Applying the Benefits of the Specialty Model to the Retail Channel

Gregory Leighton, RPh, vice president of clinical solutions and patient access for Asembia, addresses how the specialty pharmacy model can be applied to the retail channel.

Gregory Leighton, RPh: When you think of an existing specialty pharmacy model, there's usually 2 things that draw somebody's attention to. Number 1 the price of the product that they're being treated, and the clinical complexity of the disease state the patient has and needs support in.

So, when you look at that, and you look at how, from an operational standpoint orders come in and the different service offerings that a specialty pharmacy provides, whether that's reimbursement support, prior authorization support, clinical consult services, extra adherence initiatives, or compliance initiatives; when you look at all that traditionally focuses on products that are at a higher cost and treat clinically complex disease states; when you actually look at and segment that experience, and when you look at the different key touch points, you can actually take those specialty services and then apply them more cost efficiently to a lower-cost type product that would traditionally be filled in, say, a retail setting, where there's heavy brand competition the product may not be on the patient's formulary, there may be different access and different touch points that run into problems with those with those particular products.

So, being able to take those specialty services and then apply them I would say holistically to an entire two other brands of products, by leveraging technology solutions to do it, you can actually take those key services that I mentioned and apply into a retail channel.