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Ibrance® | Market alert
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Nearly two months ahead of schedule, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted
approval for Ibrance ® (palbociclib) from Pfizer Inc. (Pfizer) on February 3 to treat advanced
(metastatic) breast cancer.
What is Ibrance?
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Ibrance is an oral medicine to treat postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer who have not
received endocrine treatment1
The FDA approved Ibrance to treat breast cancer that does not contain a protein called
HER-2 and is estrogen receptor positive (ER+)
Ibrance works in combination with letrozole (an FDA-approved product for the treatment of breast
cancer) by blocking a specific protein that promotes the growth of cancer cells2
In clinical trials, Ibrance in combination with letrozole stopped tumors from growing for 20.2 months,
about twice as long as letrozole alone3
What is the impact?
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Ibrance will cost $9,850 a month or $118,200 per year4
ER+ breast cancer is the most common type of breast cancer diagnosed5
Prime Therapeutics (Prime) expects 6 of every 100,000 commercially-insured members will use Ibrance
in the next 12 months, with a net new impact to trend of approximately $0.50 per member per month
(PMPM) on the pharmacy benefit6
o We are estimating the impact for the Medicare population and will follow-up when it is available
Strategies to manage Ibrance and oral oncology drugs
 We are prepared to manage Ibrance and help control costs
 Ibrance will be administratively added to the existing oral oncology prior authorization program in an
expedited manner
o For our government programs clients, Ibrance will be managed through the formulary exception
process until we can consider adding to the formulary with appropriate utilization management
 Ibrance is a limited distribution drug, and Prime will have access to it at Prime Therapeutics Specialty
Pharmacy (Prime Specialty Pharmacy) as soon as it becomes available
 Prime Specialty Pharmacy helps members get the specialty medicines they need, including oral
oncology drugs – safely, conveniently and affordably
 Care management at Prime Specialty Pharmacy is administered by a team of pharmacists, nurses,
care coordinators and insurance specialists. Care management includes outreach to members
encouraging adherence and side effect management, while helping to identify and remove barriers to
treatment regimens.
For more information, please contact your Prime representative.
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News release. “FDA approves Ibrance for postmenopausal women with advanced breast cancer.” FDA. February 3, 2015.
Chustecka, Zosia. “Novel drug approved for breast cancer: palbociclib (Ibrance).” Medscape. February 3, 2015.
Armental, Maria. “Pfizer’s advanced breast cancer drug Ibrance approved for sale.” The Wall Street Journal. February 3, 2015.
“Pfizer breast cancer drug gets early FDA approval.” Associated Press. February 3, 2015.
Silberman, Ann. “ER-Positive breast cancer: prognosis, life expectancy, and more.” Healthline. August 27, 2014.
Internal Prime analysis