Cold Chain, PBMs, and More

Welcome to Pharmaceutical Commerce’s April issue, which continues the trend of touching on a core aspect of supply chain and logistics, patient services, and trade and channel. In this case, our cover focus is on the pharma cold chain and temperature-controlled monitoring space.

There continue to be endless developments within the cold chain sector, and in April’s cover story, Editor Emeritus Nick Basta dives headfirst into the latest technology surrounding temperature-sensitive transport of medicines, including the daily challenges in end-to-end visibility and sustainability that are dealt with. Alex Guite, SVP and GM at World Courier, a division of Cencora, explains to Basta that the preservation of the carbon footprint has now become a necessity in cold chain transport and storage, adding that “a couple years ago, sustainability measures were a ‘nice to have’ part of client conversations; now they are table stakes.”

Cold chain containers only represent one link—or step—in the pharmaceutical supply chain; patients, after all, are ultimately the ones who receive the medications that have endured such calamities as blizzards or hurricanes, or the various other disruptive forces at play throughout the course of a year. In a sit-down Q&A with Editor Nicholas Saraceno, Kim Plesnarski, Syneos Health’s VP of market access and patient services solutions, tackles the many diverse issues impacted, including—further down the chain—patient adherence and the tools necessary today to help boost compliance to drug treatments and regimens. Notably, she advises that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to patient education and support should be avoided.

Turning to perspectives on the healthcare policy and access front, Michael Grosberg, VP of product management at Model N, presents an overview of how current and future legislation might impact the role of pharmacy benefit managers, also known as PBMs. This includes a look at the present-day, 2024 PBM model—one, says Grosberg, designed to encourage payers to cover more expensive drugs because it's more economical for them.

In his “Commercialization Corner” column, Bill Roth of IntegriChain pens the third installment of his “Who Moved My Prescription?” series. The newest entry offers an analysis of the issues pertaining to retail pharmacy and how to address them.

These highlighted articles only begin to scratch the surface of our coverage this month; we hope you enjoy perusing all of our content offerings at your leisure. Thanks for reading.

— Mike Hennessy Jr., President and CEO, MJH Life Sciences