Latest / Pharmacy Podcast Network / Asembia's Specialty Pharmacy Summit Rewind 2026 | 5/6

Transcript

Asembia's Specialty Pharmacy Summit Rewind 2026 | 5/6 · Pharmacy Podcast Network

0:04
Speaker 1: This year's SEMBA twenty twenty six press coverage is sponsored
0:07
Speaker 1: by panther Rx Rare Pharmacy. At panther Rx, every day
0:13
Speaker 1: is Rare Disease Day. As the largest independent specialty pharmacy
0:17
Speaker 1: dedicated exclusively to rare and orphan conditions, their mission is
0:21
Speaker 1: simple but powerful, and power patients to live fuller lives
0:25
Speaker 1: through personalized, compassionate care. Through their innovative rare care model,
0:29
Speaker 1: panther Rx delivers hyper personalized support across the entire patient journey,
0:34
Speaker 1: connecting patients, prescribers, manufacturers, and payers with seamless access to
0:40
Speaker 1: life changing therapies. Their expert teams go beyond dispensing medication.
0:45
Speaker 1: They provide clinical guidance, financial assistance, coordination, prior authorization support,
0:50
Speaker 1: and ongoing patient engagement, ensuring that individuals living with rare
0:54
Speaker 1: and complex conditions are never navigating care alone. With nationwide reach,
0:59
Speaker 1: industry leading patient satisfaction in a relenting focus on innovation,
1:03
Speaker 1: panther Rx continues to set the standard for what specialty
1:07
Speaker 1: pharmacy should be. We hope you find value in the
1:09
Speaker 1: podcast coverage of the SBA twenty twenty sixth Summit. The
1:12
Speaker 1: Super Bowl of Specialty Pharmacy where panther rx Rare is
1:16
Speaker 1: helping redefine access in the future of rare disease care.
1:20
Speaker 1: Learn more at pantherexare dot com. That's pantherxrare dot com.
1:37
Speaker 2: You are listening to the global network of podcasters dedicated
1:41
Speaker 2: to the pharmacy profession. Welcome to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
1:57
Speaker 1: Each year, Assembia's Specialty Pharmacy sum is at the epicenter
2:01
Speaker 1: of the pharmacy industry, providing a unique opportunity for stakeholders
2:05
Speaker 1: throughout the industry to understand challenges, generate solutions, and define
2:10
Speaker 1: the future. This is the pharmacy podcast Networks ASSEMBIA twenty
2:14
Speaker 1: twenty six rewind. We are dedicated to bringing you inside
2:20
Speaker 1: coverage of the pharmacy Nation's biggest events with on the
2:23
Speaker 1: street style interviews with keynote speakers, attendees, exhibitors, and recurring
2:29
Speaker 1: guests who make each year special. Stay tuned each week
2:32
Speaker 1: for a new episode of this special six part series
2:35
Speaker 1: on the ASSEMBIA twenty twenty sixth Summit held this year
2:38
Speaker 1: in Las Vegas. Thank you to Panther Rix for sponsoring
2:46
Speaker 1: this episode of the ASSEMBIA twenty twenty six rewind.
2:51
Speaker 3: Hi, my name's kay De Lorenzo. I'm with panther Rare
2:54
Speaker 3: Pharmacy and you're listening to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
2:59
Speaker 4: Hey, this is Assembia twenty twenty six. I'm so excited
3:03
Speaker 4: to have Katie here with me in the booth and
3:06
Speaker 4: the press podcast. Press booth is what I'm calling it.
3:08
Speaker 5: I love it.
3:09
Speaker 4: Fellow Pittsburgher. By the way, yeah, lets go in tersay exactly.
3:13
Speaker 4: We just had the draft. I was down on the water.
3:16
Speaker 4: I was watching the crowds come in. I was very
3:18
Speaker 4: proud of our city.
3:19
Speaker 5: It looked beautiful.
3:20
Speaker 6: It was.
3:21
Speaker 4: Isn't it another thing that I don't know if you're
3:23
Speaker 4: aware of. I'm sure you are, because you're probably proud
3:26
Speaker 4: like I am. And Harry Travis and I decided this
3:29
Speaker 4: so maybe ten years ago. Pittsburgh is the birthplace of
3:34
Speaker 4: specialty farmercy.
3:35
Speaker 7: Yes, that's right.
3:36
Speaker 5: I have heard this story.
3:37
Speaker 7: Statlanders put us on the mout that's right.
3:39
Speaker 4: And then we joined forces with some delivery and cold
3:44
Speaker 4: storage and build it out. And then Orlando decided they
3:48
Speaker 4: wanted to take the crown and were like, you can't
3:50
Speaker 4: have that's Pittsburgh.
3:51
Speaker 7: It's so good to have you here. Hey, let's jump in.
3:55
Speaker 4: So you were moderating a panel, can you kind of
3:57
Speaker 4: like open up for there's lots of people that didn't
4:00
Speaker 4: necessarily get to come to Sembia talk to us about
4:02
Speaker 4: that panel which you were focused on.
4:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, the panels tomorrow and we have a really interesting
4:07
Speaker 3: topic about where disease launches and why they've become more
4:11
Speaker 3: complexed over the past couple of years. I have a
4:14
Speaker 3: great panel with a ton of different experiences. We have
4:18
Speaker 3: some manufacturer representation, we have Stacy Ward who's representing patient
4:23
Speaker 3: advocacy groups, and then myself and a colleague from Panther Rare.
4:28
Speaker 3: We think it's just a really important time to talk
4:30
Speaker 3: about where disease launches and why they're different.
4:33
Speaker 5: In my experience, they've become much more complex.
4:36
Speaker 3: The disease states are more complex, the patient programs that
4:39
Speaker 3: we're putting together are more complexed. The manufacturer has to
4:43
Speaker 3: do a lot more pre work to have a successful launch,
4:45
Speaker 3: and notably, we've learned over the past couple of years
4:48
Speaker 3: at Panther that if you partner early with the patient
4:51
Speaker 3: advocacy groups, you're going to have a smoother launch than
4:54
Speaker 3: if you don't. So it's really interesting to have that
4:56
Speaker 3: perspective from Stacy Tomorrow.
5:01
Speaker 4: All of the components of getting a patient auto medication,
5:06
Speaker 4: in timing, getting the medication to them with maybe temperature
5:12
Speaker 4: maybe not, who knows, getting it paid for prior authorization,
5:17
Speaker 4: keeping them adherent.
5:18
Speaker 7: I mean, people want to.
5:20
Speaker 4: Know what's special about specialty. I mean, this is exactly
5:23
Speaker 4: what's going on. That's so kind of open up about
5:26
Speaker 4: the rare diseases that are even more completle.
5:28
Speaker 5: More and complex.
5:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, we think rare disease specialty pharmacy is something different, right.
5:33
Speaker 3: We kind of think about it at panther as a
5:35
Speaker 3: different segment because there are, first the patients go through
5:39
Speaker 3: so much before they get to you, before they even
5:41
Speaker 3: have a prescription in your door, they have often had
5:44
Speaker 3: six years of misdiagnosis and seventeen visits with a prescriber.
5:50
Speaker 3: So that's a lot, and we have to understand that
5:53
Speaker 3: journey before they get to our doors and make sure
5:55
Speaker 3: we're treating them with the right amount of care and empathy.
5:58
Speaker 3: And the other thing is that we've learned in our
6:01
Speaker 3: experienced in or disease that these patients have to be
6:03
Speaker 3: their own advocate and they're used to that within the
6:05
Speaker 3: healthcare system, and so at Panther we build programs around
6:09
Speaker 3: thinking that way. You know, how can we be the
6:11
Speaker 3: advocate to push that next step forward for the patient?
6:14
Speaker 4: Katie tell us about this data extraction you pulled from
6:18
Speaker 4: Mourning Console. It kind of reinforces why these types of
6:22
Speaker 4: conversations are so important that you're having on the panel.
6:24
Speaker 8: Yeah. Sure.
6:25
Speaker 3: Panther a couple months ago commissioned a survey with Morning Console,
6:28
Speaker 3: and they did a survey.
6:29
Speaker 5: Across all of the rare disease stakeholders.
6:32
Speaker 3: So there were patients from all over payers, prescribers, manufacturers,
6:39
Speaker 3: and there was a couple really I would say, not
6:41
Speaker 3: surprising statistics that came out of that, mostly related to
6:45
Speaker 3: the statement I just had, right, patients, ninety percent of
6:47
Speaker 3: patients feel like they have to be their own advocate,
6:50
Speaker 3: and caregivers agreed with that, and then almost seventy percent
6:54
Speaker 3: of those patients said they don't know what the next
6:56
Speaker 3: step is.
6:56
Speaker 5: They don't know who's responsible, what's next. Do I call
6:59
Speaker 5: you ars.
7:00
Speaker 3: Planned, do I call my doctor, Do I call my pharmacy,
7:02
Speaker 3: And so they're often left waiting for updates.
