HUB & Patient Support Solutions Complement Pre-Commercialization Services

Borrowing from the lyricists who orchestrated “Simply the Best,” this song title captures the perspective of a growing number of pharmaceutical manufacturers that have chosen to rely upon AscellaHealth HUB services to unlock product potential and eliminate barriers to accessing therapy for individuals with specialty conditions or rare and orphan disease.

When HUB solutions are paired with AscellaHealth’s outsourced market access and pre-commercialization services, our team acts as an extension of the manufacturer’s existing trade or market access team, resulting in maximized opportunities for ensuring patient access to therapy, optimizing reimbursement at launch and improving outcomes for patients. This powerful combination of AscellaHealth resources represents end-to-end solutions that provide manufacturers with a ‘one-stop” resource as differentiated from working with multiple outsourced vendors that focus upon narrower subsets of capabilities or specialties.

In this increasingly complex and rapidly evolving outsourcing landscape, our dedicated unit of experienced professionals work collaboratively with the manufacturer’s in-house resources to implement our integrated solutions that support all initiatives throughout the product lifecycle and beyond.

Seven Critical Success Factors Throughout the Product Lifecycle of Specialty Drugs, Cell and Gene Therapies (CGTs)

We invite our readers to learn more about the opportunities to impact product launch, emphasizing the importance of engaging our end-to-end, HUB solutions very early in the process – as long as 4-5 years prior to launch.

1. Engage a single, cross-functional Specialty Pharmacy (SP) solutions partner for a variety of HUB services including pre-commercialization, launch and market access solutions centralized capabilities, including those performed by other outsourced vendors across the care continuum, to ease the administrative burden of managing multiple vendors, allowing manufacturers to work with a single resource for all program and drug launch milestones.

2. SP partner HUB services should be: a) flexible, allowing manufacturers to choose only the services they need, whether it’s all the capabilities or a la carte b) data-driven, providing real-time, actionable data that emanates from one source to support real-world evidence and outcomes-based data management c) complete, meeting manufacturers’ needs to shift away from multiple big box vendors and opt for an all-inclusive program that offers white-glove support and service d) consultative, building a relationship with the manufacturer that demonstrates an understanding of their challenges and supports the development of solutions based upon active listening e) customizable, positioned to respond to the unique requirements of manufacturers who express dissatisfaction with “off-the-shelf” or cookie-cutter offerings that fail to address their unmet needs.

3. AscellaHealth also has introduced novel pharmaceutical financial solutions backed by technology -- a critical requirement in this new era of expensive specialty medications and ultra-expensive CGTs. Alleviating the challenge for payers to make a high one-time payment, the AscellaHealth financial solution allows payers to convert the expenditure into small, predictable payments over time.

Additionally, our Copay Advisor™ program monitors and tracks manufacturer copay funds, enabling complete transparency into copay transactions, to ensure allotted funds are utilized to help offset costs of expensive therapies for patients. These capabilities not only enhance access to expensive life-saving medications, but they also support the payers’ transition to value-based payment models under outcomes-based contracts, offering transparency into the patient journey that is documented by real-time data collection and analysis.

4. When HUB services employ a consumer-focused, patient-centric approach, manufacturers can proactively respond to market demands for higher levels of patient engagement in clinical decision-making and protocols. By empowering individuals with information and education and by giving them personalized guidance with a ‘human touch’, this increases patient engagement, boosts satisfaction scores and enhances the patient experience throughout the healthcare journey.

To further ensure optimal therapeutic outcomes, our care coordinators are expert call center trained in all specialty conditions and rare diseases, utilize technology-based tools and algorithms to break down barriers to medication access, streamline communications, between prescriber, patient and pharmacy and ultimately decrease time to fill of prescriptions.

5. Comprehensive third-party logistics (3PL) are an essential component of HUB services, ensuring the flow of products from the initial point of production to the final destination – the patient. As an SP partner that specializes in rare diseases, our services are designed to optimize the supply chain for every type of pharmaceutical product and are built to scale in response to the size and growth of product inventory.
6. Exclusive international distribution options are constructed to safeguard accurate and cost-effective services to ensure patient access to therapies whenever and wherever needed. Additionally, our programs for limited distribution drugs (LDDs), medications to which only a handful of pharmacies have access, offer high-touch attention to special handling requirements that span refrigeration, overnight delivery or shipment tracking that supports uninterrupted therapy. This is especially important for specialty medications with complex molecules, including biologics and CGTs with narrower target patient populations.
7. As the nation’s payers wield their power to influence product reimbursement and plan coverage, the need for strategic payer expertise is essential. HUB service teams that are knowledgeable, experienced and thoroughly understand the payer mix are valuable allies in successful market access. AscellaHealth is fortunate to have a cadre of professionals who have the contacts are market savvy to negotiate optimal pricing strategies that are in place on the day of product launch.

Engage with a HUB Services Partner Early in the Process

As we have stressed in all our communications, it is important to leverage our HUB services during all phases of pre-commercialization and market access – which can be 4-5 years prior to launch. Initial and long-term growth strategies have proven to deliver meaningful and tangible results, optimizing patient engagement across the care journey and advancing medication adherence and affordability.

As an independent resource for manufacturers, we continue to evolve, expand and refine our comprehensive HUB services and are able to pivot in response to unforeseen market changes.

Please connect with us at the Asembia Specialty Pharmacy Summit in Las Vegas, April 30 – May 4, 2023. To schedule a meeting, please click here.