Speaker 11: an opportunity to start looking at other barriers, whether it's
32:28
Speaker 11: before the patient gets their first infusion or their first fill,
32:32
Speaker 11: and definitely throughout their episode of care. But it's a
32:35
Speaker 11: very big expansion of our strategy. That's why you are
32:39
Speaker 11: seeing our kind of story out there. It is to
32:42
Speaker 11: make sure that everybody understands why this structure of gap,
32:46
Speaker 11: I think, for the first time has a chance to
32:48
Speaker 11: be bridged, and I think that we can bridge it.
32:51
Speaker 4: One of the stories that I saw, which I was
32:54
Speaker 4: excited that it was so recently. Is you just announced
32:57
Speaker 4: an expansion of your platform which extends and forfordability to
33:02
Speaker 4: address that medication access issues and adherence.
33:05
Speaker 5: So what drove this expansion.
33:07
Speaker 8: Exactly that structural gap.
33:09
Speaker 11: I think that we've been pulled by our partners, whether
33:13
Speaker 11: it's providers who've been asking us to do more around
33:17
Speaker 11: SDOH problems or access and coverage and BV and prior off,
33:22
Speaker 11: or our pharmacy partners who are asking us to help
33:25
Speaker 11: them automate a lot of the manual tasks that they're
33:27
Speaker 11: doing in order to support patients in reminding them that
33:30
Speaker 11: the next refill is coming up, or how to self
33:33
Speaker 11: inject their self injectabile drugs. And our pharma partners who
33:37
Speaker 11: are constantly trying to figure out how can we make
33:40
Speaker 11: those programs who're putting out there more accessible for patients
33:44
Speaker 11: and increase utilization to eventually drive more persistence to the
33:48
Speaker 11: medication that patients need. And recognizing that we have that
33:52
Speaker 11: opportunity and we'd call that our sweet spot. I think
33:55
Speaker 11: that's what drove the expansion and it's a big one
33:57
Speaker 11: and it's one that is pushing us two areas that
34:01
Speaker 11: we haven't played in before. But I think as a
34:04
Speaker 11: product company and with what we can do now with AI,
34:07
Speaker 11: we can just close a lot of those gaps so
34:09
Speaker 11: much faster than we ever imagined before.
34:12
Speaker 4: Sure, like you've always given us a little hints to
34:15
Speaker 4: what's coming, what else are you planning? What's tailorm At
34:18
Speaker 4: doing next, what's the next phase of your growth?
34:22
Speaker 11: The next phase is to start closing more and more
34:26
Speaker 11: of those gaps and address more and no more of
34:30
Speaker 11: those barriers. You will see more news coming from Tailor
34:33
Speaker 11: made one gap at a time. Think about access, think
34:36
Speaker 11: about targeted education, think about adherence, thinking about persistence, transportation assistance.
34:42
Speaker 11: And I wouldn't say one word, I say two letters AI,
34:47
Speaker 11: and I know it could be perceived as like the
34:50
Speaker 11: buzzword of the day. We took such a deep thought
34:55
Speaker 11: process to think what does it mean for us and
34:57
Speaker 11: how can we translate that to our customers? And you
35:00
Speaker 11: will see much more what that will entail very soon.
35:04
Speaker 5: I'm excited.
35:05
Speaker 4: I got to get you back on this week in
35:06
Speaker 4: pharmacy at some point as well. I'd like you to
35:08
Speaker 4: bring in a partner, like a specially pharmacy partner or
35:12
Speaker 4: a network or something. But we'll be able to talk
35:15
Speaker 4: more about the depth and the value that Taylor med
35:19
Speaker 4: brings to this ecosystem is so complex, it's getting more complex.
35:22
Speaker 4: I think, I know just based on the stories that
35:25
Speaker 4: you're telling, things that you're publishing, that it's you're making
35:29
Speaker 4: it simpler and you're making it more affordable and that's
35:31
Speaker 4: the key. So where can people learn more about Taylormed
35:34
Speaker 4: and what you're doing.
35:36
Speaker 11: So our website and actually it's a new one, so
35:38
Speaker 11: go check it out. Taylor Meed t Ai l O
35:41
Speaker 11: r m ed dot com.
35:43
Speaker 8: Excellent.
