A person walks past a Walgreens truck, owned by Walgreens Boots Alliance, in Manhattan, New York, on November 26, 2021.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters
Walgreens on Thursday said it will begin working directly with drugmakers to bring cell and gene therapies to U.S. patients as part of a broader expansion of specialized pharmacy services.
The company said it is launching a new business unit dedicated to its specialty pharmacy segment, which will include a specialty pharmacy subsidiary AllianceRx. The unit will be part of the core US retail pharmacy division. In the meantime, Shields Health Solutionsa subsidiary that supports specialty pharmacies owned by the health system, will remain under Walgreens’ US healthcare division.
Specialty pharmacies have become an important player in the US health care system, especially in chronic diseases are becoming more common.
Specialty pharmacies provide drugs that require extreme care in handling, storage and dispensing. The treatments are often for patients with chronic, rare or complex conditions such as cancer, Crohn’s disease and HIV. Specialty pharmacies also offer counseling or financial assistance designed to support patients receiving these costly treatments.
Among the company’s new investments to “transform” its specialty pharmacy services, it will open a new licensed facility in Pittsburgh dedicated to services for cell and gene therapies. The 18,000-square-foot center will help pharmacists and healthcare providers navigate the complex supply chain for these treatments and manage patient needs, among other issues.
Andrew Brookes | Image Source | Getty Images
Walgreens’ decision to launch cell and gene therapy services comes after a surge in U.S. approvals for these drugs in the European Union over the past year. They are high-cost one-off treatments that target a patient’s genetic source or cell to treat or significantly alter the course of a disease. Some health experts expect that cell and gene therapies will replace the traditional lifelong treatments people receive to manage chronic diseases.
The US Food and Drug Administration approved seven cell and gene therapies last year, including the first gene therapies to treat sickle cell disease. This market is only expected to grow: the FDA has was foreseen that it will review and approve between 10 and 20 cell and gene therapies each year by 2025.
Walgreens said its new business unit is the largest independent provider of specialty pharmacies, with about $24 billion in industry revenue. Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy does not partner with a pharmacy benefit manager; the company noted.
That gives the company “the flexibility to enter into dynamic contracts with any payer,” Walgreens chief pharmacy officer Rick Gates said in the release. “We are able to work directly with drug manufacturers to facilitate products to market, including limited distribution drugs, and coordinate closely with providers to ensure patients have a smooth start to treatment.”
Under the new unit, patients at AllianceRx and the company’s nearly 300 pharmacies now have access to resources that “will build on the expert care they already receive from their specialty pharmacist,” Walgreens said in the release. This includes clinicians with basic disease expertise, nutritionists and nurses.
The company said its community-based specialty pharmacies they are located near medical office buildings and health systems, offering specialty drugs “faster than the industry average” along with services such as injection training and side effect management.
Walgreens said it has more than 1,500 specialist pharmacists, 5,000 patient support team members and an unspecified number of specialist pharmacy teams.
The company also offers more than 1,300 specialty drugs, including 240 “limited distribution” drugs that few specialty pharmacies have access to.