What are Specialty Pharmacies?
Specialty pharmacies have emerged as the preferred channel for patients with chronic illnesses and other complex medical conditions to obtain their medications.  These biotech therapies are among the most expensive in the healthcare arsenal and typically require a level of pharmacy expertise rarely available in the retail environment. Pharmacists, nurses, and a variety of other clinical specialists working within specialty pharmacies nationally support programs tailored to meet the unique needs of these patients.

What Critical Challenges do Specialty Pharmacies face?
Operating a specialty pharmacy is both similar and very dissimilar to running a traditional pharmacy. The biggest similarity is that specialty drugs are typically reimbursed using the same methods as general pharmacy products at the local retail pharmacy with no added incentives.  The dissimilarities are associated with the dispensing process which includes special handling, overnight shipping, temperature controlled packaging, 24x7 emergency access, and high-touch patient compliance and wellness programs, all of which come at significant costs.

These conditions combine to form the first critical challenge. Specialty pharmacies must skillfully navigate the reimbursement waters to assure that they can not only be paid, but that they also realize sufficient margin to cover the ‘extra’ services that they provide.

If you want to succeed in any business the old saying was “Buy low. Sell high” 
However, commercial and government payors continue to ratchet down the amount they will pay for these products in an effort to contain the cost of health care.  To remain profitable, today’s specialty pharmacies must be extremely efficient and take advantage of every opportunity to ‘buy’ at preferential rates whenever possible.

Herein lays the second challenge faced by specialty pharmacies.

Unlike the vast array of non-specialty orals, specialty drugs have not enjoyed preferential pricing from the biotech manufacturers.  As a result, the ability to ‘buy low’ has been an elusive option.

The Armada Solution
Armada Healthcare recognized these unique challenges and embarked on a mission to partner with the biotech manufacturers in order to obtain incentive contracts and programs geared specifically for the specialty pharmacy marketplace.  This campaign was launched on the premise that the specialty pharmacy channel has developed into a critical component in the overall success of these products.  Armada believes that this value should be recognized in the form of preferential pricing and compliance driven contracts.  With each new agreement, Armada is one step closer to establishing a new class of trade for specialty pharmacy, and with it, a formal recognition of the integral value that this channel deserves.

Specialty Pharmacy Trends