Global health and well-being enterprise, Walgreens, recently announced the expansion of its specialty pharmacy services to incorporate cell and gene therapy services. This expansion aligns with the current market trend where specialty medications make up more than half of the total prescription drug spending in the country, despite forming a minimal proportion of total prescriptions, as IQVIA reports.
Under this expansion, the newly integrated business unit, Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy, houses most of its assets in the specialty pharmacy space, including AllianceRx, its specialty pharmacy subsidiary. At the same time, Shield Health Solutions, another subsidiary offering support to health system pharmacies, will remain under Walgreens’ U.S. healthcare division.
Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy will be staging an impressive setup, with an 18,000-square-foot innovation center in Pittsburgh, almost 300 community specialty pharmacies, over 1,500 specialty-trained pharmacists, four central specialty pharmacies, and 240 limited distribution drugs on the roster, as mentioned in their news statement.
The move doesn’t come as a surprise to industry experts. For example, Plenful’s CEO, Joy Liu, points out that Walgreens’ enmeshment in the rapidly evolving specialty pharmacy arena exhibits the company’s mission to enhance its market strategy to be more lucrative and patient-centric, thus setting a distinguishable precedent.
Contributing to this sentiment, Rick Ratliff, CEO of MedAdvisor Solutions, vouches for Walgreens, situating it at a vantage point to ameliorate patients’ access to specialty medications, and thus, enhance healthcare outcomes. The increased accessibility would robustly facilitate patients’ navigation through an often complicated process involving authorization, benefits coverage verification, and choices for financial support.
Adding another dimension to this discussion, Deborah Weinswig, Coresight Research CEO, notes that Walgreens’ deeper immersion in the specialty pharmacy market could garner strategic benefits, stemming from the higher profit margins these medications offer compared to traditional drugs. She also acknowledges Walgreens’ potential market rivalry with existing key industry players already providing specialty pharmacy services, e.g., CVS and Cigna’s Express Scripts.
Weinswig anticipates that Walgreens’ expansion efforts may cause ripple effects in the industry, ushering competitive pricing, service quality improvement, and possibly further consolidation within the market. Additionally, this could also institute innovations in medication management and patient caring programs, which would be beneficial for patients and the healthcare ecosystem at large.
Overall, this strategic initiative undertaken by Walgreens is a testament to its entrenchment in the competitive atmosphere of the evolving healthcare industry. Read more about this development from this MedCity News’ report on the same.