7:06
Speaker 4: All right, So those breakdowns happen of access.
7:11
Speaker 7: There's gaps.
7:13
Speaker 4: They get it paid for once, then all of a
7:15
Speaker 4: sudden something changes in insurance and it knocks them off.
7:18
Speaker 4: Talk to us more about the intersection of access and
7:21
Speaker 4: how specialty pharmacy, how panther is is protecting the patient
7:26
Speaker 4: and staying on therapy based on your practices.
7:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it really starts pre launch. We start partnering
7:32
Speaker 3: with our manufacturer to understand maybe what the clinical trial
7:36
Speaker 3: criteria was, because we want to make sure that at
7:39
Speaker 3: the very first past that that prior authorization is approved.
7:42
Speaker 3: So we spend a lot of time thinking about what
7:44
Speaker 3: the best packet is, what does it need to say,
7:47
Speaker 3: what does that patient information need to include before we
7:50
Speaker 3: ever get to launch. Once we're at launch, everything changes, right,
7:55
Speaker 3: We start to learn real world information. Policies start to
7:58
Speaker 3: come into place, and you have to be ready to
8:00
Speaker 3: pivot and do that really quickly on behalf of the
8:02
Speaker 3: patient and and the providers and making sure that you're
8:07
Speaker 3: a rare pharmacy means that you're working with the prescribers
8:10
Speaker 3: as much as they need help with right they need
8:12
Speaker 3: to know what types of what types of clinicals to
8:15
Speaker 3: send in that prior authorization packet. That can be a
8:18
Speaker 3: lot of work and sometimes I can mean a lot
8:20
Speaker 3: of hoops. But with a rare disease pharmacy, you're focused
8:23
Speaker 3: in that specific medication and the access journey there.
8:27
Speaker 5: While complicated, you're an expert in it.
8:30
Speaker 4: All right, you just said patient journey. I want to
8:32
Speaker 4: ask the changes in rare disease the landscape of reshaping
8:37
Speaker 4: a patient's journey and driving the need for a specific
8:42
Speaker 4: pharmacy model to really keep them in treatment and keep
8:46
Speaker 4: the treatment working and getting it paid for.
8:48
Speaker 7: Talk to us more about that as well.
8:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, so you know it starts with supporting the patient
8:54
Speaker 3: clinically as well. I think you know, we didn't learn
8:56
Speaker 3: about rare diseases in pharmacy school, right, So you sit
9:00
Speaker 3: down and you know you're supposed to be taking care
9:02
Speaker 3: of a patient, But if you don't know the backstory,
9:04
Speaker 3: if you don't know the clinical complexity of their rare disease,
9:07
Speaker 3: you can't do that very effectively. So rare disease pharmacy
9:11
Speaker 3: and the way the Panther has it framed up is
9:13
Speaker 3: that we create teams of experts in that rare disease
9:16
Speaker 3: and in that medication and that's something we are very
9:19
Speaker 3: intentional about.
9:20
Speaker 5: We're training our teams, even our non.
9:22
Speaker 3: Clinicians, to understand what are the patients going through, what
9:26
Speaker 3: are the symptoms they're going to have, what are things
9:28
Speaker 3: that they might run into as they get on medication
9:31
Speaker 3: and you are into a maintenance phase and being able
9:34
Speaker 3: to focus in those areas means that you're a deep expert.
9:38
Speaker 7: So you said intentional.
9:40
Speaker 4: That word makes me think of personalization, and personalization in
9:46
Speaker 4: pharmacy just in general is important and it's proven because
9:51
Speaker 4: pharmacists are considered the second most trusted provider versus nurses
9:56
Speaker 4: in the entire country. So now when we think of
10:00
Speaker 4: personalization in a rare disease, that's even more sensitive. There's
10:04
Speaker 4: more intimacy and the entire you know, relationship with your coordinator,
10:10
Speaker 4: your care coordinator, and your your pharmacists. So talk to
10:13
Speaker 4: you about in terms of personalization, how you how you
10:17
Speaker 4: treat a patient with with white gloves, you know, in
10:22
Speaker 4: doing doing something above and beyond.
10:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have to meet them where they are at
10:27
Speaker 3: panther We think about, you know, not we for example,
10:31
Speaker 3: think about that patient, are they coming off a clinical trial?
10:34
Speaker 3: They might know more about the drug than we do
10:35
Speaker 3: at that point. Right, they've been on it for many years,
10:38
Speaker 3: so you have to treat that patient much differently than
10:40
Speaker 3: you would someone who's new to diagnosis, new to drug,
10:43
Speaker 3: doesn't you know it doesn't have a lot of resources
10:45
Speaker 3: around them, and give them more information, more support. And
10:48
Speaker 3: then some patients kind of need it when they want it,
10:51
Speaker 3: and we need to be ready to support when they
10:53
Speaker 3: need us.
10:54
Speaker 4: What's the blend of automation in communication with the patient
11:00
Speaker 4: and then picking up the phone or seeing them in person.
11:03
Speaker 4: There's got to be a balance there because too much
11:06
Speaker 4: hey I got this text, I'm reacting to this makes
11:08
Speaker 4: maybe people feel more robotic and more like they're in
11:11
Speaker 4: like a cold process. And then there's just not enough
11:15
Speaker 4: time to spend forty minutes or sixty minutes with a
11:19
Speaker 4: patient on the phone all the time. So talk to
11:21
Speaker 4: us about how panther Rare has found kind of that
11:24
Speaker 4: sweet spot.
11:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, there has to be a sweet spot, right, and
11:27
Speaker 3: every patient is going to have a different sweet spot
11:30
Speaker 3: in terms of how they want to engage with us.
11:33
Speaker 3: We give patients as many options.
11:34
Speaker 5: As they would like. We are always there on the phone.
11:37
Speaker 3: They will always get a human who knows about their
11:40
Speaker 3: air disease and about their case.
11:42
Speaker 5: That's a given.
11:43
Speaker 3: We've recently layered on access to our mobile app across
11:47
Speaker 3: all of our programs, so a patient in the middle
11:49
Speaker 3: of the night can open the mobile app, do their refill,
11:52
Speaker 3: track their shipment, you know, things that they could do
11:54
Speaker 3: on the phone with us, but can do on the
11:56
Speaker 3: mobile app. And then recently we also rolled out to
11:59
Speaker 3: asms texting to do refills, which is nice for patients
12:02
Speaker 3: to do same lines of questioning, but they can do
12:05
Speaker 3: it just on their phone.
12:07
Speaker 7: All right, Katie, what school did you go to? I
12:09
Speaker 7: went to du Cane Ducaine, all right, Pittsburgh, Right, So.
12:15
Speaker 4: Think about graduating and think about if you could have
12:21
Speaker 4: jettisoned into the future right now, how your mind would
12:24
Speaker 4: have been blown with the technology, the processes selling gene
12:29
Speaker 4: therapy AI like it's crazy.
12:33
Speaker 7: So it me.
12:34
Speaker 4: About optimism, about our industry, about the pharmacy profession, about
12:39
Speaker 4: specialty pharmacy, and rare, rare disease specifically.
12:42
Speaker 3: I would never have believed you if you've told me.
12:45
Speaker 3: I'm not going to say how many years ago that
12:47
Speaker 3: this is what I was doing. And then I was
12:49
Speaker 3: focused in rare diseases and that there were. What gives
12:52
Speaker 3: me optimism though, is how much energy there is behind
12:56
Speaker 3: rare disease. There's tons of advocacy groups that just interacting
13:00
Speaker 3: with those groups makes me feel optimistic. Thinking about the
13:03
Speaker 3: pipeline and rare disease and how it's growing. That's incredible.
13:07
Speaker 3: There are so many unmet needs and it's hard not
13:09
Speaker 3: to feel anything but optimism when you think about that
13:11
Speaker 3: coming down the pipe.
13:13
Speaker 4: All right, So innovation only matters of a patient can
13:18
Speaker 4: actually reach it, and that the responsibility is something that
13:22
Speaker 4: we all share. I'm in communications, I'm in public relations
13:27
Speaker 4: where driven by podcasts, but everything that we put out
13:31
Speaker 4: is put out through a pharmacist lens to another provider,
13:35
Speaker 4: or to a physician, or to communications. So talk to
13:38
Speaker 4: us about that. What is a closing thought? How do
13:43
Speaker 4: we dial better into delivering innovation to the patient where
13:48
Speaker 4: it really makes sense?
13:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think you have to think about it with
13:53
Speaker 3: a different lens, right. I think a lot of people
13:56
Speaker 3: want to just push innovation all over the place, but
13:59
Speaker 3: I think there's probably spots in which we do need
14:01
Speaker 3: to innovate, and there's probably spots that patients like the
14:04
Speaker 3: things that we're doing, you know, I think I think
14:06
Speaker 3: about our customer service like a mom and pop shop. Right,
14:09
Speaker 3: you can open, you can pick up the phone, you
14:10
Speaker 3: get service very fast. They know everything that you want
14:13
Speaker 3: them to know. But maybe that mom and pop shop
14:17
Speaker 3: could have a brand new way of delivering their inventory.
