Highlights from the Current Issue

Cover Story

PBM Consolidation: Better Pricing or Just Less Competition?

The growth of specialty pharmaceuticals, including biologics, is forcing payers and employers to look at cost-saving strategies for managing those drugs. How will they do it if only one large PBM rules the specialty pharmacy network?
Ed Silverman

Q&A

A Conversation with Cheryl Larson, Vice President, Midwest Business Group on Health

By 2017, 40 percent of medical spend will be on biologics. It’s time for employers to learn how to manage these drugs.
Michael D. Dalzell

In Search of the Perfect Business Model

As personalized medicine moves into the mainstream, makers of diagnostics must face a new economic reality. How to develop a value proposition in a healthcare market that is becoming increasingly elastic?
Bob Carlson, MHA

Innovation and Competition: Will Biosimilars Succeed?

The creation of an FDA approval pathway for biosimilars is complex and fraught with hazard. Yes, innovation and market competition are at stake. But so are efficacy and patient safety.
Erwin A. Blackstone, PhD, and Joseph P. Fuhr Jr., PhD

Departments

Openers

They’re Here … Now!

Katherine T. Adams

Drug Track

Clinical Trials, Research, and FDA Findings

Michael D. Dalzell

The Federal Line

Finding the Right Formula for Bundled Payments

John Carroll

Personalized Medicine

Saving Dollars, Preventing Disappointment

Bob Carlson, MHA

Biotechnology Healthcare’s 2011 Editorial Index

Trends

Oncology Costs Must Be Reined In, Say Payers

Payers see wasteful spend in cancer care.
Katherine T. Adams

Featured Supplements

Immunotherapy for Advanced Prostate Cancer: A Novel Treatment Option to Improve Survival

Prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer death in men in the United States. Sipuleucel-T (Provenge), the first autologous cellular immunotherapy approved by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, improves survival in men with asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic metastatic castration-resistant (hormone refractory) prostate cancer. This Clinical Brief discusses the epidemiology, natural history, and risk factors for prostate cancer, current diagnosis and treatment modalities, and the emergence of immunotherapy as a novel treatment to improve survival in men with advanced disease. Roger Muller, MD, FACEP, comments on managed care considerations. Safety information and full prescribing information for Sipuleucel-T are also provided.

Comparative Effectiveness Research: Paving the Way for Evidence-Based Decision Making

The second in a series of topics of interest for the managed care community, this brief details the background of comparative effectiveness research (CER) in the United States and discusses the goals versus the uses of CER and the importance of collecting real-world data to support evidence-based medicine. Included are examples of the effective use of CER in clinical practice.

Personalized Medicine: Identifying the Appropriate Patient through Biomarkers in Oncology

The first in a series of topics of interest for the managed care community, this brief discusses the value of biomarkers that can complement or replace existing screening tools to detect cancer at an early stage and, therefore, guide optimum treatment. A history of biomarkers is included as well as a detailed discussion about trastuzumab (Herceptin®), developed with the support of biomarkers, and new biomarkers in development.

Latest Biotechnology News

FDA Issues Alert on Potential Dangers of Liberation Therapy for Multiple Sclerosis

05/15/12 – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting health care professionals and patients about injuries and death associated with the use of an experimental procedure sometimes called “liberation therapy” or the “liberation procedure” to treat chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency (CCSVI).

With More Biosimilars Approved, FDA Urged to Track Adverse Events

05/15/12 – Patient safety must be "a non-negotiable priority" for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and drugmakers as they seek to bring biosimilar medicines to market, and that focus "does not end with drug approval," regulators have been told.

Radioactive Agent Wins FDA Approval as Adjunct to Other Diagnostic Tests for Alzheimer's Disease

04/10/12 – Eli Lilly and Company and Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of Amyvid, a radioactive diagnostic agent indicated for brain imaging of beta-amyloid plaques in patients with cognitive impairment who are being evaluated for Alzheimer's Disease and other causes of cognitive decline.

Study Explores Post-Treatment Effects on Breast Cancer Survivors

04/10/12 – More than 60 percent of breast cancer survivors report at least one treatment-related complication even six years after their diagnosis, according to a new study led by a researcher from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

New Compendium Unites Genetic Profiling with Drug Testing

03/30/12 – Two compendiums of data unite genetic profiling with drug testing to create the most complete picture yet of how mutations can shape a cancer’s response to therapy.