PHARMACY MARKET
PR Newswire | September 21, 2023
Biofourmis, a leading global technology-enabled care delivery company, announced today the release of its expanded Digital Clinical Trials solution within the Biofourmis platform for biopharma and other life sciences companies. The solution offers robust digital tools and resources for trial sponsors and investigators aimed at accelerating drug development and improving access and diversity while also reducing costs.
Biofourmis' Digital Clinical Trials solution includes a technology-enabled, scalable platform and services that support digital tools enablement, trial decentralization, safety monitoring, personalized care, easier participant recruitment and more equitable access to treatment options for patients everywhere. The solution helps sponsors and researchers accelerate clinical development with remote data collection and novel digital endpoints from Biofourmis' library of biomarkers across multiple therapeutic areas.
The expanded solution offers a more holistic workflow, new data management automations and a seamless integration of essential clinical trial documentation, participant scheduling and data collection elements. Because the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered platform is highly configurable, study start-up timelines can be reduced from months to days. The connected platform seamlessly integrates with 40+ devices, enabling study teams the freedom to select the right device for the right disease area.
Biopharma companies can also tap into Biofourmis' growing principal investigator (PI) network. The network includes experienced and esteemed PIs from leading academic medical centers as a valuable resource to manage digitally driven research and accelerate the pace of recruitment with access to patient databases. Health systems that already use the Biofourmis platform for technology-enabled care delivery at home can easily and quickly expand their clinical research initiatives by leveraging the connected platform to include the Digital Clinical Trials functionality.
"We have consistently earned high satisfaction scores from both researchers and trial participants for our solutions. Now, we have identified additional ways to accelerate access to digital clinical trials, lower costs, and improve the experience for all stakeholders," said Biofourmis COO Jaydev Thakkar. "These new technology and service elements create a more holistic, turnkey solution that achieves those aims while offering greater synergies from drug development to commercialization and creating equitable access to treatment options and clinical research for patients everywhere."
Market-leading enhancements to the Digital Clinical Trials solution include
Robust eConsent and ePROs Capabilities: Robust screening and informed consent tools are integrated into workflows to accelerate recruitment, decrease enrollment time, and help ensure that participants fully understand risks and benefits associated with the trial. The documentation content is easily configurable and compliant with regulatory requirements. The enhanced ePROs (electronic patient-reported outcomes) collection capabilities drive adherence through automated reminders of participants' reporting requirements while offering them the ability to easily share outcomes beyond traditional clinical measures. Reporting flexibility offers investigators increased visibility into participant safety, health and experience.
Dynamic Participant Scheduling: Upon enrollment, the Digital Clinical Trials solution helps research stay on course while encouraging participant adherence and engagement through a virtual visit and schedule of assessment module that streamlines all the "to-do" items for the participant and caregiver, intuitively listing all the required patient reporting and external assessment tasks. Reminders and notifications help participants stay adherent; but if a task is missed, the schedule can automatically adjust so the participant can remain enrolled, and the trial can move forward.
InHome Services: As with all solutions within Biofourmis Connect and Care, In-Home Services such as nurse visits, phlebotomy, infusion, imaging, and other ancillary services delivered within the home are available via the connected platform to support decentralized clinical trials—which further reduces burden on investigators and participants.
Unmatched Safety Monitoring: The solution leverages AI to monitor the efficacy and side effects of drugs. A specific example includes pre-screening for clinical events triggered by high potassium levels (hyperkalemia), which can reduce clinical trial costs by decreasing frequent manual checks by medical professionals while still protecting patient safety. In addition, cardiac safety monitoring capabilities such as auto-detection of QTc prolongation (an extended interval between the heart contracting and relaxing) can improve the safety of trials by detecting patients earlier who are at risk of developing critical heart arrhythmias due to drug side effects.
"Leveraging digital tools and automating and accelerating trial processes for both researchers and participants can increase the likelihood that endpoints will be reached sooner, which lowers costs and simplifies tasks for everyone involved," Thakkar said. "More importantly, shorter trials with more meaningful results mean that groundbreaking new therapies can be discovered and developed faster to improve outcomes for patients worldwide."
About Biofourmis
Biofourmis brings the right care to every person, no matter where they are. The company's AI-driven solution collects and analyzes patient data in real time and identifies shifts that require proactive interventions. This vital innovation provides people everywhere with connected access to hospital-level services, virtual provider networks for remote care, in-home services, and life-changing clinical trials—all without leaving their homes. Trusted by leading health systems, payers, biopharma companies and patients alike, Biofourmis' connected platform improves patient outcomes, prevents hospital readmissions, accelerates drug development, and closes critical gaps in care—ultimately making science smarter, healthcare simpler, and patients healthier.
Read More
PHARMA TECH
Business Wire | September 14, 2023
GoodRx a leading resource for healthcare savings and information, and MedImpact, the independent pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) and health solutions company, announced a new savings solution designed to integrate GoodRx’s prescription pricing in a seamless experience at the pharmacy counter. Now, when an eligible MedImpact member fills a prescription for a generic medication, it will automatically compare their benefit and the GoodRx price and then deliver the lowest one. The amount paid will be applied to the member’s deductible.
“This solution allows us to meet Americans where they are by providing them with low prices on their prescriptions without the need for them to compare costs on their own,” said Cynthia Meiners, Strategic Program Development Officer at GoodRx. “We are bringing together the best of what GoodRx does with the best of what MedImpact does to make it incredibly convenient for MedImpact’s members to start and stay on their prescribed treatments, and to fully integrate their clinical data. We truly feel the future of healthcare lies in these types of integrations.”