35:43
Speaker 4: All right, thanks for being on the post show, the
35:46
Speaker 4: press podcast Post show here at as SMBI at twenty
35:49
Speaker 4: twenty six.
35:50
Speaker 8: Always fun to be here with you talk. Thank you
35:51
Speaker 8: so much what you're doing.
35:55
Speaker 4: Excited to bring the ASSEMBIA twenty twenty six press coverage
36:01
Speaker 4: this interview because I need to learn more about Plelio.
36:05
Speaker 4: I'm here with Michael Oleski and Abby Reynolds.
36:10
Speaker 5: Michael, welcome to the show.
36:12
Speaker 12: Hey, Hey, thanks for having us.
36:14
Speaker 4: Hey tell us right out of the gate, what is
36:17
Speaker 4: this organization that I've just learned about and feel fascinated about.
36:21
Speaker 5: Being here at ASEMBIA with you.
36:24
Speaker 12: Yeah, so players all about patients. We have a fundamental
36:27
Speaker 12: belief that healthcare is human and that human connection is
36:32
Speaker 12: the ultimate when it comes to medication adherence and putting
36:37
Speaker 12: patients on the proper path.
36:40
Speaker 4: Abby, talk to us about your role with the organization
36:43
Speaker 4: and what you're excited about being here at ASSEMBIA.
36:46
Speaker 13: Absolutely, thanks for having us today. My role within the
36:49
Speaker 13: organization is I like to call myself the Chief impath,
36:52
Speaker 13: but I guess by title I would be the Chief
36:55
Speaker 13: Experience Officer, and my entire focus is on building programs
37:00
Speaker 13: port initiatives to help provide a valuable patient experience to
37:04
Speaker 13: people starting and staying on you know, chronic disease medications.
37:08
Speaker 4: Abby, let's talk about something that I haven't heard anything about.
37:12
Speaker 4: So I'm glad that we're talking about here at ASSEMBIA,
37:14
Speaker 4: and that's the emotional barriers, not just the costs, number
37:18
Speaker 4: one driver of non adherence and specially therapy.
37:20
Speaker 5: Can you expand on that for our listeners?
37:23
Speaker 6: Absolutely.
37:23
Speaker 13: I think it's important first to acknowledge the tremendous work
37:28
Speaker 13: that's been done focused on access to the medication. So
37:31
Speaker 13: the industry has really done a lot around savings opportunities
37:34
Speaker 13: for patients hub services, specialty logistics. You know, that really
37:38
Speaker 13: is the infrastructure that matters. But then you have to
37:42
Speaker 13: take it to the next step. You know, once patient
37:44
Speaker 13: has the medication in hand, what happens next, And you know,
37:47
Speaker 13: you can solve the access gap and get the medication
37:50
Speaker 13: to the patient, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the
37:52
Speaker 13: patient utilizes the medication. And so it's important really that
37:56
Speaker 13: post fulfillment gap is where there's so much value that
38:01
Speaker 13: can be contributed there to prevent patients from dropping off therapy.
38:06
Speaker 13: And what we found we did some research with pure
38:09
Speaker 13: spectrum and found that more than fifty percent of chronically
38:11
Speaker 13: ill patients indicated that loneliness caused them to either miss
38:16
Speaker 13: or intentionally skip a dose of a medication. And that's
38:20
Speaker 13: wild if you stop and think about it, that's more
38:22
Speaker 13: than half the population. And really when you look at
38:26
Speaker 13: patients utilizing specialty medications, it's even higher. It goes up,
38:29
Speaker 13: you know, towards the seventy percent mark. And if you
38:34
Speaker 13: think about it, take a step back. You know, you're
38:37
Speaker 13: a patient who's been diagnosed with a condition, maybe you're
38:39
Speaker 13: just starting a new medication. In the specialty space, there
38:42
Speaker 13: are so many feelings that come with that. You know,
38:43
Speaker 13: you're taking it out of the box, it's been mailed
38:45
Speaker 13: to you. The whole process has changed from what you
38:48
Speaker 13: would normally expect, and so you have maybe fear of injection,
38:52
Speaker 13: if it's your first time injecting yourself. Maybe it's you know,
38:55
Speaker 13: trying to figure out how you're going to incorporate this
38:57
Speaker 13: new medication into your routine in your life. And so
39:01
Speaker 13: it becomes incredibly important to support the patient in that
39:05
Speaker 13: moment so that not only do they have the therapy,
39:08
Speaker 13: but they utilize the therapy and they can get the
39:10
Speaker 13: success out of you know what we know works well?
