When it comes to the biotech space, multiple vendors are often involved in each drug launch milestone, requiring pharmaceutical manufacturers to manage multiple vendors with disparate data points. Healthcare services providers may promote themselves as viable manufacturer partners with specialty pharmaceutical expertise but often, they lack the in-depth understanding of the specialized needs of patients, physicians, payers, and disease state. The AscellaHealth Family of Companies is comprised of AscellaHealth and subsidiaries Optime Care and Terebellum. Optime Care, a leading specialty pharmacy and patient services management company, is focused on Life Sciences solutions for rare diseases and represents a single-source partner for pharmaceutical manufacturers, providing services from –pre-launch and launch through commercialization, distribution, fulfillment and beyond, offering a one-stop, consultative approach to enhanced access to medications, optimal cost-savings, and improved outcomes. “Our deep bench specialty and rare disease expertise provides additional insight into the unique challenges our clients face, enabling us to develop effective strategies for optimal medication access and enhanced outcomes and cost-savings,” states Dea Belazi, President and CEO, AscellaHealth.

An exceptional element of the organization’s manufacturer programs is a dedicated patient care team, providing patients with the comfort of knowing that their day-to-day contact is an expert in their specific therapy and will support them throughout their entire treatment journey. This high-level of expertise results from years of experience with specialty and rare disease populations accompanied by a dedicated focus enabling the AscellaHealth Family of Companies to demonstrate improved compliance rates which are among the highest in the industry.

Delivering the Optimal Experience

The AscellaHealth Family of Companies’ customized approach involves working with industry stakeholders to offer cost-effective and outcomes-based programs that address market challenges and deliver enhanced clinical outcomes for patients with chronic or complex conditions requiring specialty medications or cell and gene therapies. The organization seamlessly navigates the Specialty Pharmacy eco-system, helping to shorten the time from clinical development to product launch, spanning the entire pharmaceutical product lifecycle and beyond, delivering unmatched value along the way. In a competitive industry, their business model stands out as an end-to-end provider of innovative solutions for enhanced access and outcomes, serving all key stakeholders from patients to payers, manufacturers, and providers.

Clinical Expertise

Optime Care has deep clinical expertise across all specialty and rare disease states and develops custom clinical programs and protocols specific to each disease state and tailored to each patient. The care teams serve to educate patients on their disease state and therapy, while developing a supportive relationship for increase compliance and adherence.

When a patient initially enrolls into the company’s clinical program, they will connect with a care coordinator and a pharmacist who will assist them with their clinical education needs, side effect management, financial resources, and patient advocacy. This is an ongoing service that will ensure patients are receiving the necessary support throughout treatment to help improve quality of life and to achieve successful outcomes. Patients also have access to our pharmacists as needed for clinical questions.

“Additionally, we provide continual patient communication management. Our dedicated programs are designed based on the specific needs of each patient and our understanding of the patient journey. Custom communication and disease state education plans for each patient (text, email or phone) ensure patients are responsive and feel supported. Since each patient has a dedicated point of contact, we establish a close relationship and can tailor this relationship, leading to increased patient engagement and compliance,” adds Belazi.

The Consultative Service Model

Because not all Specialty Pharmacy healthcare providers can deliver a full range of services, it’s advantageous for industry stakeholders to collaborate with a partner that can offer a comprehensive portfolio of services. The AscellaHealth Family of Companies provides end-to-end solutions to tighten the Specialty Pharmacy value chain- all from a single-source partner. In the highly fragmented marketplace with multiple vendors handling each stage of the pre-launch, commercialization, distribution and fulfillment processes, manufacturers value this streamlined one-stop, consultative approach. This is proving to optimize clinical outcomes and the patient journeys of specialty and rare disease patients.

While explaining the value proposition of the company, Belazi recalls an instance when the team assisted a pharmaceutical company that was not receiving optimal service from their current patient support services provider. They were boxed into standard operating procedures that work with big markets and needed a partner that could focus on their needs and their patient challenges. Our subsidiary, Optime Care, helped transition 100 percent of patients into the HUB program and converted all patients, tightening the specialty pharmacy value chain and shortening the time it took for patients to start on therapy.

Innovation and Beyond

AscellaHealth and its subsidiaries are built on a patient-first approach to bring innovative, cost-saving solutions to the marketplace without sacrificing access or quality of care. Dea Belazi, PharmD, MPH, CEO & President and Bill Oldham, MBA, Chairman & Chief Financial Officer, recognized an unmet need in the market to deliver end-to-end solutions for pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Today, AscellaHealth and its family of companies, Terebellum and Optime Care, offer the specialty and rare disease industry unique clinical and financial solutions designed to improve outcomes and enhance the overall patient journey. “Today, our company continues to keep abreast of new developments in the Specialty Pharmacy industry to develop and further enhance technology-based services and cutting-edge programs that benefit all stakeholders from patients to payers, Life Science manufacturers, and providers. As the global healthcare and rare disease markets continue to evolve, we anticipate these changes and maintain a nimble business model enabling us to quickly develop innovative solutions to meet the unmet needs of the industry,” concludes Belazi.