A person drives past a Walgreens truck owned by the Walgreens Boots Alliance on November 26, 2021 in Manhattan, New York City.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
Walgreens announced Thursday that it will work directly with drugmakers to bring cell and gene therapies to U.S. patients as part of a broader expansion of its specialty pharmacy services.
The company announced that it is creating a new business unit for its specialty pharmacy segment, which will include specialty pharmacy subsidiary AllianceRx. The unit will be part of the core business of the US retail pharmacy division. Meanwhile, Shields Health Solutions, a subsidiary that supports specialty pharmacies owned by the health system, will remain under Walgreens’ U.S. health division.
Specialty pharmacies have become a major player in the U.S. healthcare system, particularly as chronic diseases become more prevalent.
Specialty pharmacies offer medications that require extreme care in handling, storage, and distribution. Treatments are often aimed at patients with chronic, rare or complex diseases such as cancer, Crohn’s disease and HIV. Specialty pharmacies also offer counseling or financial assistance to help patients with these costly treatments.
The company’s new investments to “transform” its specialty pharmacy services include the opening of a newly licensed facility in Pittsburgh specializing in cell and gene therapy services. The 18,000 square meter center will help drug manufacturers and healthcare providers, among other things, navigate the complex supply chain for these treatments and manage patient needs.
Andrew Brookes | Image source | Getty Images
Walgreens’ decision to launch cell and gene therapy services comes after a surge in approvals of these drugs in the U.S. and European Union last year. These are one-time, expensive treatments that target a patient’s genetic source or cell to cure or significantly alter the course of a disease. Some health experts expect cell and gene therapies to replace the traditional lifelong treatments that people use to treat chronic diseases.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved seven cell and gene therapies last year, including the first gene therapies to treat sickle cell disease. This market is only expected to grow: The FDA has predicted that it will review and approve between 10 and 20 cell and gene therapies each year by 2025.
Walgreens said its newly formed unit would be the largest independent provider of specialty pharmacy services, with sales of about $24 billion in the segment. The Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy store is not affiliated with a pharmacy benefit manager. the company noted.
That gives the company “the flexibility to dynamically contract with any payer,” Walgreens Chief Pharmacy Officer Rick Gates said in the release. “We can work directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers to facilitate the launch of products, including drugs with limited distribution, and coordinate closely with providers to ensure patients experience a smooth start to treatment.”
Under the new entity, patients at AllianceRx and the company’s nearly 300 community-based pharmacies will now have access to resources that “build on the expert care they already receive from their specialty pharmacist,” Walgreens said in the release. These include clinicians with key disease expertise, nutritionists and nurses.
The company said they are community-based specialty pharmacies are located near medical office buildings and health systems and offer specialty medications “faster than industry average” as well as services such as injection training and side effect management.
Walgreens said that was the case more than 1,500 specialty pharmacists, 5,000 patient support team members, and an unspecified number of dedicated specialty pharmacy teams.
In addition, the company offers more than 1,300 specialty medicines, including 240 “limited distribution” medicines to which only a few specialty pharmacies have access.
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2024-04-25 04:01:01
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