Brad McElya, Pharm.D., on Drug Approvals and First-in-Class Drugs | Asembia's AXS25 Summit
McElya, senior director, clinical pharmacy at Walgreens, notes that approximately half of the drugs approved by the FDA last year were first-in-class drugs.
In a second segment from an interview with Managed Healthcare Executive before he gave his drug pipeline talk today at Asembia's AXS25 Summit in Las Vegas, Brad McElya, Pharm.D., senior director, clinical pharmacy, at Walgreens, discussed focusing on drugs that are "first in class" — the drugs that work in a new way to tackle a disease. He noted that 24 of the 50 novel drugs approved by the FDA last year were first-in-class medications. McElya mentioned the 2024 approval of Rezdiffra (resmetirom), a treatment for metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), and that he expected to see "some activity" in MASH treatment in this year's pipeline. He said he also expected to see some first-in-class treatments of hemophilia and also "brain penetrants."
GLP-1 Tiering Agreement Reached, Says Optum Rx President
May 3rd 2024Health plans that use Optum Rx as their pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) will be allowed to tier their coverage of GLP-1s and still receive rebates under an agreement the PBM has reached with the manufacturers, says the PBM president. Optum officials said later that the negotiations were still ongoing,
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Specialty Pharmacies Drive Cost Savings in Value-Based Care | Asembia 2024
May 2nd 2024Earlier this week at the 2024 Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas, Managed Healthcare Executive editors spoke with Bill McElnea, vice president of population health at Shields Health Solutions, about specialty pharmacies reducing costs for patients.
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