14:19
Speaker 3: So I think it's making sure you've got the right
14:21
Speaker 3: areas that you're using innovation in Katie, this.
14:24
Speaker 7: Has been wonderful.
14:25
Speaker 4: I want to thank Panther RX for sponsoring our coverage.
14:30
Speaker 4: It's so important. We can't be here without that assistance.
14:33
Speaker 4: But also your insights and I can see just sitting here,
14:36
Speaker 4: that's why I like being face to face with people.
14:38
Speaker 4: I can see the passion in you to deliver care
14:41
Speaker 4: and that gives me inspiration.
14:43
Speaker 7: So I thank you for doing this.
14:44
Speaker 5: Thanks Tom for having me. It's super fun.
14:50
Speaker 9: This is Austin Russian with Panther Rare Pharmacy and you're
14:53
Speaker 9: listening to the Pharmacy Podcast.
14:56
Speaker 7: Austin.
14:57
Speaker 4: Welcome to the coverage of the Assembia twenty twenty six show.
15:00
Speaker 7: How are you Yeah? I'm good?
15:01
Speaker 10: Thanks?
15:01
Speaker 7: How about you good? How's your time been here? At
15:03
Speaker 7: a smb AT twenty twenty six.
15:05
Speaker 9: Assemba is always a fun time it's always busy, see
15:08
Speaker 9: a lot of friendly faces from the past, but it's
15:10
Speaker 9: always jam packed full of meetings and the tening sessions.
15:13
Speaker 4: I'm super proud that Panther RX is a supporter of
15:17
Speaker 4: our press coverage for a multitude of reasons. I've watched
15:21
Speaker 4: Panther grow over the years. I've known the inception of
15:24
Speaker 4: the organization way back in the day. But you're a
15:27
Speaker 4: fellow Pittsburgher too organization.
15:29
Speaker 7: So that's all.
15:30
Speaker 4: That's an extra feather, and that's a black and gold
15:33
Speaker 4: feather in my cap to have you be part of this.
15:36
Speaker 7: So let's talk about that.
15:37
Speaker 4: What are you focused on here at Assemb's what's been
15:39
Speaker 4: most important for you to gather relationships, connections, networking.
15:44
Speaker 7: Talk to us about that.
15:46
Speaker 9: Yeah, So obviously the relationship to networking is a critical
15:49
Speaker 9: part of a MBA.
15:50
Speaker 7: It's why a lot of people come.
15:51
Speaker 9: But what I'm really focused on is patient access in
15:54
Speaker 9: the rare disease world. Spending a lot of time talking
15:57
Speaker 9: to different organizations, different diferent types of individuals, attending some
16:02
Speaker 9: sessions on related to access and how we can help
16:06
Speaker 9: overcome barriers to get patients on drug and on drug faster.
16:09
Speaker 4: On the drug in a amount of time that's good
16:12
Speaker 4: for them, that keeps them healthy, but then keeping them
16:14
Speaker 4: on that medication absolutely, so that's challenged. We hear a
16:17
Speaker 4: lot about access issues. So what is the main operational
16:22
Speaker 4: hurdle that delays a patient's access to a new rare
16:26
Speaker 4: disease treatment.
16:28
Speaker 9: Yeah, I think about it as especially in rare disease, Right,
16:31
Speaker 9: they're very complex disease states, and you also have limited
16:37
Speaker 9: data when a drug launches, So you have that and
16:40
Speaker 9: then you have this fragmentation in the healthcare system. Right,
16:43
Speaker 9: the patient doesn't have one person who's kind of navigating
16:46
Speaker 9: that for them.
16:47
Speaker 10: And that's what we really try to.
16:49
Speaker 9: Do at Panther is to make sure that we're that
16:52
Speaker 9: seamless bond between the patient and all of those different
16:56
Speaker 9: parts of the healthcare ecosystem. Right they're doing with prescriber
16:59
Speaker 9: offices is you've got the insurance company you're trying to navigate.
17:02
Speaker 10: Sometimes you have.
17:03
Speaker 9: Farmer partners, and you get the specially pharmacy. It's a
17:05
Speaker 9: lot of people, and we need to make sure that
17:06
Speaker 9: we have the patient and the patient isn't one left
17:09
Speaker 9: trying to figure out who they contact and how they
17:11
Speaker 9: get the information.
17:12
Speaker 4: It's almost being proactive so they don't have to You
17:14
Speaker 4: don't ever have to have a patient guessing exactly, and
17:18
Speaker 4: they feel lost in that process. The psychology of being
17:21
Speaker 4: told that you have a rare disease in and of
17:24
Speaker 4: itself is a stop.
17:27
Speaker 7: It's you know what, this reminds me.
17:31
Speaker 4: I've never experienced a rare disease, Thank the Lord myself.
17:36
Speaker 4: My wife had a single misectomy and experience like that
17:39
Speaker 4: whole system and that was very stressful. We're out of
17:42
Speaker 4: it now, so she's recovering, which is wonderful, thank God.
17:45
Speaker 4: But to go through that, that's sometimes people are like, listen,
17:50
Speaker 4: if I don't do anything, maybe it'll just go away,
17:53
Speaker 4: and maybe I'm not going to start therapy. Panther comes in,
17:56
Speaker 4: wraps their arms around the patient and lets them listen,
17:59
Speaker 4: You're not in this by yourself.
18:00
Speaker 7: We're an organization that.
18:02
Speaker 4: Has done it hundreds, if not thousands of times. We
18:05
Speaker 4: know the ins and outs, we know the barriers to access,
18:09
Speaker 4: we know to keep you on, and we know understand
18:11
Speaker 4: the financial pressures. So how do you see the orphan
18:15
Speaker 4: drug launch landscape evolving in twenty twenty six with the
18:19
Speaker 4: patient mind as well as over the next few years.
18:22
Speaker 9: Yeah, we spend a lot of time. Right, We've launched
18:24
Speaker 9: over fifty rare disease drugs at Panther, and we spend
18:28
Speaker 9: a lot of time trying to figure out how do
18:31
Speaker 9: we launch it the best on day one. But what
18:34
Speaker 9: we're really shifting to is right that the launch is
18:37
Speaker 9: not a date in time, right, it is an evolution.
18:40
Speaker 10: And so when you look.
18:42
Speaker 9: At that PADUPI DAT or that FDA approval date, it's
18:44
Speaker 9: a major milestone and that's the launch. But it doesn't
18:47
Speaker 9: end there, right, especially within the rare disease, we're learning
18:50
Speaker 9: so much. Once the drug is actually approved and it
18:53
Speaker 9: actually gets in patients' hands, that's when we can learn
18:56
Speaker 9: a lot more.
18:56
Speaker 7: The clinical trials for these are often very small, limited data.
19:00
Speaker 9: They're getting approved and it's absolutely incredible they're being approved,
19:03
Speaker 9: and then we start really learning. So our whole what
19:07
Speaker 9: I'd like to see with rare disease launches is everyone
19:09
Speaker 9: taking that approach where we are proactive and we're looking
19:12
Speaker 9: at the data, We're looking how that medication and how
19:14
Speaker 9: the patients are.
19:14
Speaker 7: Using it in the real world.
19:16
Speaker 9: Then we're adapting all of our processes and the ways
19:19
Speaker 9: we interact and the things that we do for patients
19:21
Speaker 9: to keep improving that care.
19:24
Speaker 4: All right, So Harry Travis and I talk a lot,
19:27
Speaker 4: but he's a consultant in the Specially by space, and
19:32
Speaker 4: we've decided that the inception of Specially Pharmacy came out
19:36
Speaker 4: of Pittsburgh.
19:37
Speaker 7: What do you say about that?
19:38
Speaker 9: I one hundred percent agree as as a fellow Yinzer
19:42
Speaker 9: in Pittsburgh. Yeah, it's that's a one hundred percent factual.
19:45
Speaker 7: I love it. I love it all right. Panther rx Rare.
19:49
Speaker 7: It's been very special working with you and your team.
19:51
Speaker 4: Shout out to Jennifer, thank you for coordinating all of this.
19:55
Speaker 7: This is a busy time.
19:56
Speaker 4: You guys got so much going on when you got
19:59
Speaker 4: to get out of here, when you headed back to
20:00
Speaker 4: the burg.
20:01
Speaker 7: It's actually quite nice.
20:02
Speaker 9: My wife flies up on Wednesday, and then we stay
20:05
Speaker 9: through the weekends and we get a little bit time
20:08
Speaker 9: to decompress. The kids stay home with the grandparents, and
20:10
Speaker 9: we get a little little time for les.
20:12
Speaker 7: Yeah, oh man, that's perfect.
20:14
Speaker 5: All right.
20:15
Speaker 7: Austin Russian, thank you for being on the show.
