Specialty drugs are defined as highly priced drugs that require special handling, administration, and/or distribution. They are used to treat a variety of diseases, with the highest-spend therapeutic areas including cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and a wide range of rare diseases. Payers employ several strategies to effectively manage this category of drugs, from establishing tier 4 co-insurance plans to defining the threshold of economic and clinical value required for insurance coverage. During this panel, we will discuss the state of specialty drug pricing and the numerous challenges facing our industry today. Topics will include: trends and experiments in payer management of specialty drugs, the pressures associated with a buy-and-bill business model, 340B drug pricing, payer's influence on biopharmaceutical R&D, the sustainability of oncology drug pricing, and much more. We have an esteemed panel that consists of key stakeholders involved in pricing and reimbursement decisions, including representatives from the biopharmaceutical industry, insurance companies, and physician groups.
Ian Tzeng is a Managing Director in the Boston office of L.E.K. Consulting, where he has worked since 1998. He is a senior leader in L.E.K.’s Healthcare and Life Science practices, with specific expertise in healthcare innovation; international policy and market access; rare diseases; generics and biosimilars; and pharmaceutical services.
Ian holds an A.B., magna cum laude in Chemistry from Harvard College and is a George F. Baker Scholar, M.B.A. with high distinction from Harvard Business School. During his time in business school, he organized the Reaching Out MBA conference, and served on the Board of Directors for 10 years. He also serves on several other non-profit boards supporting education, arts / music, non-profit consulting services, and LGBT advocacy. Ian lives in Boston and Chicago, with his husband, Eric, and their two poodles.