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C h a i n D r u g s t o r e D a i l y 5 9 S u n d a y, A u g u s t 7 , 2 0 1 6 IMEDICARE DRIVES GROWTH WITH PHARMACY AUTOMATION An interview with Nathan Shanor, Chief Financial Officer and Co-Founder, iMedicare. CDD: Tell our readers about iMedicare's history. NS: When we first started, we wanted to use software and analytics to drive more Medicare patients to each phar- macy. Medicare beneficiaries have to navigate an overly-complex system, and their pharmacist is completely left out of the equation. Not surprisingly, pharmacies agreed with our sentiment. We launched iMedicare in 2012 and have been able to benefit more than 4,000 pharmacies located in every state and Puerto Rico. CDD: How do pharmacies benefit from using iMedicare? NS: Our main product is a Medicare soft- ware platform that allows pharmacies to find the most affordable plan for a patient in seconds, while ensuring that the plan is accepted at their pharmacy. Outside of this, we incorporate performance meas- ures into the plan comparison to ensure compliance with PQA guidelines and even have a formulary lookup tool to find alternative medications for patients. The average iMedicare pharmacy saves its patients $1,150 on Part D per year. When a pharmacy saves a patient that much money, not only does it build a stronger bond with the patient, but the patient will trust the pharmacy with more of their health care needs. Plus, ensuring a patient can afford their medications will increase prescription adherence, so iMedicare pharmacies fill more prescriptions and even bring in prescriptions that patients fill at other pharmacies. Overall, iMedicare increases patient retention, drives new Medicare business to the pharmacy and even wins back patients that started going to another pharmacy. To further drive new business, iMedicare has a patient facing website, www.refill- report.com, that drives patients to find cost savings at iMedicare pharmacies. CDD: What direction is iMedicare head- ed in? NS: Automation. We have perfected the process of streamlining plan compar- isons, while providing the pharmacy and its patients with total transparency; now we want to do it proactively. Eighty per- cent of Medicare patients need to change Part D plans each year. If your pharmacy has 1,000 Medicare patients, we will identify the 800 you need to talk to. Not only that, we will tell you that by helping Patient A, you can save them $2,000 on their Part D plan. By helping Patient B, you can save them $500 and also increase your phar- macy's reimbursements by $4,000. These actions not only increase your bot- tom line, but they make your patients healthier and huge advocates of your pharmacy. This type of automation is crucial for pharmacies. Ten thousand people turn 65 everyday in the U.S., which means the Medicare population is doubling to 80 million in the next decade. Medicare business is going to be imperative to every pharmacy. iMedicare makes under- standing a patient's insurance and drug interventions a breeze, and helps the pharmacy's staff become Medicare experts. For more information, call 917.909.4201 or email nathan@imedicare.com. LANG PHARMA: A NEW DAY FOR DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS The playing field has radically changed in the dietary supplement industry in recent years, resulting in great challenges for brands and retailers alike. One com- pany, however, sees these obstacles as an opportunity to lead the market to higher ground. "A number of forces are putting big pressure on the industry to step up its game in terms of quality, formulation and innovation," says Neil Hockstad, a 30 year supplement industry veteran and President of Lang Pharma Nutrition, a leading supplier of science based own brand supplements based in Rhode Island. "We see that as an opportunity." The changing regulatory environ- ment, media attention and increased con- sumer protection litigation have all great- ly heightened consumer scrutiny and the need for retailers to focus on increased quality and compliance to protect their brands. "We truly believe the standards that have been adopted by our retail partners have positioned their products to be of the highest quality and value of any prod- uct in the marketplace," says Hockstad. Lang has none of its own brands. "We are never about owning the most real estate on the shelf, "says Chairman and Founder David Lang. "Our goal and our strength has always been to partner with our retail cus- tomers, listen to their needs and provide customized solu- tions to help them co-create best in class products which rise above a crowded field. It's certainly not the quickest and easiest path to the mar- ket, but it is what we are best at and what we are really passionate about." Established in 1984, and still family owned and run, all of the company's key executives – in sales, R&D, commercial- ization, regulatory and manufacturing – have decades of