39:13
Speaker 4: All right, Like I said, that's the first time they've
39:15
Speaker 4: really dug into what it means to have the emotional
39:18
Speaker 4: barriers to care. Michael, how the right combination of we're
39:23
Speaker 4: taking we hear AI AI AI in everything, We merge
39:27
Speaker 4: AI in human first outreach, proving that there's some measurable
39:32
Speaker 4: improvement there. What does that mean for our listeners, for
39:35
Speaker 4: our pharmacists.
39:36
Speaker 12: So, you know, AI is wonderful. It makes things efficient,
39:41
Speaker 12: makes things move fast, gives us access to data that
39:43
Speaker 12: we can fathom. But you know, the patient experience will
39:48
Speaker 12: remain a human one, and you know we see right now,
39:51
Speaker 12: AI's made the procurement channels for patients access channels much
39:56
Speaker 12: much more efficient. We're navigating costs, we're navigating the trend
40:00
Speaker 12: action really well with AI. But at the end of
40:03
Speaker 12: the day, that just means that we get the product
40:06
Speaker 12: into the patient's hands, but we're not necessarily connecting the
40:10
Speaker 12: patients with the therapy. So our belief is we use
40:14
Speaker 12: human outreach to connect with patients target those emotional barriers.
40:19
Speaker 12: But you know, our humans aren't perfect either, so we
40:22
Speaker 12: can't read all those emotions in real time and react
40:25
Speaker 12: in real time. And that's where AI is wonderful because
40:28
Speaker 12: we use our platform where we've built out ALI.
40:31
Speaker 8: It's got a barrier blueprint.
40:33
Speaker 12: We look at simple things like tone and sentiment, but
40:35
Speaker 12: then we listen to what the patients are saying. We
40:37
Speaker 12: look at how those emotions cascade over time, and then
40:41
Speaker 12: we learn how to better connect with them as humans.
40:44
Speaker 12: So we're using AI to augment the human, not replace
40:47
Speaker 12: the human, and support the collective humans, the patient and
40:51
Speaker 12: the folks that we have calling all throughout the process.
40:54
Speaker 4: ABBY, What's this mean? One of the biggest barriers is
40:58
Speaker 4: always the cost. So what's this mean for the total
41:00
Speaker 4: cost of care? And why do you think payers and
41:04
Speaker 4: pharma they're really paying attention to this?
41:06
Speaker 5: Obviously, and they.
41:08
Speaker 13: Are, and the downstream cost is real of I mentioned earlier,
41:12
Speaker 13: we had done some research and within the survey the
41:14
Speaker 13: patients that we surveyed, we found that thirty four percent
41:17
Speaker 13: of those patients had an emergency room visit as a
41:21
Speaker 13: direct as a result of a life threatening event that
41:23
Speaker 13: was tied to loneliness driven mismanagement of their medication. So
41:28
Speaker 13: you know, missing that dose, skipping that dose intentionally, that
41:30
Speaker 13: adds up over time and can actually create a medical
41:33
Speaker 13: emergency for patients. And if you think about it from
41:36
Speaker 13: a payer perspective, persistence on specialty therapy, it's not a
41:40
Speaker 13: cost center. It's one of the highest leverage investments that
41:43
Speaker 13: can be made. And if you think about it from
41:46
Speaker 13: pharma's perspective, you know, access infrastructure is built, it's there,
41:50
Speaker 13: it's ready. So the next front here is those real
41:53
Speaker 13: world outcomes. How can we It's not it doesn't work
41:58
Speaker 13: anymore to say did you get the medication and check
42:00
Speaker 13: that box that no longer directly corresponds with the use
42:04
Speaker 13: of the medication, And so both sides now have a
42:07
Speaker 13: shared interest in what happens after fulfillment, which is huge
42:09
Speaker 13: because that is the next step in patient care and
42:12
Speaker 13: weaving this into becoming a critical part of the patient's
42:14
Speaker 13: journey and support.
42:16
Speaker 4: Michael, share with our stakeholders listening to the show today.
