- Estimated to save individual Accredo patients around
$4,000 per year
- Biosimilar price will be more than 80% lower
than Stelara list price
- Accredo patients benefit from the specialty pharmacy's
best-in-class clinical support
BLOOMFIELD, Conn., Sept. 5,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Evernorth Health Services
announced that it plans to have a Stelara biosimilar available for
$0 out of pocket for eligible
patients of its specialty pharmacy, Accredo, beginning in early
2025. The interchangeable biosimilar will be produced for
Evernorth's affiliate private label distributor, Quallent
Pharmaceuticals. It will be available at $0 out of pocket for most patients through
Quallent's copay assistance program. This program is expected to
save individual patients around $4,000 on average per year.
"We continue to believe in the power of biosimilars to achieve
significant savings for patients and plan sponsors now and into the
future. We're already seeing strong interest in the
Humira biosimilar made available to Accredo patients in June,
and now we're focused on improving affordability and access to
another widely used, high-cost treatment for a variety of
inflammatory conditions," said Matt
Perlberg, president of Evernorth Health Services' pharmacy
and care delivery businesses. "We are uniquely positioned to lower
costs because of the leading capabilities we have in navigating the
supply chain as well as the clinical expertise to help achieve the
best patient health outcomes."
The biosimilar price will be more than 80% lower than the list
price of Stelara. For many employers, unions, municipalities and
other health plan sponsors that choose to work with Accredo as part
of their specialty pharmacy network offering, this represents an
opportunity for significant savings.
More than 30,000 Accredo patients currently use Stelara,
supported by specialty-trained pharmacists and nurses in Accredo's
Therapeutic Resource Center for inflammatory conditions. Accredo's
15 condition-specific Therapeutic Resource Centers connect patients
with pharmacists and nurses 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, helping
to ensure patients receive care from clinicians who specialize in
their condition and who take the time to understand their
circumstances.
In June, Evernorth made an interchangeable Humira biosimilar
available, and more than 25% of eligible Accredo patients are now
using the biosimilar.
About Evernorth Health Services
Evernorth Health
Services creates pharmacy, care and benefits solutions to improve
health and increase vitality. We relentlessly innovate to make the
prediction, prevention and treatment of illness and disease more
accessible to millions of people. Evernorth capabilities are
powered by our businesses, including Express Scripts, Express
Scripts® Pharmacy, Accredo, eviCore and MDLIVE, along with holistic
Evernorth platforms and solutions that move people and
organizations forward. All Evernorth solutions are serviced and
provided by or through operating affiliates of Evernorth Health, a
wholly owned subsidiary of The Cigna Group (NYSE: CI), or
third-party partners. Learn more at evernorth.com.
Media Contact:
Justine
Sessions
Justine.Sessions@evernorth.com
860-810-6523
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SOURCE Evernorth Health Services