Pharma's Patience Pays Off: Patient Advocates Are Powerful Allies in Part D

 
• By Kate Rawson
  
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The pharmaceutical industry has long counted on patient advocates as allies in the FDA drug approval process. But their relationship on issues related to drug coverage has often been tense. The Medicare drug benefit has opened a new chapter in the relationship. Patient advocates have worked closely with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services in the early months of Part D, and they have had an impact. Industry's long-time effort to establish alliances is paying off.

At the start of 2006, it looked like Pfizer Inc. might have a big headache in positioning pregabalin (Lyrica) under the newly implemented Medicare Part D drug benefit. The epilepsy drug is one of Pfizer’s most important new products, but when formulary information for Part D was first made public, Lyrica was nowhere to be found. In other words, Pfizer faced the prospect of missing out on a lucrative new prescription drug market.

Lyrica’s coverage profile was something the Epilepsy Foundation noticed as well. The organization had been very involved in the planning...

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