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Specialty Pharmacies
Specialty pharmacy refers to distribution channels designed to handle specialty drugs — pharmaceutical therapies that are either high cost, high complexity and/or high touch. High touch refers to higher degree of complexity in terms of distribution, administration, or patient management which drives up the cost of the drugs. In the early years specialty pharmacy providers attached "high-touch services to their overall price tags" arguing that patients who receive specialty pharmaceuticals "need high levels of ancillary and follow-up care to ensure that the drug spend is not wasted on them." An example of a specialty drug that would only be available through specialty pharmacy is interferon beta-1a (Avonex), a treatment for MS that requires a refrigerated chain of distribution and costs $17,000 a year. Some specialty pharmacies deal in pharmaceuticals that treat complex or rare chronic conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, H.I.V. psoriasis, inflammatory bowel ...
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Specialty Drugs
Specialty drugs or specialty pharmaceuticals are a recent designation of pharmaceuticals that are classified as high-cost, high complexity and/or high touch. Specialty drugs are often biologics—"drugs derived from living cells" that are injectable or infused (although some are oral medications). They are used to treat complex or rare chronic conditions such as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, hemophilia, H.I.V. psoriasis, inflammatory bowel disease and hepatitis C. In 1990 there were 10 specialty drugs on the market, in the mid-1990s there were fewer than 30, by 2008 there were 200, and by 2015 there were 300. Drugs are often defined as specialty because their price is much higher than that of non-specialty drugs. Medicare defines any drug for which the negotiated price is $670 per month or more, as a specialty drug which is placed in a specialty tier that requires a higher patient cost sharing. Drugs are also identified as specialty when there is a special handling requirement or t ...
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Orphan Drug
An orphan drug is a pharmaceutical agent developed to treat medical conditions which, because they are so rare, would not be profitable to produce without government assistance. The conditions are referred to as orphan diseases. The assignment of orphan status to a disease and to drugs developed to treat it is a matter of public policy in many countries and has yielded medical breakthroughs that might not otherwise have been achieved, due to the economics of drug research and development. In the U.S. and the EU, it is easier to gain marketing approval for an orphan drug. There may be other financial incentives, such as an extended period of exclusivity, during which the producer has sole rights to market the drug. All are intended to encourage development of drugs which would otherwise lack sufficient profit motive to attract corporate research budgets and personnel. Definition According to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), an orphan drug is defined as one "intended for ...
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Commcare Pharmacy
Commcare Pharmacy is a pharmacy with headquarters in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The company was #374 on '' Inc.'' magazine's 2009 list of the fastest-growing private companies in America. As a specialty pharmacy, Commcare has access to and dispenses restricted distribution products. These products are typically not available via other distribution channels (such as retail pharmacies) due to FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ... restrictions. References American companies established in 1996 Retail companies established in 1996 Companies based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida Pharmacies of the United States 1996 establishments in Florida Health care companies based in Florida {{US-retail-company-stub ...
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Walgreens
Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, and photo services. It was founded in Chicago, Illinois, in 1901, and is headquartered in the Chicago suburb of Deerfield, Illinois. On December 31, 2014, Walgreens and Switzerland-based Alliance Boots merged to form a new holding company, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Walgreens became a subsidiary of the new company, which retained its Deerfield headquarters and trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol . The company was found by a federal jury to have "substantially contributed to" the opioid crisis. History Walgreens began in 1901, with a small food front store on the corner of Bowen and Cottage Grove Avenues in Chicago, owned by Dixon, Illinois native Charles R. Walgreen. By 1913, Walgreens had grown to four stores on Chicago's South ...
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Express Scripts
Express Scripts Holding Company is a pharmacy benefit management (PBM) organization. In 2017 it was the 22nd-largest company in the United States by total revenue as well as the largest pharmacy benefit management (PBM) organization in the United States. Express Scripts had 2016 revenues of $100.752 billion. Since December 20, 2018, the company has been a direct subsidiary of Bloomfield, Connecticut-based Cigna. The term "Scripts" in the company title refers to the widely used clipped version of prescription. Headquartered in Greater St. Louis within unincorporated North St. Louis County, Missouri, Express Scripts provides integrated pharmacy benefit management services including network-pharmacy claims processing; home delivery pharmacy services; specialty pharmacy benefit management, through its subsidiary Accredo; benefit-design consultation; drug-utilization review; formulary management; and medical and drug data analysis services to manage drug plans for health plans, se ...
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Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Allegheny County () is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's second-most populous county, following Philadelphia County. The county seat is Pittsburgh. Allegheny County is included in the Pittsburgh, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area, and in the Pittsburgh Designated Market Area. Allegheny was the first county in Pennsylvania to be given a Native American name. It was named after the Lenape word for the Allegheny River. The meaning of "Allegheny" is uncertain. It is usually said to mean "fine river". Stewart says that the name may come from a Lenape account of an ancient mythical tribe called ''"Allegewi"'', who lived along the river before being taken over by the Lenape. History Prior to European contact, this area was settled for thousands of years by succeeding cultures of indigenous peoples. During the colonial era, historic native groups kno ...
