A Recap of Asembia’s 2023 Specialty Pharmacy Summit

Our team recently attended the AXS23 Conference put on by Asembia and enjoyed the opportunity to discuss exciting industry trends.

AXS23 is a special event, not only because it’s the industry’s foremost annual meeting of specialty pharmacy stakeholders but also because VPL is a proud partner of Asembia, a leading provider of business solutions for specialty pharmaceuticals. You can read more about the VPL TrajectRx partnership with Asembia-1, which helps customers simplify their prescription shipping workflow by providing visibility into the status of shipments.

Here are a couple of our takeaways from the summit:

1. Fewer Systems, More Independents

Noticeably fewer health systems attended this year. The majority of pharmacists were from independents, which may be attributable to the stricter budget considerations that IDNs are facing today.

The big challenge is making patient care the top priority while still responsibly managing spend. Essentially, how do we optimize patient outcomes in a cost-conscious manner?

That is the challenge facing everyone in our industry today. In healthcare, there is a human cost to not doing things right.

2. Prescription Digital Therapeutics

Digital technologies are quickly making their way into medicine.

One particularly promising technology was highlighted in a session at Asembia: Prescription Digital Therapeutics (PDTs), which are behavioral treatments delivered on mobile devices.

They’re a step further in the direction of meditation and lifestyle apps we’ve grown accustomed to seeing. Unlike those wellness apps, however, PDTs are rigorously evaluated by the FDA for safety and efficacy.

They have big potential to improve patient health, reduce clinician workload, lower costs, and expand access, among other benefits. To date, nine PDTs are authorized to treat conditions like substance use disorders.

But these don’t come without challenges to the industry, namely getting payors to cover these digital therapies.

Until next year, Asembia!

It was great to be in the same place with people and organizations who are all committed to putting patients first. Did you attend? Let us know what you thought! If you didn’t make it, check out asembiasummit.com for more information.

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