ConnectiveRx Partners with Powerful Medical App
ConnectiveRx announced its partnership with epocrates, the No. 1 medical reference app that enables more than one million prescribers to make point-of-care decisions, to help more patients overcome medication cost barriers. Through their agreement, epocrates will become the exclusive reseller of ConnectiveRx’s ScriptGuide patient savings messages, which will provide clinicians and their patients with increased access to medication savings offers with ScriptGuide by reducing patient out-of-pocket costs.
epocrates and ConnectiveRx will help pharmaceutical brands broaden awareness among clinicians and their patients about medication savings offers via ScriptGuide messages. These messages are distributed to clinicians in workflow throughout the ConnectiveRx EHR Networks and are designed to increase patient awareness of medication savings offers where they are most impactful—at the point of care.
“Patients don’t benefit from medications that they can’t afford, which is why patient awareness of and access to medication savings offers during their doctor visits, or when they are being discharged from the hospital, is critical in supporting adherence and ultimately improving health,” stated Frank Dana, President and Chief Commercial Officer of ConnectiveRx. “Through the strength of our partnership, we grow our reach and expand networks that are helping more patients afford their medications today—and into the future.”
VMLY&Rx Launches Payer Marketing Team in the U.S.
VMLY&Rx launched VMLY&Rx Payer, a new agency that will focus on the development and delivery of payer and reimbursement strategies for the managed markets sector in the U.S. “This offer continues the momentum from the launch of our global pharmaceutical network VMLY&Rx last year,” Claire Gillis, CEO, VMLY&Rx, said in a statement. “Our VMLY&Rx Payer team will focus on connecting the complex and ever-evolving U.S. payer market at a critical time for patients as the sector moves beyond the pandemic. Creating connected health experiences that help promote access to innovative therapies has never been more important.”
HeeSun Yu, a senior level healthcare marketing executive with over 22 years of ad agency experience, has been named President of the agency. She commented on her appointment, “Payers and population health decision makers (PHDM) are the gatekeepers to healthcare in the U.S. They play a huge role in determining whether patients can access innovative medicines. Payer engagement is therefore key to the success to our healthcare system. Our clients need partners who are fluent in their language. They need us to intrinsically understand the connections and complexities between healthcare’s diverse cultures and harness its unique challenges and opportunities.”
Yu and her new team will provide strategic support to U.S. clients across the product lifecycle including the delivery of patient-centered, value-focused access and reimbursement strategies. VMLY&R Payer will form part of the wider global health offer for VMLY&Rx.
EVERSANA Expands Global Reach with thenetworkone Partnership
The pioneer in next generation commercialization services announced a partnership with thenetworkone, the world’s largest independent marketing and communications agency network. The strategic partnership will expand the global marketing capabilities of EVERSANA’s full-solutions healthcare marketing agency, EVERSANA ENGAGE, across 115 countries through an ecosystem of more than 1,200 leading agencies worldwide.
“We have scaled to meet the needs of a growing portfolio of global clients with diverse brands,” stated Seth Gordon, General Manager, EVERSANA ENGAGE. “Through this partnership, we immediately add to our capabilities by collaborating with best-in-class local agencies who can help deliver in-market campaigns to increase awareness with key stakeholders in various healthcare systems.” London-based thenetworkone will benefit from EVERSANA’s experiences in the healthcare and life sciences industries as it continues to evolve its capabilities.
CVS Launches Clinical Trial Services
CVS Health is introducing a new Clinical Trial Services business to help overcome challenges of the industry and drive greater access to clinical trials across the communities it serves. The initiative aims to create a more efficient, convenient experience to improve participant retention and research effectiveness. The move is in response to the increasing scrutiny of clinical trial access we’ve experienced the past year. CVS reports that less than 4% of the U.S. population participates in clinical studies and 80% of studies don’t meet participant enrollment deadlines, with an average of 30% of participants dropping out before a study is completed.
“Traditionally low patient enrollment, diversity, and engagement coupled with inconvenient trial sites, challenging study participation requirements, including the length of participation, show the need to improve the current model—particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Troyen A. Brennan, MD, MPH, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of CVS Health. “Combining clinical trial expertise from across the CVS Health enterprise with our growing connection to the communities we serve, will help create a new clinical trial experience that works better for participants, healthcare providers, clinical research organizations, and study sponsors.”
CVS Health Clinical Trial Services is developing innovative approaches to research and real-world evidence generation supported by three main capabilities: 1) Precision patient recruitment, by using analytics, national reach, and local community connections to help individuals learn about clinical trial opportunities that may be appropriate for them. 2) Clinical trial delivery options that are decentralized with real-world evidence studies at CVS locations, at home, or virtually. 3) Real-world evidence generation and studies which include retrospective and prospective studies that measure the impact of novel devices and therapeutics in real-world settings.
BARDA Ventures Aims to Combat Future Global Health Emergencies
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today unveiled a new type of public-private partnership through the BARDA Ventures program, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. This includes a partnership with the nonprofit organization Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC) to accelerate development and commercialization of technologies and medical products needed to respond to or prevent public health emergencies, such as pandemics, and other health security threats. BARDA aims to provide GHIC with a minimum of $50 million over five years with a max of $500 million over 10 years. In turn, GHIC will launch a global health security fund with matching capital from other investors linking the U.S. government to the investment community for unique opportunities to identify and commercialize technologies that aid the U.S. in responding effectively to future health security threats.
“While we tackle the pandemic’s impact, we’re exploring how the U.S. can better prepare for future public health emergencies, whether it’s the next pandemic or a bioterrorism incident,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “The pandemic has demonstrated that the U.S. needs transformative technology that is not only available but also widely accessible. Today we are announcing an innovative, cost-effective approach that puts us on a better path to take on the next public health crisis and improve U.S. healthcare.”
The BARDA Ventures funding will help GHIC invest in companies developing breakthrough technologies, and collaborate with companies from around the world to source promising products for health security. Already, GHIC accelerated the development and delivery of more than 12 innovative products, including diagnostics, vaccines, and pharmaceuticals. These products have reached more than 100 million patients to support health while generating returns on invested capital.