20:17
Speaker 10: Thanks for having me.
20:21
Speaker 11: This is Autumn Santler with Polar Tech Industries. And you're
20:24
Speaker 11: listening to the Pharmacy.
20:25
Speaker 4: Podcast Autumn here at the twenty twenty six gathering of
20:31
Speaker 4: ASSEMBIA Access to Pharmacy.
20:34
Speaker 7: Welcome to the show. Thank you for having me, You
20:37
Speaker 7: and I.
20:38
Speaker 4: Before we started recording, we're talking about the evolution of
20:40
Speaker 4: specialty pharmacy and how shipping and cold storage and how
20:45
Speaker 4: that's become such an important part, actually more now than
20:49
Speaker 4: even five ten years ago, because the medications that are
20:52
Speaker 4: coming out of clinical trials and are actually being utilized,
20:56
Speaker 4: some of those need to be temperature controlled all the way.
21:00
Speaker 4: Talk to us about polar tech and what you guys
21:02
Speaker 4: do in specialty pharmacy.
21:04
Speaker 5: Absolutely so.
21:05
Speaker 11: Polar Tech's been around for over forty years now and
21:08
Speaker 11: we've seen the evolution from people putting a couple ice
21:11
Speaker 11: packs in a box to you know, having these compliant
21:16
Speaker 11: shippers that have to keep things safe and maintain efficacy
21:19
Speaker 11: of these these life saving drugs in many cases. So
21:23
Speaker 11: it's an industry that's growing. In fact, there's cold storages
21:27
Speaker 11: being built around this model, and what we do is
21:32
Speaker 11: extremely important to making sure everyone that is needing these
21:36
Speaker 11: drugs are taking them when they're safe and they aren't
21:40
Speaker 11: gonna be cause failure or not even work for them.
21:45
Speaker 11: So it's very important.
21:49
Speaker 5: And it's only growing.
21:51
Speaker 11: And so having these compliant packages. You know, you have
21:55
Speaker 11: two to eight degree temperature ranges or you have deep
21:58
Speaker 11: frozen for some of these gene therapies. Again, these new
22:02
Speaker 11: models are just evolving very quickly.
22:05
Speaker 4: So we've interviewed mister Joe Dipinto several times from mckesson's
22:11
Speaker 4: selling gene therapy division. He's been on This Week in
22:14
Speaker 4: Pharmacy several times part of the Assembia show. He was
22:17
Speaker 4: sharing with us that by twenty thirty there may be
22:21
Speaker 4: an additional one hundred and fifty to two hundred selling
22:25
Speaker 4: gene therapy medications coming to the market. I guarantee as
22:29
Speaker 4: well as you probably know better than me, there's not
22:31
Speaker 4: only a lot of them. They're going to have to
22:32
Speaker 4: be temperature controlled the whole time, in the whole way.
22:35
Speaker 4: Give us kind of an audio version of the life
22:40
Speaker 4: cycle like where does it, where does your packaging start,
22:44
Speaker 4: and then talking to us about the timing of getting
22:46
Speaker 4: it to the patient, and then the patient knowing you know,
22:50
Speaker 4: how fast they have to take it before you know
22:53
Speaker 4: temperature is an issue.
22:54
Speaker 11: Sure, So polar Tech manufactures the packaging. We get it
22:59
Speaker 11: to the company that's going to be shipping the drugs.
23:02
Speaker 11: That could be a wholesaler, it could be the distributor,
23:04
Speaker 11: and they have to actually package it sometimes in a
23:08
Speaker 11: cold setting, like in a refrigerator, depending on the nature
23:11
Speaker 11: of the medicine, and get it out. So it has
23:15
Speaker 11: to actually let's say FedEx or ups comes to pick
23:18
Speaker 11: it up at three o'clock and they packed it at
23:21
Speaker 11: eight am in the morning. Right, they have to maintain
23:24
Speaker 11: this package, get it on the truck, and it goes
23:28
Speaker 11: through the logistics transportation process to the end user. The
23:32
Speaker 11: end user might be a day away, it might be
23:34
Speaker 11: four days away, depending on where the put you know,
23:37
Speaker 11: the starting point was. So it's very important that the
23:40
Speaker 11: packaging maintains that temperature from the moment it's taken out
23:45
Speaker 11: of wherever you know, they've stored it and put it
23:47
Speaker 11: into the package. So then when the end user could
23:50
Speaker 11: be someone like you or me, gets it at our home,
23:53
Speaker 11: maybe we were at work and it sat on their
23:56
Speaker 11: doorstep for and maybe they have the sun on the
24:00
Speaker 11: you know, shining down on that package really radiating warming
24:04
Speaker 11: it up. So it has to maintain it from point
24:07
Speaker 11: A to point B and everything in between. And it's
24:09
Speaker 11: very critical that once the end.
24:11
Speaker 5: User gets it.
24:12
Speaker 11: Usually there's directions that say open immediately, freeze upon receipt,
24:17
Speaker 11: refrigerate upon receipt, or use right away sort of thing,
24:21
Speaker 11: depending on how how quickly they need to use this medicine.
24:25
Speaker 4: Using my imagination, are there devices in these packaging containers
24:32
Speaker 4: that will communicate back to the specially pharmacy or the
24:36
Speaker 4: pharmacy if there's issues, meaning if the temperature has reached
24:39
Speaker 4: a point or if the timing is bad where they
24:41
Speaker 4: know it's not been open. Has there been any a
24:43
Speaker 4: technology that communicates like back with an organization.
24:47
Speaker 11: Absolutely, and that's been evolving as well. There's temperature indicators
24:51
Speaker 11: that can tell you, oh, this is this maintained the temperature,
24:54
Speaker 11: it's safe to use. And there's also those are more
24:56
Speaker 11: like passive, and then there's active ones that you know,
24:59
Speaker 11: they even have geolocations, so if the medicine gets lost
25:02
Speaker 11: and it you know, some of these medicines might cost
25:04
Speaker 11: you know, thousands, tens, thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars,
25:07
Speaker 11: so they can actually find it with the you know,
25:10
Speaker 11: geopositioning as well as identifying humidity temperature radiant like if
25:16
Speaker 11: the sun the sun exposure all of that, and a
25:18
Speaker 11: lot of drugs have what's called an excursion and they're
25:22
Speaker 11: allowed to, you know, have a dip in the temperature
25:24
Speaker 11: or a certain range of temperature that's allowed. It was
25:27
Speaker 11: tested for in the whole process of development, and so
25:31
Speaker 11: those temperature indicators would know that or be programmed for that,
25:34
Speaker 11: and so that those are closely watched.
25:38
Speaker 4: All right, So if someone's listening, they're interesting and reaching
25:42
Speaker 4: out to you, what's the best way to get a
25:43
Speaker 4: hold of you and your team at Polartech.
25:46
Speaker 11: Polartech's websites www dot polar dash tech dot com or
25:53
Speaker 11: reach out to me Autumn Santler found at Autumn at POLARTECHI.
25:57
Speaker 7: N D dot com.
25:59
Speaker 5: Free to reach out and we'll help you out.
26:02
Speaker 4: Adam, thank you so much for being part of the
26:04
Speaker 4: assembia's press coverage show here at the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
26:08
Speaker 5: Thank you.
26:17
Speaker 1: The Pharmacy Podcast Network would like to thank our sponsor
26:20
Speaker 1: for supporting us at the twenty twenty six ASSEMBIA Summit.
26:23
Speaker 1: Clearway Health is transforming specialty pharmacy for hospitals, health systems
26:27
Speaker 1: and the patients they serve. Clearway Health is more than
26:30
Speaker 1: a specialty pharmacy partner. They're an extension of the care team.
26:33
Speaker 1: Working directly with hospitals and healthcare systems across the country,
26:37
Speaker 1: Clearway helps plan, design, build, and optimize specialty pharmacy programs
26:43
Speaker 1: that improve access, reduce barriers, and deliver better outcomes for
26:47
Speaker 1: patients with complex medical conditions. Through their embedded care model,
26:51
Speaker 1: clear Way Health places pharmacists and patient liaisons directly into
26:55
Speaker 1: clinical workflows, supporting providers with prior authorizations, financial assistance, coordination,
27:01
Speaker 1: and patient education so care teams can focus on what
27:04
Speaker 1: matters most the patient. Powered by advancing technology in real
27:08
Speaker 1: time data insights, Clearway Health streamlines the entire medication journey
27:13
Speaker 1: from prescription to adherents, ensuring patients receive the right medications
27:17
Speaker 1: at the right time. Born out of Boston Medical Center
27:20
Speaker 1: Health System, Clearway Health brings real world experience and proven results,
27:25
Speaker 1: helping health systems unlock new revenue streams while expanding access
27:29
Speaker 1: to life changing specialty medications. Clearway Health is leading the
27:32
Speaker 1: way and refining specialty pharmacy where clinical excellence meets operational innovation.
27:38
Speaker 1: Learn more at Clearwayhealth dot com.
