MONTVALE, N.J., October 31, 2023 – EmpiRx Health, the leader in clinically-driven, customer-first pharmacy care, today announced that after careful clinical review it has added two Humira (Adalimumab) biosimilars to its preferred products. Both biosimilars offer substantial cost savings over the original Humira product. As one of the only PBMs to embrace the lower cost versions of this widely used medication, EmpiRx Health’s move is consistent with the company’s value-based, clinically driven pharmacy care approach, which puts the pharmacist at the center of the care model to help optimize patient health outcomes and reduce costs.
Still relatively new to the US market, biosimilars are biologic medications that are highly similar to drugs already approved by the FDA. EmpiRx Health has been an early adopter of biosimilars because they offer the same level of safety and effectiveness as the original products, but at a lower cost – sometimes substantially lower.
Biosimilars came into the spotlight earlier this year with the launch of seven different biosimilars for Humira, a drug that has represented a significant portion of health benefits plan spending since its launch in 2002. The pricing for the new Humira biosimilars fluctuated widely, with some products being just 5% lower than the original drug’s list price while others were priced more than 80% less.
EmpiRx Health’s pharmacy experts performed a thorough review of available clinical data, dosing and formulation options, and other critical factors impacting member experience, and then selected two of the lowest-priced Humira biosimilars for its formulary. This clearly demonstrates EmpiRx Health’s commitment to clinically focused, value-based decision making that puts customers and patients first.
“As the nation has been celebrating the essential role of pharmacists during American Pharmacists Month, our prioritization of lower cost biosimilars demonstrates yet again how EmpiRx Health is helping to transform pharmacy care,” said Danny Sanchez, Chief Executive Officer of EmpiRx Health. “At the heart of that transformation is our unique pharmacist-centric, customer-first business model that is diametrically opposed to the old, volume-driven PBM business approach.”
“Rather than the broken PBM model of maximizing drug rebates at the expense of plan sponsors and their members, we opted for the significantly lower priced biosimilars that not only help to improve patient care but also reduce costs for plan sponsors,” said Polina Kogan, RPh, PharmD, Chief Pharmacy Officer of EmpiRx Health. “At EmpiRx Health, our frontline pharmacists support and collaborate closely with physicians to ensure clinically appropriate care that helps to keep patients healthy while lowering overall drug costs. Lower priced biosimilars are a key component of that value-based pharmacy care approach.”
Looking ahead, biosimilars are expected to continue to have a major impact on pharmacy care and healthcare costs overall, benefiting customers and patients. EmpiRx Health’s clinical pharmacists actively monitor the drug pipeline to identify new biosimilars for formulary placement. Before such recommendations are made, they review all necessary factors such as clinical efficacy and market availability.
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