by Leslie Small
In what one expert calls a "logical" move for a PBM
vying for business from cost-conscious payers, Anthem, Inc.'s IngenioRx said on
July 6 that it acquired ZipDrug, a company that focuses on improving patients'
medication adherence and affordability.
"As plan sponsors and members opt in for the service,
ZipDrug ensures members are matched with the best high-quality pharmacy to
fulfill their needs," Justin Petronzi, IngenioRx's vice president of
strategic growth, explains to AIS Health via email. Services offered by ZipDrug
include "guaranteed prescription delivery, multi-dose compliance packaging
that provides specific instructions to empower patients to manage their
medications at home safely on a daily basis, along with other targeted clinical
programs," he says.
Petronzi adds that IngenioRx's interest in ZipDrug materialized
after it began a pilot program in 2018 in New York and New Jersey markets that
was focused on matching members with the best pharmacy for their needs and
providing deliveries of lower cost prescriptions.
To Avalere Health consultant Tim Epple, IngenioRx's purchase of
ZipDrug makes sense. "It's an investment that follows a lot of trends and
themes that we're seeing in the industry," he tells AIS Health. "And
I think certainly from a PBM perspective, [ZipDrug's services are] something
that we’re hearing that a lot of payers and a lot of plans want, because
they're thinking through these same strategies on their end, and giving them
the ability to do that in a sort of 'one-stop shop' is a logical and probably
good move."
In general, "we've actually seen a lot more interest in the
pharma services sector," Epple says, explaining that helping
"lowest-hanging fruit patients" — those who are high cost but
struggle with medication adherence — is an area that plan sponsors "are
really looking hard at now as they think about how to bend the cost curve and
really figure out where they can save money at a relatively simple level."
The acquisition also aligns with the ongoing trend of
specializing pharmacy assets, he adds. "I think we're seeing a little bit
of a movement toward specialty pharmacy platforms that really have specific
expertise in either certain disease states, certain patient types [or] certain
intervention types," Epple says.
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