42:19
Speaker 4: They might not have been able to come to Assembia,
42:21
Speaker 4: but they want to work with you. They want to
42:23
Speaker 4: reach out, give us, give us a way to get
42:25
Speaker 4: a hold of you. Where would listeners go to reach
42:27
Speaker 4: out to you, guys?
42:27
Speaker 12: Yeah, so you know LinkedIn is great, playo dot com,
42:32
Speaker 12: p l eio dot com. I think Plato playo, Yeah,
42:36
Speaker 12: you know, great place website. But you know, we're humans,
42:40
Speaker 12: successful humans that connect with humans, so we're always looking
42:43
Speaker 12: for outreach.
42:44
Speaker 5: Michael and Abby, this has been wonderful.
42:46
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for sitting down with me here
42:48
Speaker 4: at the Assembia twenty twenty six post show podcast, and
42:51
Speaker 4: we appreciate your insights.
42:53
Speaker 5: Thank you, Toad, thank you.
42:57
Speaker 6: Hey.
42:58
Speaker 14: This is Fran Gregory and you're listening to the Pharmacy
43:00
Speaker 14: Podcast and I'm joining you from Cardinal Health today.
43:05
Speaker 4: Fran, it's so good to see you in person instead
43:07
Speaker 4: of on a zoom call or some kind of like
43:10
Speaker 4: web enabled meeting. I love being in front of people.
43:14
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for being.
43:15
Speaker 14: Here, Thanks for having me. It's wonderful to be here
43:17
Speaker 14: and to see you in Vegas.
43:18
Speaker 5: All Right, so we're exhausted.
43:20
Speaker 4: It's at the end of the day of the second
43:21
Speaker 4: day of Assembia. I'm still charged up. I still have
43:24
Speaker 4: a lot of energy. We still have more meetings tonight.
43:28
Speaker 4: But talk to us about the panel discussion that you're
43:34
Speaker 4: that you were on and kind of its focal point,
43:37
Speaker 4: and let's like open up to the listeners. There's listeners
43:41
Speaker 4: who are listening right now, hooting, get tooting, get to
43:44
Speaker 4: come to the show. So I like to give them
43:46
Speaker 4: as much as we can through the podcast.
43:49
Speaker 6: Yeah.
43:49
Speaker 14: Absolutely, you know, SMBIA is always such an amazing venue
43:53
Speaker 14: for all kinds of audiences from payers, PBM, specialty pharmacies,
43:57
Speaker 14: all of our manufacturer partners and of course distributors and
44:01
Speaker 14: other service suppliers like ourselves.
44:03
Speaker 6: So really excited.
44:05
Speaker 14: To get to contribute to the speaker panel and the
44:09
Speaker 14: speaker contributors again this year, myself as well as Lee
44:13
Speaker 14: Denny from Johnson and Johnson and doctor Philip Marjahn from Seacare,
44:17
Speaker 14: which is part of our Navista organization within Cardinal Health
44:20
Speaker 14: really have the opportunity to talk about some topics that
44:23
Speaker 14: are very forward thinking, probably for this audience as well
44:26
Speaker 14: as many audiences in our world of the pharmaceutical industry.
44:30
Speaker 14: We got to talk about advanced therapies, which include cell therapies,
44:35
Speaker 14: gene therapies, and other very complex innovative treatments and how
44:40
Speaker 14: those products are evolving. So we talk a little bit
44:43
Speaker 14: about the pipeline and how important it is for community
44:47
Speaker 14: providers to start not only learning about these types of treatments,
44:50
Speaker 14: but being able to offer them.
44:51
Speaker 6: To their patients.
44:53
Speaker 14: So we all want the patients to get the best
44:54
Speaker 14: treatments possible. We want providers physicians to be able to
44:58
Speaker 14: offer patients the best treatments possible, and a lot of
45:01
Speaker 14: the best treatments possible now, especially in oncology, are advanced
45:05
Speaker 14: therapies like gene therapies, cell therapies. So we really want
45:09
Speaker 14: to educate the audience about what it means for a
45:12
Speaker 14: community provider to be able to start embracing these products.
45:15
Speaker 14: So we have a pharmaceutical manufacturer talking about what these
45:19
Speaker 14: treatments are, what types of treatments we're talking about and
45:22
Speaker 14: then the community physician, I think is a really nice addition.
45:25
Speaker 14: We don't get a lot of physicians talking at a SMBs.
