At 21, Jeff Aarssen was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.
Over the past year or two, plan sponsors have likely noticed drugs treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) suddenly appearing in their listing of top therapeutic classes by cost for their paid drug claims. As RA is a leading cause of disability and can be a significant claims cost driver, it’s important to understand how RA impacts those who have been diagnosed with it and what employers can do to support positive health outcomes for their employees with this disease.
Drug plan cost increases have levelled in recent years due to a large number of high-volume medications becoming available in a generic form and provincial drug reform driving down the price of generic drugs. At the same time, some insurance carriers have automatically implemented mandatory generic substitution policies on the majority of their plans (giving plan sponsors the option to opt out if they choose).
Watch this video Interviewed by Benefits Canada at the 2012 Healthy Outcomes Conference, Dr. Chih-Ho Hong from Medical Inc. said that biologics have allowed his patients to return to work faster, and they are more productive when they are there. “[A biologic drug] has treated their disease to a better ability of previous treatments. Not […]
In the ongoing battle against cancer, the medical community is looking to promising multi-targeted therapies for more effective and enduring treatments, says a report by pharmaceutical industry observer GBI Research.
While biologic drugs can represent a significant percentage of a plan’s drug costs, a Green Shield report says they are not the only thing driving up costs. Of course, plan sponsors need to actively manage biologics as use continues to grow, but they need to look for other places to also control drugs costs.
It’s strange that, in all of this, there has been very little attention placed on the 70% to 75% of private plan spending that is still represented by spending on brand name products. It’s even more surprising that there is less focus on the pipeline of innovation that awaits the marketplace.
To help boost innovation in the field of stem cells and biomaterials-based products, Pfizer Canada and the Centre for Commercialization of Regenerative Medicine (CCRM) have established the Pfizer-CCRM Innovation Fund to accelerate regenerative medicine (RM) technologies for drug screening and therapeutic applications.
Assumption Life has announced it will join 22 other group insurance providers in the new drug pooling framework put forth last week by the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA).
The day after the announcement from the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association (CLHIA) about a new pooling framework for high-cost drugs, Stephen Frank, vice-president of policy development and health, spoke at a seminar releasing further details of the plan.