David Calabrese of OptumRx Talks Top Three Drugs in Pipeline, Industry Trends in Q2

In this month’s episode of Tuning In to the C-Suite, Briana Contreras, an editor of Managed Healthcare Executive, got to chatting with Sanjula Jain, Ph.D., chief research officer at Trilliant Health.

Current treatment options have improved survival rates but have not provided a cure. Eventually, initial therapies stop working, and many patients relapse.

In this month’s episode of the "What's On Your Mind podcast," Peter Wehrwein, managing editor of MHE connects with the now Chief Clinical Officer of OptumRx Integrated Pharmacies, David Calabrese. In this conversation, David touches on his transition in January as OptumRx’s former chief pharmacy officer and market president of health plans and PBMs to his new role as Chief Clinical Officer where he now focuses more on things such as specialty pharmacy to home delivery — with an overall goal of creating whole-patient care. Throughout the conversation, Calabrese also touched on the market’s hot topic of insulin prices and behavioral health services within the OptumRx community, among other topics.

A new survey by Johnson & Johnson revealed that oncologists are overwhelmed by the rapid pace of innovation in cancer care, with many calling for better tools, education and collaboration to help integrate new treatments and technologies into everyday practice.

The first CAR-T cell therapy was developed and approved by the FDA in 2017 to treat relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Since then, six additional CAR-T cell therapies have been introduced to the market. Four of the seven are approved for B-cell lymphomas.