Is Your Pharmacy Team Ready for Advanced Therapies?

Pharmacy departments must plan now to operationalize advanced therapeutics — or risk impeding timely access to these life-changing products, said participants at a virtual forum organized through the ASHP Center for Next-Generation Therapeutics.

The May 14 leadership and innovation forum, which drew more than 130 participants, focused on how pharmacists can support access to cell and gene therapy (CGT) products and help ensure optimal care and outcomes for the patients who need these and other complex medications.

The forum featured two keynote speakers — pediatric oncologist Rayne H. Rouce, medical director of the commercial CAR T-cell therapy program at the Baylor College of Medicine, and Jeffrey A. Cohen, professor of neurology and director of experimental therapeutics at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine Mellen MS Center.

Both physicians emphasized that healthcare organizations need the clinical and operational expertise of pharmacists to help establish collaborative processes for onboarding and administering next-generation therapies.

The keynote speakers set the tone for the forum’s expert pharmacy panelists, whose discussions included:

• Planning for emerging therapies
• Updating governance policies for the use of advanced therapeutics
• Incorporating patient access considerations into operational planning
• Developing staff training and competency programs
• Effectively communicating financial needs with executive leaders

Panelists said they expect the use of next-generation therapeutics to expand beyond hematology–oncology and rare disease indications — today’s main uses — as products are approved for conditions that affect larger patient populations.

One panelist described CAR T-cell therapies, which have been commercialized for well over a decade, as a well-oiled machine, operationally. Existing CAR T-cell programs may thus provide some practical guidance for hospitals and health systems that are starting or expanding cell or gene therapy services.

But forum participants cautioned that a flexible approach is still needed to manage the unique needs of specific products within each healthcare organization’s existing evaluation and onboarding processes.

Attendees agreed that to build enduring advanced therapeutics services, clinicians must ensure that hospital administrators and financial decision-makers understand why these products, and the process of administering them, are unusually expensive. Forum participants described center-of-excellence designations and robust referral programs as potential mechanisms to support a sustainable program.

The forum ended with remarks from ASHP President-elect Kim Benner, who briefly summarized the discussion and affirmed ASHP’s commitment to supporting the use of advanced therapeutics. She also highlighted the importance of working collectively as a profession to bring these treatments to patients.

“Every time we share information, we learn something new,” Benner said.