27:56
Speaker 8: Hello everyone, this is Ben Heuser's CEO for lumis Erah
27:59
Speaker 8: Health Services, and you are listening to the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
28:05
Speaker 4: Ben Heiser, Assembia twenty twenty six.
28:09
Speaker 7: It's so good to see you.
28:11
Speaker 10: Likewise, thanks for having me on.
28:12
Speaker 4: Hey, I feel funny when I say this.
28:15
Speaker 7: I'm so freaking proud of you. Like I watch you.
28:18
Speaker 4: I've watched your career now for five six years, and
28:22
Speaker 4: how you've taken now the leadership role of Louma Sarah
28:26
Speaker 4: Health Services. You have developed new relationships with like Cassian
28:34
Speaker 4: RX that we're going to talk a little bit about.
28:37
Speaker 4: You formed a new GPO like you guys are on
28:40
Speaker 4: fire right now, and I just want to say congratulations.
28:43
Speaker 10: Thanks, I appreciate It's been quite the journey.
28:46
Speaker 8: As you mentioned, you know, coming from the pharmacy background,
28:49
Speaker 8: went to UW Madison go Badgers, being a homegrown Wisconsin
28:53
Speaker 8: boy myself, I didn't envision this. I'll say that it
28:57
Speaker 8: was quite the journey. I thought I was going to
28:59
Speaker 8: be a retail pharmacist from day one. That's what I
29:01
Speaker 8: had my eyes set on from even before I was
29:03
Speaker 8: in pharmacy school. I worked as a pharmacy technician and
29:06
Speaker 8: really loved pharmacy, helping patients, you know, developing all those
29:09
Speaker 8: relationships with the little grammars. I would come in with
29:12
Speaker 8: the bait goods and hit items and things like that,
29:14
Speaker 8: and you know, as specialty really took off, I had
29:16
Speaker 8: a great opportunity to partner with a former classmate of
29:19
Speaker 8: mine pharmacy school, sharing faust and helping start up Luma Serra,
29:23
Speaker 8: and you know, really coming over to the specialty side,
29:26
Speaker 8: you can really truly see an impact for people who
29:29
Speaker 8: are taking medications for illnesses that can have major, major
29:32
Speaker 8: impacts on quality of life, even longevity of life when
29:35
Speaker 8: you're talking about some oncology type medications.
29:37
Speaker 10: And it's just been over the.
29:39
Speaker 8: Past twelve thirteen years, you know, growing Louma Serra, like
29:42
Speaker 8: you said, forming partnerships, really trying to make sure that
29:45
Speaker 8: who we were when we were creating, which is that transparent,
29:49
Speaker 8: cost plus specialty pharmacy, which we believe we're still the
29:51
Speaker 8: only ones in the industry that are doing that to
29:53
Speaker 8: the scale that we're at, but taking that and continuing
29:56
Speaker 8: to push it forward with partnerships with you know, patient mind,
30:00
Speaker 8: patients in mind, making sure that we are ultimately helping
30:03
Speaker 8: human beings and I think there's a lot of opportunities
30:06
Speaker 8: through the things that we're doing to continue to push
30:08
Speaker 8: that into the industry so that we can all do
30:10
Speaker 8: better for people.
30:12
Speaker 4: Talk to us and our listeners may not realize this,
30:15
Speaker 4: but lumis Era Health Services has formed a new group
30:19
Speaker 4: purchasing organization. How does that fit into the ecosystem of
30:23
Speaker 4: your organization?
30:24
Speaker 8: Yeah, great question, thanks for noticing our press release here recently.
30:28
Speaker 8: Really exciting opportunity. It falls right into place with the
30:32
Speaker 8: kind of the family of companies that sit under actually
30:35
Speaker 8: the SSM costco ownership structure. So we have Navatus, who's
30:39
Speaker 8: the PBM. We have Archimedes, who provides a PBM service,
30:43
Speaker 8: especially on the medical side and really helps save clients
30:47
Speaker 8: money on that side. We've obviously had lumis Era and
30:50
Speaker 8: we've provided specialty pharmacy distribution for Navatus, and now we
30:53
Speaker 8: provide for all different kinds of clients. Actually, about seventy
30:57
Speaker 8: percent of our patient volume has.
30:58
Speaker 10: Nothing to do with Navatus.
31:00
Speaker 8: We've really branched out from there, and now Clementa sits
31:03
Speaker 8: in as essentially another one of the sister companies. And
31:05
Speaker 8: what this is is a contracting entity so that we
31:08
Speaker 8: can continue to do what we've been doing for some
31:10
Speaker 8: partners already, and that's coming together to buy better, to
31:14
Speaker 8: do better, to.
31:14
Speaker 10: Save clients more money.
31:16
Speaker 8: And then we're looking at that not as how do
31:17
Speaker 8: we aggregate so that we can be more competitive so
31:20
Speaker 8: we can work into the industry provide our service to
31:23
Speaker 8: more people, but also, you know, let's say remove some
31:26
Speaker 8: of the financial streams that we feel are not necessarily
31:30
Speaker 8: appropriate in the current industry landscape. So for instance, there's
31:32
Speaker 8: a lot of scrutiny our own rebates. There's an opportunity
31:35
Speaker 8: as we continue to look to some direct to consumer,
31:37
Speaker 8: direct to employer type opportunities where we are looking to
31:40
Speaker 8: contract directly so that we can you know, almost move
31:43
Speaker 8: that rebate to the front or completely remove it and
31:46
Speaker 8: really get to like dead net pricing, which again that's
31:49
Speaker 8: what we're all about. We don't make money on rebates,
31:51
Speaker 8: we don't make money in all those fees, so we're
31:53
Speaker 8: trying to get the lowest net cost possible to our clients,
31:56
Speaker 8: to our patients so that they can save and obviously.
31:59
Speaker 10: Continue to the needed care for their patients.
32:02
Speaker 8: So it's really just an extension of who we are,
32:04
Speaker 8: but really formalizing that and bringing partners manufacturers, wholesalers together
32:08
Speaker 8: to do better.
32:10
Speaker 4: All right, So Chris Corsi is the CEO of Cassie
32:14
Speaker 4: and RX. They're going to be doing a three part
32:17
Speaker 4: series on the Pharmacy podcast Network. You guys are working
32:20
Speaker 4: with Cassie and RX as well. Talk to us about
32:23
Speaker 4: that relationship and how that's going to help Loumis.
32:25
Speaker 7: Sarrah Health Services.
32:26
Speaker 8: Yeah, we've had a long relationship with Cassie and I
32:29
Speaker 8: think it's going back goodness, maybe five or six years now.
32:32
Speaker 8: What I saw in Cassian was what I saw in
32:34
Speaker 8: Lumisarrah and or who we were. They're hungry, they're thinking
32:36
Speaker 8: about things differently, they want to do better for people,
32:38
Speaker 8: and their platform really enabled Lumiserra to continue to evolve
32:42
Speaker 8: from a digital standpoint, and that continued partnership. You know,
32:46
Speaker 8: we share a lot of thought leadership with them. What
32:48
Speaker 8: I love about Cassiinge is their flexibility, the way that
32:50
Speaker 8: they're looking forward. But I love the fact that they
32:53
Speaker 8: work with us to meet our needs as well. They're
32:55
Speaker 8: very customizable, so as we look to solve clients needs,
32:59
Speaker 8: manufacture needs, prescriber needs, everybody's needs, having a digital capability
33:04
Speaker 8: is absolutely critical. It streamlines communications from a patient standpoint,
33:08
Speaker 8: It provides better care everyone. Everyone wants to do something digital. Now,
33:12
Speaker 8: if you tried to call me, if say Luis Aarra
33:14
Speaker 8: tried to call me, if I was a patient via phone,
33:17
Speaker 8: I'm never available to pick that up and I probably
33:19
Speaker 8: wouldn't anyways. I would want to be able to go online,
33:22
Speaker 8: be able to take care of myself anytime I want,
33:24
Speaker 8: sitting on the couch, nine o'clock at night, whatever that
33:26
Speaker 8: might be. So that digital first experience is really really important.
33:30
Speaker 8: We're seeing as we're moving into really really large sophisticated
33:34
Speaker 8: employer groups for specialty pharmacy services, health plans, they have
33:37
Speaker 8: higher standards and higher needs. They want a premium experience
33:41
Speaker 8: for their patients. So that's what Cassian and their provider portal,
33:46
Speaker 8: their patient portal provides for us. And again that flexibility
33:49
Speaker 8: of when something new and dynamic comes up. If there's
33:51
Speaker 8: one thing that's true, This industry moves so fast, So
33:54
Speaker 8: if we can respond to what's going on or get
33:57
Speaker 8: ahead of what's going on through customization, it just gives
34:00
Speaker 8: us a leg up and providing the service that we want.
34:03
Speaker 4: Ben, I really appreciate you sitting down with me and
34:06
Speaker 4: giving me an update. Last question is really around AI.
