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The Alliance for BioTherapeutics Announces Strategic Reorganization
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Current Board of Trustee Chairperson, Nebraska State Senator Abbie Cornett, a founding member of the Alliance, will assume the additional role of president following the recent departure of the executive director, to lead the organization in advocacy efforts on behalf of patients in need of specialty biotherapeutics.
The Alliance was formed in 2007 under the name The Alliance for Plasma Therapies, a not-for-profit organization created to address the difficulties patients faced in having access to intravenous immune globulin (IVIG) therapy.
"I am proud to be an active member of the Alliance, helping to bring a unified, powerful voice to advocate for fair access to biotherapeutics," Cornett said.
Cornett was originally drawn to the organization as a patient whose diagnosis of primary immunodeficiency (PIDD) is successfully treated with monthly IVIG therapy.
As of its founding, The Alliance for Plasma Therapies became the first national group to represent all patients and providers of plasma therapies.
In March 2011, the Alliance changed its name to The Alliance for BioTherapeutics to become the leading voice for all who benefit from biotherapeutics.
"The mission of the Alliance is to help ensure that all individuals in need receive access to, and adequate reimbursement for, life-saving and life-enhancing biotherapeutics," Cornett continues. "It is nothing short of an honor to support this mission in any way that I can."
"The Alliance was founded by a core group of patients, clinicians and organizations that came together to stop the policy disparities and hindrances to access and availability for IVIG," said Dominick Spatafora, President, Neuropathy Action Foundation and Alliance member.
Diagnosed with multifocal motor neuropathy at the age of 30, Spatafora is also successfully treated with IVIG, however he and his physician must deal with routine insurance denials.
"In my case, IVIG is limb-saving, as is the case for many patients with autoimmune neuropathies," Spatafora continued. "The Alliance is a platform first and foremost to help shape the policies regarding access not only to IVIG, but now all specialty biotherapeutics."
Currently the Alliance is focused on three policy issue areas: Specialty Tiers, Prior Authorization and Fail First Mandates. "All three policies - whether from the government or insurance companies - work against the availability of life-saving biotherapeutics for patients," Cornett said.
According to Spatafora, the Alliance has recently strengthened its voice in regards to specialty tier legislation. "The specialty tier formulary simply makes treatment for these costly, yet life-saving and life-enhancing therapeutics unaffordable for most patients," he says.
While the Affordable Care Act will eventually assist Medicare patients using Part D plans by eliminating the doughnut hole by the year 2014, it does not address the issue of specialty tier out-of-pocket expenses for other insurance plans.