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CVS Pharmacy
CVS Pharmacy, Inc. is an American retail corporation. A subsidiary of CVS Health, it is headquartered in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. It was also known as, and originally named, the Consumer Value Store and was founded in Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1963. The chain was owned by its original holding company Melville Corporation from its inception until its current parent company (CVS Health) was spun off into its own company in 1996. CVS Pharmacy is currently the largest pharmacy chain in the United States by number of locations (over 9,600 as of 2016) and total prescription revenue. Its parent company ranks as the fifth largest U.S. corporation by FY2020 revenues in the ''Fortune'' 500. The parent company of CVS Pharmacy's leading competitor (Walgreens) ranked 19th for the same time period. CVS sells prescription drugs and a wide assortment of general merchandise, including over-the-counter drugs, beauty products and cosmetics, film and photo finishing services, seasonal merchandis ...
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CVS Health
CVS Health Corporation (previously CVS Corporation and CVS Caremark Corporation) is an American healthcare company that owns CVS Pharmacy, a retail pharmacy chain; CVS Caremark, a pharmacy benefits manager; and Aetna, a health insurance provider, among many other brands. The company's headquarters is in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. History of CVS Consumer Value Stores (CVS) was founded in 1963 by three partners: brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein and Ralph Hoagland, who grew the venture from a parent company, Mark Steven, Inc., that helped retailers manage their health and beauty aid product lines. The business began as a chain of health and beauty aid stores, but within several years, pharmacies were added. To expand, the company joined the Melville Corporation, which managed a string of retail businesses. Following a period of growth in the 1980s and 1990s, CVS Corporation spun off from Melville in 1996, becoming a standalone company trading on the New York Stock Exchange ...
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Growth Hormones
Growth hormone (GH) or somatotropin, also known as human growth hormone (hGH or HGH) in its human form, is a peptide hormone that stimulates growth, cell reproduction, and cell regeneration in humans and other animals. It is thus important in human development. GH also stimulates production of IGF-1 and increases the concentration of glucose and free fatty acids. It is a type of mitogen which is specific only to the receptors on certain types of cells. GH is a 191-amino acid, single-chain polypeptide that is synthesized, stored and secreted by somatotropic cells within the lateral wings of the anterior pituitary gland. A recombinant form of hGH called somatropin (INN) is used as a prescription drug to treat children's growth disorders and adult growth hormone deficiency. In the United States, it is only available legally from pharmacies by prescription from a licensed health care provider. In recent years in the United States, some health care providers are prescribing growth h ...
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Imiglucerase
Imiglucerase is a medication used in the treatment of Gaucher's disease. It is a recombinant DNA-produced analogue of the human enzyme β-glucocerebrosidase. Cerezyme is a freeze-dried medicine containing imiglucerase, manufactured by Genzyme Corporation. It is given intravenously after reconstitution as a treatment for Type 1 and Type 3 Gaucher's disease. It is available in formulations containing 200 or 400 units per vial. The specific activity of highly purified human enzyme is 890,000 units/mg, meanwhile the enzyme activity produced by recombinant DNA technology is approximately 40 units/mg. A typical dose is 2.5U/kg every two weeks, up to a maximum of 60 U/kg once every two weeks, and safety has been established from ages 2 and up. It is one of more expensive medications, with an annual cost of $200,000 per person in the United States. Imiglucerase has been granted orphan drug status in the United States, Australia, and Japan. Cerezyme was one of the drugs manufactured at ...
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Henri Termeer
Henri A. Termeer (February 28, 1946 – May 12, 2017) was a Dutch biotechnology executive and entrepreneur who is considered a pioneer in corporate strategy in the biotechnology industry for his tenure as CEO at Genzyme. Termeer created a business model adopted by many others in the biotech industry by garnering steep prices— mainly from insurers and government payers— for therapies for rare genetic disorders known as orphan diseases that mainly affect children. Genzyme uses biological processes to manufacture drugs that are not easily copied by generic-drug makers. The drugs are also protected by orphan drug acts in various countries which provides extensive protection from competition and ensures coverage by publicly funded insurers. As CEO of Genzyme from 1981 to 2011, he developed corporate strategies for growth including optimizing institutional embeddedness nurturing vast networks of influential groups and clusters: doctors, private equity, patient-groups, insurance, hea ...
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Alglucerase
Alglucerase was a biopharmaceutical drug for the treatment of Gaucher's disease. It was a modified form of human β-glucocerebrosidase enzyme, where the non-reducing ends of the oligosaccharide chains have been terminated with mannose residues. Ceredase is the trade name of a citrate buffered solution of alglucerase that was manufactured by Genzyme Corporation from human placental tissue. It is given intravenously in the treatment of Type 1 Gaucher's disease. This was the first drug approved as an enzyme replacement therapy. It was approved by the FDA in 1991. It has been withdrawn from the marketFDA Prescription and Over-the-Counter Drug Product List. 32ND Edition Cumulative Supplement Number 3: March 2012. Additions/Deletions for Prescription Drug Product List/ref> due to the approval of similar drugs made with recombinant DNA technology instead of being harvested from tissue; drugs made recombinantly, since there is no concern about diseases being transmitted from the tis ...
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