34:10
Speaker 4: It's just really a I'm trying to get people's opinions
34:13
Speaker 4: and how it's impacting patient care. What's something that you've
34:17
Speaker 4: seen executed through the use of AI and the tool
34:22
Speaker 4: that you're like, damn, this is like so cool? Like
34:24
Speaker 4: what is it about that you like?
34:26
Speaker 8: Yeah, I will say I wish one of my teammates
34:30
Speaker 8: was here because I am, by no means an a aspert.
34:33
Speaker 7: You know, I'm not eating it.
34:34
Speaker 8: Seems like as soon as I figure a little bit
34:36
Speaker 8: about myself, they move to a new, better platform and
34:38
Speaker 8: I got to figure that out. But I definitely has
34:40
Speaker 8: a role in what we do. I think first and
34:42
Speaker 8: foremost we have to think about using it appropriately and cautiously.
34:45
Speaker 8: Obviously we're dealing with very sensitive information here. You don't
34:48
Speaker 8: want to necessarily get any of that information out, So
34:50
Speaker 8: I think making sure that you go through the right
34:51
Speaker 8: privacy safeguards all those different types of things is absolutely foundational.
34:56
Speaker 8: What I've seen is there's a lot of ideas out
34:59
Speaker 8: there as to how well they're actually executing At this point.
35:02
Speaker 10: Well, I'm not one hundred percent sold on.
35:05
Speaker 8: Them, right where you do see a lot of movement
35:07
Speaker 8: and progress is really in that prior authorization space. We
35:10
Speaker 8: have a couple of partnerships with some vendors I don't
35:12
Speaker 8: want to name them here per se, they are doing
35:14
Speaker 8: some really unique things, again really cutting down on time,
35:17
Speaker 8: the administrative burden of PAS, which again helps safe expense,
35:23
Speaker 8: helps get patients on therapy quicker, which is we're all
35:25
Speaker 8: really working towards. So I think if the model and
35:28
Speaker 8: the success with prior authorizations can be enabled in other
35:31
Speaker 8: portions of whether it's the kind of the intake process,
35:34
Speaker 8: through that whole patient journey, there's just a lot of opportunity.
35:38
Speaker 10: I think.
35:39
Speaker 8: And then going forward, you know, really enabling the clinicians,
35:43
Speaker 8: not taking the clinicians job, providing this as a tool
35:46
Speaker 8: set so that they can provide safer, more effective care,
35:49
Speaker 8: more efficient care for patients at their disposals. But again,
35:53
Speaker 8: we want to make sure that the information that is
35:56
Speaker 8: there is accurate, appropriate all those things too. So I
35:58
Speaker 8: think we're we're cautiously moving forward. I want to certainly
36:03
Speaker 8: make progress because it is the future of almost everything,
36:06
Speaker 8: it seems like. But yeah, it's I see a lot
36:09
Speaker 8: of really cool stuff in the Piace basically gives me
36:11
Speaker 8: hope that there's more things coming.
36:13
Speaker 4: Ben, thank you so much for spending time with us
36:15
Speaker 4: at the SMBA twenty twenty six post show.
36:18
Speaker 7: We always appreciate talking with you.
36:20
Speaker 10: Thanks for having me on TOT. I hope you good
36:21
Speaker 10: rest of the show.
36:25
Speaker 12: Hello, my name is Caroline Jaredo. I come from Accreditation
36:28
Speaker 12: Commission for Healthcare ACHC, and you are listening to the
36:31
Speaker 12: Pharmacy Podcast.
36:34
Speaker 4: Carolyn, thanks so much for being at the Access for
36:37
Speaker 4: Pharmacy the ASSEMBA twenty twenty six press coverage.
36:41
Speaker 10: Thank you.
36:41
Speaker 12: I'm really having a wonderful time.
36:43
Speaker 4: I am too. This is one of my favorite conferences.
36:46
Speaker 4: Assembling together to fight for better access to medications, to
36:55
Speaker 4: leverage technology in specialty pharmacy, the buzzword and AI and
37:00
Speaker 4: specialty pharmacy.
37:01
Speaker 7: But the ACCHC is.
37:04
Speaker 4: One of the protectors of our organization in order to
37:07
Speaker 4: set standards to assure that certain things are happening in
37:11
Speaker 4: certain cases that are protecting our patients, actually protecting pharmacists
37:17
Speaker 4: and the legal world can kind of get into it,
37:20
Speaker 4: but give us just a short overview of the ACCHC
37:24
Speaker 4: before we get into some specifics.
37:26
Speaker 12: Certainly so ACCHC will be celebrating its fortieth year of
37:31
Speaker 12: business this year in twenty twenty.
37:33
Speaker 7: Six, so it's a big year for us.
37:35
Speaker 12: We actually have twenty one different accredited healthcare programs. I
37:39
Speaker 12: represent pharmac I'm the pharmacy program director. Within the pharmacy program,
37:43
Speaker 12: we have probably close to ten different services that we accredit,
37:47
Speaker 12: so we have a very large portfolio. The ACHC campus
37:52
Speaker 12: or corporate office is located in Carrie, North Carolina. I
37:55
Speaker 12: am a pharmacist and graduate within the state of North Carolina,
37:59
Speaker 12: so I do call North Carolina my home.
38:03
Speaker 7: All right, and then.
38:05
Speaker 4: Talk to me about how standards do I from a
38:11
Speaker 4: person looking from the outside in especially pharmacy, the place
38:15
Speaker 4: that AHD spends most of its time in that sector
38:18
Speaker 4: of the industry.
38:20
Speaker 12: Great question, Actually, thank you for asking that question. Yes
38:23
Speaker 12: it is, I would say, are one of our largest
38:26
Speaker 12: customer segments within the pharmacy group is specialty pharmacy.
38:30
Speaker 7: Yeah, that makes sense.
38:31
Speaker 4: All right, let's talk. Let's dig into this new distinction.
38:35
Speaker 4: It's distinction in IG therapy. Talk to our listeners.
38:39
Speaker 7: What is this?
38:40
Speaker 5: Yes, so it is our newest distinction.
38:42
Speaker 12: We offer it on top of a base accreditation of
38:45
Speaker 12: either infusion or specialty pharmacy accreditation, and I'm really excited
38:50
Speaker 12: about this new distinction. It was launched in a cooperation
38:54
Speaker 12: or collaboration with IDNs, so the Iminoglobulent National Society. They
39:00
Speaker 12: are the premier organization for education, research and also clinical certifications,
39:05
Speaker 12: both for nurses and pharmacists. So we incorporated their IG
39:09
Speaker 12: practice standards into our framework for the standard distinctions and
39:15
Speaker 12: or distinction standards. And we're just really delighted to have
39:19
Speaker 12: this really thought leadership involved in our standards, and we
39:25
Speaker 12: think is really going to elevate practice and also elevate
39:28
Speaker 12: the clinicians who work in dispensing and preparing inminoglobulent therapy.
39:33
Speaker 4: So when I started the podcast, I said that the
39:36
Speaker 4: ACC is a protector, and you really are. You're a
39:40
Speaker 4: standard ceter and protection for the practice. Talk to us
39:43
Speaker 4: about how someone listening that really wants to elevate their career,
39:49
Speaker 4: elevate their personal ability to stand out in the industry.
39:53
Speaker 4: It's the only legal, legally defensible IG credentialing that ensures
39:59
Speaker 4: compliance and reduce US risks.
40:00
Speaker 7: Talk to us about that, what does that mean?
40:02
Speaker 12: What that means is because I really like this distinction
40:08
Speaker 12: because this is a complex therapy, it's a complex disease. Date,
40:12
Speaker 12: there are lots of immineglobulent options on the market, and
40:15
Speaker 12: so by having trained certified nurses and certified pharmacists, there's
40:19
Speaker 12: a certain ratio that when we go in in a
40:21
Speaker 12: credit for ig distinction, we're looking for ten percent of
40:26
Speaker 12: the nurses to be IGCN certified. We're looking for twenty
40:30
Speaker 12: five percent of the pharmacists to be IGCP certified. And
40:34
Speaker 12: so when we think about decreasing risk and improving safety,
40:38
Speaker 12: you know they'll be looking at matching the right product
40:41
Speaker 12: with a particular patient, trying to minimize the risk of thrombosis,
40:46
Speaker 12: look at adverse events or what they might be more
40:49
Speaker 12: susceptible to, and then obviously looking at efficacy over time.
40:54
Speaker 12: Is a patient responding to therapy, are they having any
40:57
Speaker 12: intolerance that you know might require intervention or mitigation and
41:01
Speaker 12: possibly changing to a different therapy. So the clinicians are
41:07
Speaker 12: providing an extra element of awareness and really practicing at
41:12
Speaker 12: the top of their license and really benefiting the patients
41:15
Speaker 12: who are on these therapies.
41:18
Speaker 4: Carolyn, this is more focusing on our nurses and our
41:21
Speaker 4: pharmacists that's correct, and I like thinking of them working together.
