Episode 8: New Products and Limited Distribution Channels

Ray Tancredi, RPh, MBA, CSP, vice president of specialty pharmacy development at Walgreens; Cheryl Allen, BS Pharm, MBA, vice president of business development and industry relations for Diplomat Pharmacy; Nicholas Karalis, RPh, of Elwyn Pharmacy Group; Stacey Ness, PharmD, RPh, CSP, MSCS, AAHIVP, director of specialty clinical services for Managed Healthcare Associates*; and Renee Rayburg, RPh, senior director of clinical consulting at Artemetrx, discuss the need for limited distribution, and developing trends moving forward.

The panelists agreed that there is a place for limited distribution, such as for rare or orphan diseases, for products with complicated risk evaluation and mitigation strategy programs, or when detailed inventory reports are needed due to the costs of manufacturing. Karalis predicts that patient care could become increasingly complicated, especially in the oncology setting, where there is the potential for a single patient to be prescribed more than one medicine that is in limited distribution, which may mean having to deal with multiple specialty pharmacies at a time.

Allen noted that specialty pharmacies, as providers of these limited distribution products, may be able to facilitate the integration of the different players involved in the patient’s treatment network. Ness, however, pointed out that not all specialty pharmacies excel at this task. Tancredi added that there will continue to be limited distribution until new products for orphan diseases or cancer can be handled uniformly throughout the continuum of pharmacies.

*The views expressed are those of the individual alone and not of Managed Health Care Associates, Inc.