What are specialty pharmaceuticals?
January 10, 2018
Specialty pharmaceuticals are medicines that treat chronic, serious, and rare diseases. These medicines often target specific biochemical pathways, which makes them especially difficult to develop, refine, and test. Distribution also poses a challenge as these products often require special handling, such as end-to-end refrigeration. Additionally, specialty pharmaceuticals generally have a high cost.
Specialty drugs also present challenges to patients. Some are delivered by infusion, requiring patients to travel to infusion clinics. In other cases, patients may need to learn to self-inject the product. And before they get started, they may require a series of lab tests to protect them against unwanted side effects. Finally, most patients can’t pay for these drugs without third-party coverage, which may require complex documentation to secure.
For all these reasons, patients need help. That’s where patient support programs come in.