Leading Pharma Commit to Discussing Cost of Treatments

BOSTON - June 10, 2015 - PRLog -- Running for six consecutive years, the annual eyeforpharma conference is regarded as the most targeted gathering on commercialization strategies for oncology products in the US.  It will be co-chaired by leaders from Aetna and Genentech. With 150 senior pharmaceutical executives confirmed to attend, the meeting at the Double Tree Boston Cambridge Hotel is designated to boosting access and product uptake by creating new stakeholder partnerships.

Oncology is one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical markets, forecasted to contribute 40% of the industry’s revenue in the next decade. Though cancer research continues to grow and innovate, the rising cost of treatments and concerns of ‘financial toxicity’ threaten to stifle the potential of new treatments. Meaningful collaboration between pharma leaders and stakeholders from managed markets is key to ensure that innovative products remain affordable and accessible to the patients who need them.

         “It’s a great signal that industry leaders, as well as payors, physicians, community advocates and indeed patients are now ready to gather together to debate access challenges head-on. There a very few venues for this type of interaction and eyeforpharma is privileged to provide an independent forum,” says Ulrich Neumann, U.S. Managing Director of eyeforpharma. “Financial toxicity used to be a taboo term for many in the industry. We’re past that, but now need to find a consensus on how we can keep treatments truly affordable. It’s a debate that goes beyond the drug manufacturers,” he adds.

The meeting dedicates most sessions to the monumental shift from volume-based to value-based drug reimbursement. Edward J. Benz, President and CEO of Dana Farber Cancer Institute, is one of the event’s keynote speaker ready to discuss the implications of this change.  “These competing payment-reform models call for an enormous amount of infrastructure and overhead to collect and report the dizzying amount of metrics and benchmarking data that will be required — more than most individual practitioners and smaller practices can reasonably handle,” says Benz.

The eyeforpharma program will openly confront the challenges for specialty drugs with risk-sharing and new payment models.  Contributions are made from drug development leaders such as Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Bayer Healthcare, Amgen, Takeda, Eisai Inc., Genentech or Merk Serono. Also on the faculty are insurers and health plans Aetna, Tufts Health Plan, Excellus BlueCross BlueShieldas as well as stakeholders Walgreen Co.,  Dana Farber Cancer Institute, RAND Health, University of Buffalo School of Pharmacy, National Community Oncology Dispensing Association as well as Oncology Associates of Central New York. Those faculty members will ensure the event would meet the current distribution and access needs of oncology practices.

About eyeforpharma

eyeforpharma is a hub for senior-level pharma executives, patient advocacy groups and other health experts to exchange ideas and stay up to date with shifting trends and practices within the pharmaceutical industry