41:26
Speaker 4: So are there any workshops that can come out of
41:30
Speaker 4: this where it's like, Hey, I got my certification. Can
41:33
Speaker 4: we put it into practice where it's almost like a
41:36
Speaker 4: mock in environment where we can kind of like communicate together.
41:41
Speaker 12: Well, I think it will actually be in real life
41:43
Speaker 12: as well as potentially you could certainly simulate or create
41:47
Speaker 12: mock scenarios. I think IGNS does support a lot of
41:51
Speaker 12: multi collaborative initiatives. Within the standards for distinction, we do
41:57
Speaker 12: require a professional advisory committee or a pack a we
42:00
Speaker 12: call it, and that is really three multidisciplinary individuals could
42:05
Speaker 12: potentially wear nine different hats, so the minimum would be
42:09
Speaker 12: three individuals for a pack. If you have a small organization, however,
42:12
Speaker 12: they're nine different roles. So you have a larger organization,
42:15
Speaker 12: then you can certainly expand and hopefully incorporate other folks
42:19
Speaker 12: of expertise in the pack. In order to be eligible
42:23
Speaker 12: for the distinction survey, we do ask that the sites
42:27
Speaker 12: have at least one pack meeting with meeting minutes to
42:31
Speaker 12: show for it at the time that we do the
42:33
Speaker 12: initial survey.
42:35
Speaker 4: Carlyn, where can listeners learn more about this certification and
42:39
Speaker 4: ask questions and engage with you.
42:41
Speaker 12: Absolutely, so ACHC dot org so Accreditation Commission for Healthcare,
42:47
Speaker 12: that's what stands for is probably the best place to
42:51
Speaker 12: start that exploration and discovery. And then there is a
42:55
Speaker 12: customer service portal where you can put in your information
42:58
Speaker 12: and we'd be more than happy to reach out out
43:00
Speaker 12: and continue the conversation.
43:02
Speaker 4: Thank you so much for being part of the post
43:04
Speaker 4: show here at ASSEMBIA twenty twenty six.
43:06
Speaker 7: We hope to work with you in the future. Thank
43:08
Speaker 7: you excellent, Thank you so much.
43:09
Speaker 5: It's been a wonderful time talking with you.
43:15
Speaker 3: Hi.
43:15
Speaker 6: This is Chris Stewart with Patari, and you're listening to
43:18
Speaker 6: the Pharmacy Podcast Network.
43:21
Speaker 4: Hey, Chris, welcome to the ASSEMBIA twenty twenty six coverage.
43:25
Speaker 7: This is so good to have you here.
43:27
Speaker 6: Thank you, Todd. It's really nice to be here.
43:29
Speaker 7: All right. So I'm in my booth eighteen oh five.
43:32
Speaker 4: I'm looking diagonally and I see the Patari booth. It
43:35
Speaker 4: says Powering Healthcare. I haven't heard about Patari until now.
43:39
Speaker 4: And that's what I love about this conference because it assembles.
43:43
Speaker 4: That's why they call it Assembia. Assembles. All these companies
43:46
Speaker 4: together that are all passionate about one thing, and that
43:48
Speaker 4: is taking care of patients. Better talk to us about
43:51
Speaker 4: Patari in the ecosystem of specialty certainly.
43:54
Speaker 10: So.
43:55
Speaker 6: Patari is a specialized market access can resulting firm that
44:01
Speaker 6: I chose to join after retiring from Humana as the
44:04
Speaker 6: trade operations and value and access leader. I've been with
44:09
Speaker 6: Humana twenty years and the appealing thing to Patari to
44:13
Speaker 6: me was that they offer the specialized service to manufacturers
44:16
Speaker 6: to help navigate this environment that we're in. Really since
44:20
Speaker 6: the IRO was passed and through the implementation that I
44:23
Speaker 6: was very skilled an expert in doing at Humana, and
44:28
Speaker 6: the opportunity to do that with you the very same
44:31
Speaker 6: customers or potential customers that were my partners and my
44:35
Speaker 6: old role presented the opportunity to do that here with
44:38
Speaker 6: patory Advisors.
44:40
Speaker 7: That's wonderful.
44:40
Speaker 4: So Chris, give us an example or a story, a
44:43
Speaker 4: success story of some of your clients that you've helped
44:45
Speaker 4: and help Atari fits into the landscape here in specially.
44:50
Speaker 6: Sure well, Todd, I've been with Patari for eight days,
44:54
Speaker 6: so I'm I'm just getting to know some of our
44:57
Speaker 6: clients that were some of my old clients. But I
45:00
Speaker 6: I think the insight that I have is from a
45:03
Speaker 6: manufacture point of view, the environment, particularly in the medicare
45:08
Speaker 6: plan space right now, is so tough on margins. You've
45:12
Speaker 6: got a rate environment that is not keeping pace with
45:16
Speaker 6: pharmacy trend, you know, to two and a half percent
45:20
Speaker 6: rate increase for Medicare advantage, and you've got a specialty
45:24
Speaker 6: drug trend that's twelve plus. So all of that plan
45:28
Speaker 6: pressure transfers down to manufacturers in the form of, you know,
45:34
Speaker 6: market access decisions. Plans are in this environment of trying
45:38
Speaker 6: to mitigate the risk right now or downsize their risk
45:42
Speaker 6: from a patient mixed population. So manufacturers in this environment
45:47
Speaker 6: are feeling that sort of downward pressure of a hesitancy
45:51
Speaker 6: to expand footprints and therapeutic classes even you know, you know,
45:56
Speaker 6: you've got some of these incredible specialty drugs that are
45:58
Speaker 6: coming to market treating amazing and hard to treat diseases.
46:02
Speaker 6: Plans in this environment and are very hesitant about expanding
46:06
Speaker 6: their formulaity coverage. And I think I feel like that
46:09
Speaker 6: is the value that I bring to Patari, is this
46:12
Speaker 6: specialized expertise in medicare that can help navigate how to
46:16
Speaker 6: position your value prop so that is falling on ears
46:21
Speaker 6: that are understand it on the plan side and also
46:24
Speaker 6: being able to, you know, kind of in a very
46:27
Speaker 6: expert way, plan out their value proposition strategy to line
46:33
Speaker 6: up as best as it can with the environment that
46:35
Speaker 6: plans are in.
46:37
Speaker 4: What are the greatest obstacles, the most frustrating obstacles from
46:42
Speaker 4: your perception, from your experience in specially pharmacy right now
46:47
Speaker 4: that Patari is helping to eliminate.
46:49
Speaker 6: I think I'm starting to coin this term and my
46:54
Speaker 6: infancy as a consultant that I'm a recovering payer. So
46:58
Speaker 6: one of the very frustrating things that occurred to me,
47:01
Speaker 6: especially post iras, you have these fabulous, just amazing new
47:05
Speaker 6: products that are coming to market treating the health of seniors,
47:10
Speaker 6: and there's a hesitancy by plans to put those on
47:13
Speaker 6: the formulay. So I think part of part of the
47:18
Speaker 6: value prop development, especially in medicare, where you know, the
47:24
Speaker 6: time average time a patient stays with the plan is
47:26
Speaker 6: you know, seven plus years, so you have to really
47:29
Speaker 6: develop this long, longer term value proposition and that creates
47:33
Speaker 6: continuity care, reduction of medical costs that hopefully, you know,
47:39
Speaker 6: can be worked into a value proposition to make this
47:41
Speaker 6: much less of a year over year transactional rate discussion
47:46
Speaker 6: and much more specialized discussion over the value of this
47:50
Speaker 6: product over time to the plan and reduce your medical costs.
47:55
Speaker 4: I really appreciate your insights. I think having somebody that
47:59
Speaker 4: has spent that much time with Humana and now becoming a.
48:02
Speaker 7: Consultant, I think that's a very.
48:06
Speaker 4: Useful transition to be able to bring all of that
48:09
Speaker 4: intelligence in especially where we where payers were twenty years
48:13
Speaker 4: ago versus where they.
48:14
Speaker 6: Are a very different environment. Yeah, I can see, yeah,
48:17
Speaker 6: and that's that's really what attracted me. You know, there's
48:19
Speaker 6: a number of different consulting firms I looked at, but
48:22
Speaker 6: the Patari people are It's a great culture, demonstrated expertise
48:29
Speaker 6: and great reputation. You know. I definitely was very purposeful
48:34
Speaker 6: about searching for opportunities in this time of my life,
48:38
Speaker 6: and Thettart really matched up well with with my philosophy
48:42
Speaker 6: and expertise and their people.
48:45
Speaker 4: Chris Stewart with Patari, thanks for being on the Access
48:48
Speaker 4: to Pharmacy twenty twenty six, a Symbia show.
48:51
Speaker 7: Thank you appreciate it.
48:52
Speaker 12: Todd.
48:56
Speaker 13: Hello, this is Natalie Bedford, Senior vice president of Brand
49:00
Speaker 13: and Manufacture Relations at mccusson, and you are listening to
49:03
Speaker 13: the Pharmacy.