45:28
Speaker 14: I thought it was a really neat opportunity for especially
45:31
Speaker 14: manufacturers to be able to hear about the physician and
45:34
Speaker 14: the patient, the real world side of things, How does
45:37
Speaker 14: this really happen in the community, So really helping the
45:40
Speaker 14: audience understand how we all can work together to improve
45:43
Speaker 14: patient access through these different channels and provider type.
45:47
Speaker 6: It's as well as how pharmacists play a role.
45:50
Speaker 4: So you educated our listeners on this week in pharmacy
45:56
Speaker 4: almost one hundred and eighty new medications coming out over
46:00
Speaker 4: period of time. Did you tell me that you was
46:02
Speaker 4: over the next what twelve to eighteen months.
46:04
Speaker 6: Or so by the year twenty thirties.
46:06
Speaker 14: There are forecast kind of you know, and this is
46:07
Speaker 14: all plus or minus will be wrong to what.
46:09
Speaker 5: We don't know what hold brand Gregory.
46:12
Speaker 14: Hold now, but we do expect, you know, nearly two
46:18
Speaker 14: hundred products to be approved in this advanced therapy category
46:21
Speaker 14: of drugs or treatments by the year twenty thirty, so
46:25
Speaker 14: a huge, huge influx of these treatments, and we're already
46:29
Speaker 14: seeing a lot of that by specifics are a name
46:31
Speaker 14: that we hear for a certain group of treatments quite
46:35
Speaker 14: a bit lately. That's a hot topic specifically in oncology,
46:38
Speaker 14: so many of those coming through the pipeline, as well
46:42
Speaker 14: as other other treatments that will be life changing for patients.
46:46
Speaker 4: All Right, when we think of artificial intelligence as a
46:51
Speaker 4: way to help the follow up process engaging people in
46:56
Speaker 4: text asking questions, maybe a scale from one to ten
47:00
Speaker 4: or something, where does AI in patient engagement fit into
47:06
Speaker 4: the future of selling gene therapies for example?
47:09
Speaker 14: So I'll just use one really simple example that I
47:12
Speaker 14: think a lot of this audience can really associate with,
47:15
Speaker 14: and that's specialty pharmacies.
47:17
Speaker 6: So if we think about specialty.
47:18
Speaker 14: Pharmacies role in advanced therapies, what exactly does that look like.
47:23
Speaker 14: So a lot of these community providers don't want to
47:26
Speaker 14: take a financial risk with a drug that might cost
47:29
Speaker 14: two or three million dollars, So specialty pharmacies are kind
47:32
Speaker 14: of taking a lead in helping those physicians administer prior authorizations,
47:40
Speaker 14: really taking that off their hands, billing the payers, ensuring
47:43
Speaker 14: that that payment, that payment is collected and reimbursement occurs.
47:47
Speaker 14: Efficiently and effectively. So those are things that can be automated.
47:50
Speaker 14: Those are things that can be done with a lot
47:53
Speaker 14: of AI and some of the new machine learning types
47:58
Speaker 14: of things happening. So we're trying to incorporate a lot
48:01
Speaker 14: of that into the specialty pharmacy components that we are
48:04
Speaker 14: preparing to offer, and other specialty pharmacies are doing that
48:07
Speaker 14: as well. But I think the more interesting part of
48:10
Speaker 14: what we can do outside of kind of those operational
48:12
Speaker 14: components which are sort of like no brainers and easy
48:14
Speaker 14: to automate, is really thinking about real world evidence and.
48:17
Speaker 6: Long term outcomes for these patients.
48:19
Speaker 14: So if we think about these treatments there sometimes there
48:22
Speaker 14: are one time treatments, patient gets them on day one.
48:25
Speaker 14: What happens to that patient two years from now, five
48:27
Speaker 14: years from now? So specialty pharmacies have the ability to
48:30
Speaker 14: automate some of those follow up activities, reach out to
48:33
Speaker 14: those patients in different ways, text bone, through their provider
48:37
Speaker 14: even and using a lot of automation and AI to
48:41
Speaker 14: inform when we want to make those decisions to follow
48:44
Speaker 14: up with that patient, what types of questions should we
48:47
Speaker 14: be asking, How do we collate that data and analyze
48:49
Speaker 14: that data and give those insights back to the parties
48:52
Speaker 14: that matter who can influence patient.
