CVS to give antibody therapy in nursing homes
The major pharmacy chain CVS has reached a deal with the federal government to give out a COVID-19 antibody treatment in patients’ homes and long-term care facilities, the company announced Wednesday, providing a new way for certain high-risk patients to get a drug aimed at keeping them out of the hospital.
Separate from the deal to distribute the antibody treatment, CVS’ retail business will also play a prominent role in administering vaccines nationwide once they are authorized
Lilly’s monoclonal antibody therapy, bamlanivimab, has been found to keep patients in the early stages of COVID-19 from developing more severe disease that requires hospitalization. But it requires patients to receive an hour-long infusion, usually at a medical facility, where they could put others at risk of contracting the disease.
Moving that process into the home could help reach more people, especially those who are highly vulnerable and less mobile, such as nursing home residents.
The treatment is intended only for patients with certain risk factors, such as being older than 65 or having medical conditions such as obesity or diabetes.
The program could also ease the strain on resource-strapped hospitals. Coronavirus cases are rapidly rising across the U.S. and nursing homes are being hit especially hard.
“We believe that this is amuch more patient-friendly way to treat, in the comfort of someone’s own home or without having to be transferred,” said Sreekanth Chaguturu, chief medical officer of CVS pharmacy-benefits manager Caremark.
CVS’s Coram infusion business will receive 1,000 doses of the therapy in the program’s initial phase, which is scheduled to start on Thursday in seven markets, including Chicago, Cleveland and Tampa. Hospitals, primary-care doctors, urgent-care centers and long-term care facilities can refer patients to receive a home infusion. The effort could be expanded in coming months, Chaguturu said.
Some experts have been cautious about embracing the pilot program.
“Even with this partnership, we’re talking about a very limited resource,” said Dr. Robert Goldstein, an infectious disease physician at Massachusetts General Hospital. “We still don’t have a way to deliver it equitably, and I’m not sure that the CVS partnership is necessarily going to improve equity in distribution.”
Chaguturu would not disclose the financial terms of CVS’ deal with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, but he said that CVS was being paid for the pilot program as a whole, not for each patient to whom it gives the treatment.
The federal government already has agreements with CVS and Walgreens to send pharmacists into nursing homes and similar facilities to vaccinate residents and workers there — a group that an advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday recommended should be first to get the vaccine, along with health care workers.
CVS and other pharmacies are also set to play a key role in vaccinating the general public once vaccines are more widely available.