Manufacturers, Payers Wait on Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plan

by Peter Johnson

As the many COVID-19 vaccines under development barrel toward clinical trials for safety and efficacy, questions remain about how they will be distributed when they become available.

In a hearing held by a subcommittee of the House Energy & Commerce committee, pharmaceutical executives said they would rely on guidance from the Trump administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to distribute vaccine doses.

Those guidelines will be important to insurers, as vaccine doses aren't likely to be available to everyone immediately, according to Mike Schneider, a principal at Avalere Health. Though some firms have already begun manufacturing doses of their vaccine in parallel to testing, the immediate availability of hundreds of millions of doses at the time of FDA approval would be unprecedented.

Schneider notes that multiple vaccines may be available at the same time, and one may offer greater protection from COVID-19 than others. Protocols will need to be developed to determine which patients will be first in line for the most effective vaccine. Schneider says that plans need to start thinking about their internal guidelines now.

He adds that PBMs, which often have the most robust data about a patient's drug regimen and immunization status, will be essential to tracking who has been vaccinated and screened.

Schneider says that plans are unlikely to favor one vaccine over another in their formularies. For example, Prime Therapeutics, a PBM owned by Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliates, says it is committed to obtaining a supply of COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible, seemingly regardless of who manufactures it.

A July 20 analysis prepared by health care investment bank SVB Leerink LLC takes a different view of the shape of the initial vaccine market than Schneider’s prediction of scarcity, arguing that the sheer volume of development efforts makes more than one breakout product likely.

In any case, Schneider predicts that the initial rollout will be unusual when compared with other vaccine distribution.

"This won't just be going to your pharmacy and your pharmacist gives you a vaccine, like the flu vaccine," Schneider says. He suspects that rollout will involve specialized facilities that combine rapid screening with inoculations at the same site.

From RADAR on Drug Benefits