Walgreens announced on Thursday that it will begin collaborating directly with drug manufacturers to bring cell and gene therapies to U.S. patients as part of a broader expansion of its specialty pharmacy services.
The company is launching a new business unit focused on its specialty pharmacy segment, which will include its subsidiary AllianceRx.
This unit will be part of its core U.S. retail pharmacy division. Meanwhile, Shields Health Solutions, a subsidiary supporting health system-owned specialty pharmacies, will remain under Walgreens’s U.S. health-care division.
Specialty pharmacies have become increasingly important in the U.S. health system, especially with the rise in chronic diseases.
These pharmacies provide medications that require meticulous care in handling, storage, and distribution.
They cater to patients with chronic, rare, or complex conditions such as cancer, Crohn’s disease, and HIV.
Additionally, they offer counseling and financial assistance to support patients taking these costly treatments.
Among Walgreens’s new investments to “transform” its specialty pharmacy services is the opening of a newly licensed facility in Pittsburgh dedicated to cell and gene therapies.
The 18,000-square-foot center will assist drugmakers and health-care providers in navigating the complex supply chain for these treatments and managing patient needs, among other issues.
Walgreens’s move to launch cell and gene therapy services follows a surge in approvals of these drugs in the U.S. and the European Union over the past year.
These one-time, high-cost treatments target a patient’s genetic source or cells to cure or significantly alter the course of a disease.
Some health experts believe cell and gene therapies could replace traditional lifelong treatments for chronic diseases.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved seven cell and gene therapies last year, including the first gene therapies for sickle cell disease.
This market is expected to grow, with the FDA predicting it will review and approve between 10 and 20 cell and gene therapies each year by 2025.
Walgreens stated that its newly launched business unit is the largest independent provider of specialty pharmacy services, generating approximately $24 billion in revenue from this segment.
The Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy business is not partnered with a pharmacy benefit manager.
This independence gives the company “the flexibility to contract dynamically with any payer,” Walgreens Chief Pharmacy Officer Rick Gates said in a release.
“We can partner directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers to facilitate products to market, including limited distribution drugs, and coordinate closely with providers to ensure patients experience a smooth start to treatment.”
Under the new unit, patients of AllianceRx and Walgreens’s nearly 300 community-based pharmacies will have access to additional resources that build on the expert care they already receive from their specialty pharmacists.
This includes clinicians with key disease expertise, nutritionists, and nurses.
Walgreens’s community-based specialty pharmacies are located near medical office buildings and health systems, providing specialty drugs “faster than industry average” along with services such as injection training and side-effect management.
The company has more than 1,500 specialty pharmacists, 5,000 patient-advocacy support team members, and an unspecified number of dedicated specialty pharmacy teams.
Walgreens also offers over 1,300 specialty drugs, including 240 “limited distribution” drugs that few specialty pharmacies have access to.