The collaboration achieved by integrating GoodRx’s price comparison technology with MedImpact’s advanced technology platform allows both companies to deliver more savings without any additional work on the part of the consumer. In addition, members will benefit from the seamless data integration this program provides. Through MedImpact’s rigorous drug safety review, which includes thousands of health and safety checks, patients will be alerted about any negative drug interactions.
“We are delivering to clients a full portfolio of health, wellness and savings solutions and we see this program as an important part of it,” Marcus Sredzinski, Pharm D, General Manager and MedImpact Senior Vice President. “This delivers hassle-free savings to members, while helping payers capture clinical and adherence data they may have otherwise missed.”
GoodRx is actively working to access new lives by expanding its prescription savings reach by partnering with pharmacy benefit managers and their plan sponsors to collaboratively integrate into the insurance benefit market. Through these programs with CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and MedImpact, GoodRx savings are seamlessly integrated at point-of-sale with three major PBMs that reach over 60% of insured lives.
This new program will become available to eligible MedImpact members starting January 1, 2024.
About GoodRx
GoodRx is a leading resource for healthcare savings and information that makes healthcare affordable and convenient for all Americans. We offer consumers free access to transparent and lower prices for brand and generic medications, affordable and convenient medical provider consultations via telehealth, and comprehensive healthcare research and information. Since 2011, we have helped consumers save over $60 billion and are one of the most downloaded medical apps over the past decade.
GoodRx periodically posts information that may be important to investors on its investor relations website at https://investors.goodrx.com. We intend to use our website as a means of disclosing material nonpublic information and for complying with our disclosure obligations under Regulation FD. Accordingly, investors and potential investors are encouraged to consult GoodRx’s website regularly for important information, in addition to following GoodRx’s press releases, filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) and public conference calls and webcasts. The information contained on, or that may be accessed through, GoodRx’s website is not incorporated by reference into, and is not a part of, this press release.
About MedImpact
For more than 30 years, MedImpact has been building, delivering, and reimagining pharmacy benefit solutions for healthcare payers who face complex and dynamic challenges. As the leading independent PBM, we offer clients the clarity they need to make care and cost decisions; control over a powerful suite of solutions that manage pharmacy spend; and confidence that comes from a proven PBM partner who is fully aligned with their goals and invested in their future.
Read More
PHARMACY MARKET
Business Wire | September 28, 2023
Cytel Inc., provider of quantitative insights and health data analytics to leaders in the life sciences, has acquired the Berlin-based company co.faktor GmbH with its dedicated healthcare consultancy services co.value® (market access), co.medical® (medical communications), and co.patient® (patient relations) concentrations. As a result, Cytel’s services for biopharma commercialization will gain new and complementary specialist consultancy capabilities and localized expertise for successful market access in Germany, a first wave launch country. The acquisition marks another milestone in Cytel’s strategic growth in Europe, and follows the recent acquisition of stève consultants, specialists in market access, real-world evidence (RWE), and health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) in France. Cytel now boasts a 200-person-strong access consultancy team, making it one of the only providers that offers the full fleet of advisory services, from clinical trial and real-world data and evidence analytics to global market access and local in-country Health Technology Assessment (HTA) support.
Cytel is now primed to provide global drug sponsors and their affiliate teams with advanced analytical support across the lifecycle through commercialization. Achieving favorable market access in today’s global healthcare industry is challenging and requires deep knowledge of EU national regulations. Cytel has long excelled at using proven quantitative techniques to help pharmaceutical manufacturers successfully enter new markets. To continue supporting global and local clients on their road to commercial success, Cytel has invested heavily in specialized, national capabilities in key launch markets with the recent acquisitions of stève consultants in June 2023 and SDS Life Sciences in 2022. Cytel’s most recent acquisition of the co.faktor businesses continues this investment, augmenting and extending localized regulatory support through product launch and commercialization.
“The co.faktor team is recognized as a highly specialized biopharma services provider, with a broad spectrum of services including HTA, pricing, medical communication, patient relations, and strategic consultancy in Germany. It’s no surprise they’ve shaped the field there,” said Radek Wasiak, General Manager, Real-World & Advanced Analytics at Cytel. “We look forward to welcoming them to Cytel, where they will now be supported by the full depth and breadth of our unparalleled biometrics, RWE, HEOR, and market access advisory talent.”
“Cytel and co.faktor have clear synergies, particularly when it comes to Cytel’s data know-how and co.faktor’s understanding of Germany’s uniquely complex market access and HTA requirements,” said Dr. Marc Esser, CEO, co.faktor. “By combining our deep expertise in the German HTA process with Cytel’s unique capabilities, we will be able to help our clients survive the upcoming European Health Technology Assessment (EU-HTA), a key challenge for all stakeholders in the European pharma market.”
About Cytel
Cytel is the largest provider of statistical software and advanced analytics for clinical trial design and execution. For over thirty-five years, Cytel’s scientific rigor and operational excellence have enabled biotech and pharmaceutical companies to navigate uncertainty, prove value and make confident, evidence-based decisions. Its experts deliver industry-leading software, data-driven analytics, real-world evidence, and strategic consulting. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Cytel has more than 1,900 resources across North America, Europe, and Asia.
About co.faktor
For more than ten years, Berlin-based co.faktor GmbH has been providing specialized consulting services with its dedicated healthcare consultancy services co.value® (market access), co.medical® (medical communications), and co.patient® (patient relations) concentrations. By synergistically combining the expertise in these areas, co.faktor offers efficient launch support with consistent messaging to all relevant stakeholders.
Read More