Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit Continues to Evolve

Since it was launched 12 years ago, the growth of Asembia’s Specialty Pharmacy Summit has mirrored the success of the industry. The inaugural summit included only 24 individuals from a handful of pharmacies, which may be hard to believe since attendance boomed to nearly 6000 individuals from numerous organizations this year.

The 2017 Specialty Pharmacy Summit was held from April 30 through May 3 at the Wynn and Encore in Las Vegas. The summit offered attendees continuing education credits, business seminars, and sessions that examined the evolving nature of the specialty industry. In total, the summit featured nearly 100 hours of seminars, continuing education sessions, business workshops, networking and social events, and an exhibit hall that included more than 150 organizations.

Additionally, attendees had countless opportunities to network over the course of the meeting. The combination of informative content presented with the collaborative environment has consistently led attendees to return, year after year, to stay on top of the latest trends in specialty pharmacy.

“We are thrilled with the record turnout this year and the overwhelmingly positive feedback we continue to receive,” Robert Irene, RPh, co-founder and president of Asembia, told Specialty Pharmacy Times®. “Our annual post meeting survey continues to indicate mostly everyone is pleased with the agenda, educational content, and choice of location, along with overall management of the entire event.”

Importantly, the summit offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity for collaboration between attendees, including specialty pharmacies, payers, manufacturers, and integrated delivery networks. More recently, attendance has grown to include investment bankers, private equity firms, research analysts, media outlets and other nontraditional organizations that have expressed an interest in specialty.

One of this year’s featured sessions, Specialty Pharmaceuticals and Pharmacy: Today Tomorrow and Beyond, included an evaluation of the specialty industry from thought leaders Adam Fein, PhD, Doug Long, and Eric Percher. These experts captivated the audience with a discussion about the trends that are changing specialty drug channels and analysis of strategic responses from payers, manufacturers, wholesalers, and pharmacies. Perhaps the most exciting facet of this year’s summit was the general session, moderated by Emmy Award-winner Leeza Gibbons, and featuring keynote speaker, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

During the session, Gov Schwarzenegger discussed his rise to fame, which can be compared to a patient’s journey in the specialty realm, in that a support system is always needed for success. The memorable and informative general session had a lasting impact for all attending the summit. For the 2018 summit, Asembia plans to continue to deliver the relevant content and engaging events that have made this meeting a can’t-miss event in specialty.

“We are well into planning our 2018 summit agenda and speaker profiles. I am most excited to incorporate a number of great ideas sent in from the postsummit survey responses we received,” Irene said. “If you ask what I am least excited about for 2018, my answer would be trying to top our 2017 keynote, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was fantastic!”