Your New One-Stop Destination for All Things Pharmacy

Visitors to our daily news website may have been caught off guard by some radical changes to our online home last month, as the Specialty Pharmacy Times® site merged with its sister publication, Pharmacy Times®. Although this may have seemed as though the Specialty Pharmacy Times® site disappeared, rest assured that all of the latest news and information about the specialty pharmacy market is still accessible on PharmacyTimes.com and supplemented by even more applicable resources from our Pharmacy Times® network. We urge you to visit the new site and explore the myriad offerings that cater to stakeholders throughout the pharmacy space—specialty, retail, payer, and health system, as well as the home of Pharmacy Times Continuing Education® for all of your CE needs.

Via both the website and this journal, we will continue striving to keep you up- to-date with the latest news and actionable insights from some of the top voices in specialty pharmacy. As such, in this latest issue, we present a comprehensive recap of the recent 2019 National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) Annual Meeting & Expo, held in Washington, DC, from September 9-12. The annual NASP conference has become a can’t-miss event for specialty stakeholders to stay on top of rapid developments in the field, offering numerous opportunities to meet with key opinion leaders.

On page 36, our NASP recap section highlights several of the key sessions from this year’s conference. Check out our recap of the session, “Drug Pricing Reform: A Look at the Current Status and What’s to Come.” The article reviews some of the key regulatory actions taken since the Trump administration released its blueprint to lower drug prices, such as the pharmacy gag clause ban, proposed actions on list prices in direct-to-consumer ads, direct-and-indirect remuneration fees, and Part D rebates.

Of note, current senior adviser to the Bipartisan Policy Center and former acting administrator of CMS Andy Slavitt discussed the glaring need for new, innovative solutions to address the growing cost and complexity of the US health care system. Notably, Slavitt emphasized that pharmacists can play a key part in shaping the future of health care by reimagining their roles in the system and looking for opportunities to innovate.

You can also stay on top of the lat- est developments in specialty pharmacy in this journal and on our revamped daily news website at PharmacyTimes. com. Follow us online and through our e-newsletters (sign up at pharmacytimes. org/signup) to assure your pharmacy is prepared to prosper in the year ahead.