Author: SONAM KUMARI

ABSTRACT:

Drug assistance programs deals with the medication management, counseling of
patients, and provide assistance for the purchase of high cost drugs that have nongeneric equivalents or close therapeutic substitutes. In such cases, assistance
programs can expand access to therapies that represent the standard of care but canalso promote use among patients who don’t place a high value on the health benefits associated with therapies. The potential to improve care in chronic disease states with complex therapies. Incorporating technology as a tool to faster adherence is becoming more commonplace in practice.

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this report is to identify barriers of medication adherence and review the impact of patient assistance programs and technology on medication adherence. Aware the patients from “DRUG ASSISTANCE PROGRAM” lead by manufacturers. Nowa days, under these programs Pharmaceutical manufacturers, invest billions of dollars to provide and excute the benefits of programs to patients.
responsibilities.

DRUG ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS:

Medications cost below the MRP and benefits provide to patients. That means copayments, coinsurance and deductibles are the form of cost sharing implaments on

patients for reducing health care costs. These programs provide patients to afford drugs which is ‘ out of their pocket’ but its effects on consumer behaviour for specialty drugs is poorly understood.

In other word we define patient assistance program as a ‘ to get benefits to patients who can’t afford costly medicines but with the help of pharmaceuticals manufacturers who has been participated in this Patient Assistance Program.

Patients assistance programs may lead to higher drug prices as a result of the interplay between patient demand and prices. Economic theory predicts that if patient demand becomes less sensitive to prices, manufacturers of on-patent drugs will respond by setting higher prices.

Drug companies could maximize the benefits and reduce the harms associated with patient-assistance programs by targetting their assistance to low-income patients providing assistance for all medical expenses, not just expenses for a specific drug, and limited assistance to patients have exceeded a threshold.

Medical product donation programs and other treatment access programs can address multiple needs that arise in a variety of situations, including health system strengthening in low and middle-income countries. While medical donation programs for neglected tropical diseases and other communicable diseases are more common, donors are increasingly providing access to medicines to address the burden of noncommunicable diseases in low and middle-income countries such as AIDS and Cancer. AIDS and cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. AIDS is one of the leading cases of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Nowadays, 64.4

-113 million peoples are affected from HIV . In year 2021 there is approx 1.5 million new cases and 38.4 million people living with HIIV. 6,50,000 peoples are dead from AIDS in 2021.

There are number of challenges to reducing the burden of AIDS in low and middle-income countries, including the lack of diagnostic and treatment capacity and scarce and expensive Antiretroviral therapy. But there is no cure of AIDS but treatment of HIV consist of highly active antiretroviral therapy which slows down the progression of the disease. Once treatment is begun, it is recommended that it is continued without breaks or holidays.

It is essential for medical product donation and other access programs to include provisions to ensure patient safety. The patient assistance progam is designed to extract all pertinent fields and narrative information to construct each report and send these reports to the pharmaceutical industries. Medicare and other payers take a dim view of

efforts to subsidize patients out of pocket costs. They worry that patient assistance programs discourage patients from using generic drugs and other less costly alternatives to new, patent-protected therapies.

Some programs provide assistance for the purchase of high cost drugs that have no generic equivaents or close therapeutics substitutes. The Office of Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has warned that patient assistance programs may violate the federal anti-kickback statue by providing remuneration that illegally induce the consumption of services. The DHHS prohibits patient assistance programs affiliated with a pharmaceutical manufacturer from subsidizing beneficiaries costs for physician-administered drugs covered under the Medicare’s Part B benefits and prescription drugs covered under the Part D benefits. This prohibition mirrors the requirements that hospitals and physicians make a reasonable effort to collect coinsurance from Medicare beneficiaries.

Private foundation are allowed to provide assistance subject to certain restrictions. For example, the foundation cannot define their target patient population so narrowly that they effectively devote all their funds to one manufacturer’s product. Manufacturers are permitted to contribute to and steer patients to foundations that provide assisstance, and many do so. Manufacturers are also allowed to provide assistance to Part D beneficiaries “outside” the program; contribution cannot count towards beneficiaries costs for purpose of reaching the Part D out-of-pocket threshold.

Conclusion:

Several barriers of medication adherence exist including the complexity of regimenandcost of medication. Patients assistance programs and technological tools suchasmobile applications are necessary resources in improving medication adherence. Aprogram that promotes adherence to specialty drugs via facilitated patient assistance programs use was found to reduce patient out-of-pocket costs but had no effect on prescription drug utilization. Payer may consider embracing patient assistance programs to remove patient financial barriers to necessary medications and use tools other than cost sharing to influence patient consumption of specialty drugs.

REFERENCES:

1. Elizabeth Brouwer, PhD, MPH; Kai Yeung, PharmD, PhD; Douglas Barthold,Ph.D., and Ryan Hansen, PharmD, Ph.D., June 2021, Vol. 27, No.6
2. The NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL of MEDICINE, David H. Howard, PhD, July 10, 2014
3. Globalization and Health, Ann Kim Novakowski, Pat Garcia-Gonzalez, MichaelWrigglesworth and Andy Strergachis
4. Innovations in Pharmacy, University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, CarlosColon, MS, Paulette Salas, BS, and Nile M.Khanfar, Ph.D., MBA