AJMC® in the Press, March 22, 2019

An article from The Pharma Letter cited a study published in The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®) on the cost of monoclonal antibodies. The study, “Pricing of Monoclonal Antibody Therapies: Higher If Used for Cancer?” found that the annual price of these therapies is about $100,000 higher in oncology and hematology than in other disease states.

A study published in the February 2015 issue of AJMC^®, “Leveraging Remote Behavioral Health Interventions to Improve Medical Outcomes and Reduce Costs,” was included in an article from The Heartland Institute. The study found that successful patient engagement in a national, remotely delivered behavioral health intervention can reduce medical utilization in a targeted cardiac population.

The Biosimilars Council’s biosimilars bulletin included an article from AJMC^®’s sister site The Center for Biosimilars^®. The article, “How Will Biosimilars Fare in the FDA Post Gottlieb and Christl?,” took a look at the questions raised about how the FDA will approach biosimilars with the departures of Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, MD, and Leah Christl, PhD, previously the director of the Therapeutic Biologics and Biosimilars Staff in the Office of New Drugs.

The National Pharmaceutical Council’s Monday CER Daily Newsfeed included an article from AJMC^® on value-based contracts. The article, “Change Healthcare’s Annual Survey Points to Challenges for Value-Based Contracts,” found that 39.8% respondents of the survey said the majority of value-based relationships within the healthcare market will not contain both upside and downside risk for another 3 to 5 years.

Tuesday’s newsfeed included AJMC^®’s conference coverage of the Value-Based Insurance Design (V-BID) Summit. The article, “Creating a New Way to Implement VBID Principles in Exchange Health Plans,” covered a session from the conference that explained that while there has been increased interest in V-BID, the lack of standardization has slowed widespread implementation.