experience in the natu- ral, specialty and mass markets and have been on the ground floor of many of the market changing trends over the years. Today's supplement section can be very confusing for consumers. They are faced with a huge variety of SKUs, dozens of ingre- dients in differing forms, dosage and quality levels and a tremendous range of benefit statements. "Consumer sophisti- cation has also increased exponentially," says Hockstad. "People do their research on the web, get informed about quality and options, and then have one click access to dozens of retailers to find the best val- ues." "The way we see it, in this dynamic and demanding environment, your brand promise has an opportunity to evolve," says Phil Luetkemeyer, Vice President of Sales at Lang. "Retailers can harness the power of their own brands to lead the market instead of following it." AVEXIS ANNOUNCES APPOINTMENTS TO BOARD OF DIRECTORS AveXis, Inc., a leading clinical-stage gene therapy company developing treat- ments for patients suffering from rare and life-threatening neurological genetic dis- eases, announced three appointments to its Board of Directors: Daniel G. Welch, Terrence C. Kearney and Frank Verwiel, M.D., who joined the Board of Directors prior to the company's initial public offering. Mr. Welch is serving as Non- executive Chairman of the Board. "The addition of these three industry leaders to our board of directors brings extensive corporate operating expertise to our Board," said Sean P. Nolan, President and Chief Executive Officer of AveXis. "These highly accomplished individuals will bring a wealth of opera- tional, financial and strategic acumen to our board, as well as extensive experi- ence in building companies from clini- cal-stage drug development to larger scale global commercialization. I know their impact will be immediate as we work to achieve our goal of fulfilling unmet treatment needs for patients suf- fering from rare, life-threatening neuro- logical genetic diseases." Daniel G. Welch Mr. Welch has more than 35 years of healthcare experience at multi-national pharmaceutical and biotechnology com- panies. Mr. Welch is an executive partner at Sofinnova Ventures, a position he has held since January 2015. He previously served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and a director of InterMune, Inc. from September 2003 to September 2014, and from May 2007 to September 2014 also served as the company's Chairman of the board of directors. From August 2002 to January 2003, Mr. Welch served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Triangle Pharmaceuticals, Inc. In addition to AveXis, Mr. Welch currently serves on the boards of direc- tors of Seattle Genetics, Inc., Ultragenyx Pharmaceutical Inc., where he also serves as Chairman, and Intercept Pharmaceuticals, Inc. He previously served on the board of directors of Hyperion Therapeutics, Inc. from 2012 to 2015. Mr. Welch received a B.S. from the University of Miami and an M.B.A from the University of North Carolina. Terrence C. Kearney Terrence C. Kearney has more than 30 years of global healthcare experience at major pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, most recently as the Chief Operating Officer for Hospira, Inc. where he previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer. Prior to Hospira, Mr. Kearney worked for 25 years in a variety of financial management roles at Abbott Laboratories. In addition to AveXis, Mr. Kearney currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Innoviva (formerly known as Theravance Inc.) and Acceleron Pharma. Mr. Kearney earned a Bachelor's degree in Biology from the University of Illinois and his Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver. Frank Verwiel, M.D. Dr. Verwiel has more than 25 years of experience in the pharmaceutical indus- try, most recently as President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors of Aptalis Pharma Inc. (formerly known as Axcan Pharma). He has also held a variety of internation- al management positions at Merck & Co. Inc. and Servier Laboratories. Dr. Verwiel previously served on the Board of Directors of InterMune, Inc. Dr. Verwiel was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). He current- ly serves on the Boards of Directors of Achillion Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Obseva SA, and is also an observer of the Board of Directors of Bavarian Nordic A/S. Dr. Verwiel received his MBA from INSEAD, Fontainebleau in France and his medical degree from the Erasmus University, Rotterdam in the Netherlands. About AveXis, Inc. AveXis is a clinical-stage gene therapy company developing treatments for patients suffering from rare and life- threatening neurological genetic dis- eases. The company's initial proprietary gene therapy candidate, AVXS-101, is in an ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial for the treatment of SMA Type 1. For more information, visit www.avexis.com.