48:54
Speaker 6: Access further in the future.
48:55
Speaker 14: So a lot of huge opportunities just within the specialty
48:58
Speaker 14: pharmacy space, and you can obviously imagine that in the
49:02
Speaker 14: provider setting, their many opportunities for that type of technology
49:06
Speaker 14: as well.
49:07
Speaker 4: What have you experienced here at ASEMBIA that has been
49:11
Speaker 4: like really cool that you're like, wow, I didn't either
49:14
Speaker 4: know about that or some technology or something else happening
49:18
Speaker 4: in our in our space of the specialty pharmacy industry.
49:23
Speaker 14: I will say, I think, you know, we already talked
49:26
Speaker 14: about AI, but I'm going to say it's probably the
49:29
Speaker 14: reality of AI, so it's it's not just something we're
49:33
Speaker 14: talking about anymore. And you know, I'm not the most
49:35
Speaker 14: tech savvy AI me either advanced person in the world,
49:39
Speaker 14: but just the fact that so much AI is being
49:42
Speaker 14: used already and the way that it is being used,
49:45
Speaker 14: So you know, anything from conversations with a physician being
49:50
Speaker 14: recorded and analyzed for certain data pieces and reported back
49:55
Speaker 14: out to certain you know, parties that are interested in
49:58
Speaker 14: those insights and data through through all kinds of different
50:02
Speaker 14: types of insights that can be provided by things that
50:07
Speaker 14: we never would have thought was possible, you know, in
50:09
Speaker 14: the blink of an eye. So I think I would
50:11
Speaker 14: say just the topic of AI in itself and how
50:15
Speaker 14: much we're actually using that that I really didn't realize
50:17
Speaker 14: until I heard some of the speakers and have had
50:19
Speaker 14: some of the meetings and the engagements that I've had
50:21
Speaker 14: this week at of some.
50:21
Speaker 4: Yet I agree with you, and what excites me about
50:24
Speaker 4: specially pharmacy specifically is organizations like URAQ who are putting
50:29
Speaker 4: these standardized guard rails that make me feel safer about
50:33
Speaker 4: the leverage and usage of AI and it really making sense,
50:36
Speaker 4: and then building on top of that. So when we're
50:39
Speaker 4: here next year, there's going to be other stories to
50:42
Speaker 4: be told of things that came out of having standards,
50:46
Speaker 4: having proof points, and having repetition of something in our
50:51
Speaker 4: ecosystem or prior authorizations or whatever it is. But I'm
50:55
Speaker 4: excited to see what's coming. And I think that the
50:58
Speaker 4: talk about it here is more impactful to the patient
51:04
Speaker 4: than almost anywhere else in pharmacy because of how special
51:08
Speaker 4: specialty is and how fragile specialty pharmacies patients are, the
51:14
Speaker 4: need for AI assurance. Maybe that's the word AI assurance
51:17
Speaker 4: and making sure that it's up to part. It's real,
51:20
Speaker 4: it's not just they call it hallucination for LMS and
51:24
Speaker 4: things like that. So I'm excited, just like you said
51:27
Speaker 4: in reference to.
51:28
Speaker 14: That, Yeah, yeah, and we hope right that it will
51:31
Speaker 14: help improve patient access. So I think maybe in addition
51:35
Speaker 14: to AI, not just AI itself, but how AI can
51:38
Speaker 14: enable patient access. I think that's probably the even more
51:40
Speaker 14: exciting part. But I love your point about putting guardrails
51:43
Speaker 14: around that.
51:43
Speaker 5: We don't want to go crazy with it and.
51:45
Speaker 14: Put any information or anything at risk that is not
51:48
Speaker 14: appropriate for the patient's best interest. So really focusing on
51:52
Speaker 14: the patient access and improving patient outcomes within those boundaries,
51:55
Speaker 14: in those safety nets.
51:57
Speaker 4: Frand Gregory, you are so good to set the far
52:00
Speaker 4: Pharmacy podcast network, giving us your time and insights. We
52:02
Speaker 4: very much appreciate this. Thanks for being part of the
52:05
Speaker 4: Assembia Posho.
52:06
Speaker 6: Appreciate you great speaking to you again.
52:08
Speaker 5: Thank you. Take care,