Specialty Medications

What makes a medication a specialty medication? Specialty medications are used to treat patients with chronic, serious health conditions. These drugs are both complex and expensive, and typically need special storage and handling. These drug therapies may require frequent dosing adjustments and intensive clinical monitoring… Read More

Examples of these types of specialty medications include drugs for inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, drugs for multiple sclerosis, cancer medications, and HIV medications.

2011 Trends for Specialty Medications

Spending on specialty medications has been rising steadily for several years; however, this trend eased slightly in 2011, with an overall year-over-year growth of 17.1% (down from 19.6% in 2010). The top three specialty therapy classes—inflammatory conditions, multiple sclerosis, and cancer—top the list of most-used specialty medications, representing 57.6% of the total.

Although prevalence of specialty medication utilization is relatively low in the overall population, with only about 1% of people requiring these medications, costs are extremely high – averaging $1,766.79 per prescription. The top three specialty therapy classes each saw spending increase more than 15%.

Hepatitis C had the greatest increase—194.8%— which was influenced by the release of two new oral drugs.

Want to learn more? Spend some time in this section for a thorough review of the current trends for specialty medications, in addition to Express Scripts’ 2011 Drug Trend Report.

Specialty Medications

Decision Support for Oncology Treatment

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Cancer treatment continues to become more complex and expensive. As part of our focus on enabling better decisions that lead to healthier outcomes while reducing waste, we are launching an oncology decision support module with eviti, Inc., a health information technology company. Decision-Making Support Oncologists will now be able to access eviti’s clinical library of …

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Specialty Medications

Bridging Gaps for Coordinated Cancer Care

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The American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) annual meeting was themed Building Bridges to Conquer Cancer.  At Express Scripts, this concept comes to life as we bridge cancer-care gaps every day at our Oncology Therapeutic Resource Center (TRC). Patient-Centric Care According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, the number of cancer cases …

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Specialty Medications

Actionable Data Delivered to Physicians

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International Data Group’s CIO Magazine has recognized Express Scripts for operational and strategic excellence in information technology, naming the company to its 26th Annual CIO 100 list. For the past 26 years, the CIO 100 list has identified and honored 100 organizations that have distinguished themselves by creating business value through the effective and innovative use of …

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Specialty Medications

Reviewing Oncology Rx Stats Before ASCO ’13

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Over the next few days, researchers, clinicians and many others will gather at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago. Significant progress has been made in the fight against cancer in recent years. More than 1 million Americans are diagnosed with cancer each year, but deaths from the disease are down 20% …

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Specialty Medications

Virtual Coaching for Hepatitis C Patients

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Hepatitis C affects approximately 3.2 million U.S. patients. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that deaths from hepatitis C surpassed deaths from AIDS in 2007. Protease inhibitors offer many patients new therapy options. Used in combination with the traditional therapies of interferon and ribavirin — as a triple-therapy regimen — these …

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