49:04
Speaker 4: Podcast ASEMBIA twenty twenty six on the showroom floor and
49:10
Speaker 4: the press podcast booth with Natalie Bedford.
49:14
Speaker 7: It's so good to see you.
49:15
Speaker 13: So great to see you as well, Todd.
49:17
Speaker 4: Thanks for doing this. Hey, you are a mini superstar here.
49:21
Speaker 4: You're on the docket for a panel discussion. I want
49:26
Speaker 4: you to tell our listeners you're moderating this panel focused
49:29
Speaker 4: on collaboration across this changing, volatile healthcare system. Feel like
49:34
Speaker 4: it's plate tectonics. The's shifting from underneath this at a
49:38
Speaker 4: high level, Why is collaboration such a critical theme right now?
49:41
Speaker 13: First of all, thanks again for the opportunity to connect
49:43
Speaker 13: with you, Todd. It's always good and it does bring
49:46
Speaker 13: a different type of energy to the ASSEMBIA meeting. For me,
49:49
Speaker 13: I think from my perspective, healthcare is more interconnected than
49:53
Speaker 13: ever and no one stakeholder in the ecosystem can solve
49:56
Speaker 13: it on its own. Manufacturers, providers distribute all feel the
50:00
Speaker 13: pressure of the more complex therapies, tighter operations, policy shifts,
50:05
Speaker 13: me and burster pressures. The list goes on and on
50:08
Speaker 13: and on, and collaboration helps us solve these problems earlier
50:12
Speaker 13: and keep patients at the center of all we do.
50:15
Speaker 7: At a high level.
50:16
Speaker 13: Collaboration is critical right now because no single stakeholder can
50:19
Speaker 13: solve these issues on our own. Even the most well
50:22
Speaker 13: intentioned strategies can fall short if they're not aligned across
50:27
Speaker 13: the ecosystem, and in the end, we're not doing what
50:30
Speaker 13: we're set up to do, which is ensuring patients have
50:33
Speaker 13: access and improving better health comes.
50:35
Speaker 4: Natalie, McKesson is an enormous organization. I've watched this organization
50:40
Speaker 4: go through growth over the last twenty two years that
50:43
Speaker 4: I've been in pharmacy.
50:45
Speaker 7: Talk to us about your role with McKesson.
50:47
Speaker 13: I'd be happy to I've had the good pleasure and
50:50
Speaker 13: very privileged to be at McKesson for almost two and
50:52
Speaker 13: a half years now. My organization is responsible for all
50:55
Speaker 13: of the brand sourcing relationships with our brand manufacturers, so
50:59
Speaker 13: think not generic brand, specially vaccine biosimilar, what goes through
51:04
Speaker 13: our full line and specialty distribution. We're responsible for the financial, operational,
51:10
Speaker 13: and strategic aspects of these relationships, and we've managed about
51:13
Speaker 13: five hundred or so manufacturers with a last fiscal year
51:17
Speaker 13: revenue of four hundred and forty five billion dollars.
51:19
Speaker 7: Oh wow wow.
51:21
Speaker 4: Okay, So on your panel discussion, what you just said
51:26
Speaker 4: is exactly what you're bringing to the table. You're bringing
51:30
Speaker 4: together perspectives distributors, providers, technology providers.
51:34
Speaker 7: What's the value of having those voices in that same conversation.
51:38
Speaker 13: So I appreciate that question, and I think from a
51:41
Speaker 13: personal perspective, Todd, I think you're aware. I've been very
51:44
Speaker 13: fortunate to have sat at many different stakeholders and the ecosystem.
51:48
Speaker 13: Spent the majority of my career in pharma, then I
51:51
Speaker 13: went to a payer where I ran a specialty pharmacy,
51:54
Speaker 13: and now I'm here at McKesson.
51:56
Speaker 10: So I've been.
51:56
Speaker 13: Able personally to see where there's interdependencies, but where there's
52:00
Speaker 13: also conflict, and bringing these perspectives together creates a more
52:04
Speaker 13: honest dialogue. It surfaces where incentives are not aligned, where
52:08
Speaker 13: operational realities are underestimated, and where assumptions break down. A
52:13
Speaker 13: therapy that should bring value to patients and we have
52:18
Speaker 13: all these hurdles in between. The real payoff is accountability.
52:22
Speaker 13: When manufacturers providers and distributors are in the same room,
52:26
Speaker 13: the conversation shifts from who owns the problem to how
52:29
Speaker 13: do we solve it together?
52:31
Speaker 4: When I entered pharmacy, this is telling I'm getting one
52:34
Speaker 4: of the old people now in the industry.
52:36
Speaker 7: That makes two of us bad.
52:38
Speaker 4: Two thousand and four, So it's been a while, and
52:41
Speaker 4: especially pharmacy was not as I think the word's complex,
52:46
Speaker 4: but it's not a bad complex. But there's just more
52:50
Speaker 4: pieces of the puzzle of what specialty is today versus
52:53
Speaker 4: what it was twenty years ago.
52:55
Speaker 7: So from the vantage point of McKesson, the growth.
52:58
Speaker 4: Over the years, the technology platforms, the distribution, the wholesale,
53:05
Speaker 4: how has the role of specialty pharmacy evolved as healthcare
53:09
Speaker 4: it has become more complex.
53:11
Speaker 7: So really good question.
53:13
Speaker 13: Again, it's funny one of the panelists yesterday when I
53:19
Speaker 13: asked the question, if you looked back to ten years ago,
53:22
Speaker 13: what would your twenty sixteen self think about the specialty market?
53:27
Speaker 13: And there were two answers to that question. One was,
53:30
Speaker 13: at the end of the day, specialty distributors and specialty
53:32
Speaker 13: pharmacies are still accountable for helping ensure patients get access
53:37
Speaker 13: to these high touch complex therapies that effects still is
53:40
Speaker 13: the same, but to your point, because of all of
53:43
Speaker 13: the complexities in the market, the role of a specialty
53:46
Speaker 13: distributor and a specialty pharmacy has changed drastically. If you
53:50
Speaker 13: think about as the healthcare landscape has become more complex,
53:54
Speaker 13: that were focused on reliable access to these high cost,
53:56
Speaker 13: high touch therapies, we have expanded it being a critical
54:00
Speaker 13: connective tissue across an increasingly fragmented healthcare ecosystem as the
54:05
Speaker 13: therapies have grown more complex. I think biologics solinging therapies
54:09
Speaker 13: advanced therapies. Distribution is no longer just about moving product efficiently.
54:14
Speaker 13: It's about orchestrating access. That means enabling faster time to therapy,
54:19
Speaker 13: supporting limited distribution models, maintaining cold chain and product integrity,
54:24
Speaker 13: and integrating seamlessly. And this is the most difficult part
54:27
Speaker 13: with providers, specialty pharmacies, manufacturers and payers.
54:31
Speaker 4: The super bowl of especially pharmacy is named Assembia and
54:35
Speaker 4: I remember when our Mada health transformed and rebranded from
54:39
Speaker 4: our Mada Healthcare to Assembia, and that word means to assemble,
54:45
Speaker 4: It means to come together, and it's literally like what
54:48
Speaker 4: we're all doing so. I love that brand. I love
54:50
Speaker 4: the word Assembia. It makes me think of together our X.
54:54
Speaker 4: I always write that and then put our X in
54:56
Speaker 4: the end of together. And when you reflect on that
54:59
Speaker 4: intersection here at this amazing conference, what makes you optimistic
55:03
Speaker 4: about our industry and how we can meet the moment
55:06
Speaker 4: where we are.
55:08
Speaker 13: What makes me optimistic is the shift in the conversations
55:12
Speaker 13: leading up to as Sembion. In the meetings have had
55:13
Speaker 13: the last two plus days, people aren't just talking about innovation,
55:18
Speaker 13: They're focused on execution. I'm seeing more honesty about what
55:22
Speaker 13: is not working, a real willingness to align earlier, and
55:26
Speaker 13: a growing sense of shared accountability across all stakeholders manufacturers,
55:31
Speaker 13: specialty pharmacies, providers and distributors. The conversations are pragmatic, their
55:36
Speaker 13: solution oriented, and grounded in how care actually gets delivered.
55:41
Speaker 13: That openness, combined with a genuine willingness to collaborate, gives
55:45
Speaker 13: me confidence that industry can move beyond recognizing the challenges
55:48
Speaker 13: to actually meeting the movement. The complexity may not be
55:52
Speaker 13: going away, but the willingness to tackle it together is growing,
55:56
Speaker 13: and that's what gives me confidence.
55:58
Speaker 4: I love that Natalie Byford McKesson promise you'll be back
56:03
Speaker 4: to our show send via twenty twenty seven.
56:05
Speaker 13: Absolutely as long as you had me the road to
56:08
Speaker 13: come back, Todd great, Thank you, thank you,