Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit & Expo Draws Record Participation, Focuses on Value

FLORHAM PARK, N.J., May 15, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 5-9, 2014, Armada Health Care hosted its 10th Annual Specialty Pharmacy Summit at the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year's event gathered another record number of attendees, including more than 3,000 industry stakeholders. Participants comprised specialty pharmacy owners, pharmacy directors, and executives from hundreds of specialty pharmacies and pharmaceutical and biotech manufacturers. Also in attendance were drug wholesalers, payers & PBMs, consultants in the health care sector, and other related technology and industry vendors.

This year's featured topics revolved around drug pricing, provider services and access, and also included many discussions about new hepatitis C drugs and 340B practices. Another hot topic discussed at the meeting was biosimilars. It has been estimated by various sources that $20 billion in product will lose patent over the next four years, and assuming a developed US market, IMS predicts the global oncology biosimilar market will be worth approximately $12 billion by the year 2020.

During his State of the Industry presentation, Jim Robinson, president, Astellas Pharma US, petitioned attendees to continue working together as patients face new challenges in the evolving health care landscape. "We should be proud of the significant accomplishments that the pharma and biotech companies have made over the years, working in partnership with specialty pharmacies, managed care organizations and providers, but we still have a great deal of work to do, especially regarding reimbursement and improving customer experiences," Robinson noted.

Other speakers throughout the week challenged audience members to think about access and control when bringing a specialty drug to market and to consider carefully the number of specialty pharmacy providers to use in this endeavor. They noted that brand teams should consider optimization of the right channel for a medication and plan the appropriate fulfillment approach early, as soon as the product launches.

"The Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit is one of the few venues that brings together key stakeholders from various industries: specialty pharmacy, the pharmaceutical industry, and the payer industry," commented Albert Thigpen, senior vice president, Catamaran. "The meeting provides us with an opportunity to express our needs and align the incentives across all of the key stakeholders in a very candid, objective way. We cover everything from reimbursement to patient services to supply chain logistics to product launch criteria," he added. "The Summit truly drives collaboration and innovation."

The 11th Annual Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit & Expo will return to Wynn Las Vegas and Encore May 4-8, 2015.

About Armada Health Care, LLC
Armada Health Care, LLC (Armada) is the industry's largest specialty pharmacy group purchasing and contracting organization and is a leading provider for channel management solutions, commercialization strategies, and support services for the specialty pharmacy industry. Armada provides comprehensive and cost-effective access to the nation's $100 billion specialty pharmacy industry. Armada offers pharmacy providers, manufacturers, health plans and wholesale distributors a total channel management solution through customized patient programs, prescription data management services, online platforms, and unique purchasing agreements on specialty pharmacy products. Armada is also the founder and host of the nation's largest annual specialty pharmacy summit and expo.

Contact:
Darcey Brennan
Vice President of Marketing
Armada Health Care
100 Campus Drive
Florham Park, NJ 07932
973-564-8004
[email protected]

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140423/77808

SOURCE Armada Health Care, LLC