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Consultant warns gene therapies, orphan drugs will drive drug spending; outlines value-based and legislative options
Summary
Aon consultant Omaz (Almaz) DeWitt told the Health Service Board that gene and rare-disease therapies—including one-time treatments that can cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars—are expanding the drug pipeline and that value-based contracting, biosimilars and federal policy changes are among options to limit costs.
Omaz (Almaz) DeWitt, vice president of pharmacy services with Aon, gave a detailed briefing on genetic therapies and specialty drug market trends and described options for controlling escalating pharmacy costs.
DeWitt said FDA approvals in 2022 include many high-cost agents and that a meaningful share of the pipeline targets rare diseases and orphan indications. “There are of course new drugs that enter the market... 7 out of those 16 drugs are for rare diseases,” DeWitt said, noting that rare-disease drugs often cost at least $1,000 per month and can accumulate to more than…
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