FROM THE TEAM
Season’s Greetings from Cubic Health!
With the Holiday Season fast approaching, we have been busy wrapping up a busy, but very productive 2006.
I would first like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have taken the time to complete our online newsletter survey. Your feedback to date has been very useful, and will help us structure our content and focus for this publication in the New Year. If you have not yet had the chance to complete our survey, and would still like to send us your thoughts, it’s not too late.
The link for the survey is: http://www.cubichealth.ca/newsletter_survey.html.
Secondly, we are pleased to feature our first Cubic Health Interview in this month’s issue. We had the opportunity to speak with Chuck Rynearson, the Director of Pharmaceutical Benefits for a large American health care plan with over 65,000 members, and gather an interesting perspective on drug plan designs and experience in the U.S.
To pass along any comments on Cubic Health Monthly, or to see back issues of our publication, please visit our website at http://www.cubichealth.ca
On behalf of the entire team here at Cubic Health, I would like to wish each of you and your loved ones all of the very best for the Holidays, and a very happy and prosperous 2007!
Best wishes,
Chris von Heymann
Senior Vice President, Consulting Services
| FEATURE: CUBIC HEALTH INTERVIEW |
Drug Plan Management - An American Perspective
An exclusive Cubic Health interview with Chuck Rynearson, (RPh, MS).
Mr. Rynearson is the Director of Pharmaceutical Benefits at Network Health Plan (NHP). NHP has over 65,000 members and primarily represents small- to medium-size American employers, with a bulk of their groups in the 50-250 plan member range.
Click here to read more...
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| DRUG & DISEASE NEWS |
COX-II Inhibitors - What's New?
Prexige® (lumiracoxib) received its Notice of Compliance from Health Canada in December, 2006. Prexige® is the first drug of the COX-II inhibitor class of anti-inflammatory medications to be allowed onto the Canadian market since the withdrawal of Merck's Vioxx® in September of 2004, and since Pfizer pulled Bextra® off the market about 6 months later . Following these widely publicized withdrawals, the entire class of medications has been thoroughly reviewed by drug regulators. Celebrex® and Mobicox® (plus generics) have been the only COX-II inhibitors on the market in Canada in the interim.
Click here to read more...
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NOC Watch:
Generic Atorvastatin
Prexige® (lumiracoxib)
Click here to read more...
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| FOR THE PLAN SPONSOR |
Plan Sponsors Concerned with Drug Plan Costs & Looking to Make Changes
For plan sponsors that have made a decision to investigate making changes to their prescription drug benefit plan, the first key consideration is the timeline for the change. If the plan sponsor is looking to make changes for the next benefit year, the priority is on determining what plan design changes will have the most significant impact on containing costs without adversely affecting plan member health or eroding the value of the benefit. However, if the change will not be instituted for over a year (e.g. 18 - 24 months down the road), the first step needs to be a Plan Performance Review (PPR).
Click here to read more...
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December 2006
Issue No. 19 |
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QUICK FACTS
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3,000,000: Number of Canadians affected by osteoarthritis (1 in 10), the most common form of arthritis
1:1: Ratio of women to men affected
45 years: Age after which most people develop osteoarthritis
300,000: Number of Canadians affected by rheumatoid arthritis (1 in 100)
3:1: Ratio of women to men affected
25-50 years: Ages between which most people develop rheumatoid arthritis
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