News & Media
Why biosimilars will fail: and what we can do about it
Benefits PRO, Pramod John, 05/04/2023
Humira biosimilars have given employers and policy makers a false sense of security about impending cost relief, but all that’s happened is the health industry has once again succeeded in making us lose sight of the real problem. The unanswered question is how and why Humira became the biggest selling drug in history. If we don’t reflect on the root cause of our drug problem, we’re going to have the same hand wringing conversation five or 10 years from now, with a different set of drug names.
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Patients Often Lose in the Battle between Pharma and PBMs
Formulary Watch, Denise Myshko, 05/02/2023
“It’s the law unintended consequences,” Pramod John, Ph.D., chief executive officer of Vivio Health. “The ACA’s intent was not that providers now can charge whatever they wanted for service, whether a drug manufacturer or hospital. It was trying to protect a member could have a million dollar out of pocket costs in a year. This is when we started to see expansion of drug pricing because now with out-of-pockets limits, it doesn’t matter whether a drug costs $6,000 or $600,000.”
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Validation Institute Independently Certifies VIVIO Delivered 39% Lower PMPM Costs Year-Over-Year
VIVIO uses data to ensure every patient is on an effective and affordable therapy
News Release, VIVIO, 03/27/2023
San Leandro, CA – VIVIO, the leading drug outcomes company, proudly announces third-party validation of specialty drug savings delivered for VIVIO customers. Validation Institute independently certified a self-funded employer with 27,000 covered lives that spent 39% less in their first year with VIVIO than they did in the previous year with a Big-3 PBM.
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Eric Channer Joins VIVIO as Chief Financial Officer
News Release, VIVIO, 01/17/2023
San Leandro, CA – VIVIO, a leading drug outcomes company, announced today that Eric Channer has joined the company as Chief Financial Officer. Eric is an experienced CFO in the health insurance and medical benefits industry. Prior to VIVIO, Eric was CFO of AmeriBen, a third-party administrator of medical insurance. He helped lead that company through significant growth, various ownership structures, and a merger with Elevance Health.
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Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company and VIVIO team up to help employers and health plans stop overpaying for specialty drugs
News Release, VIVIO & Cost Plus Drugs, 10/18/2022
VIVIO & Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company are excited about announcing that we will be working together to make sure that patients won't have to overpay for specialty drugs. Click the link below to see the details of the announcement.
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Consulting industry leader, Lisa Zeitel, joins VIVIO Advisory Board
News Release, VIVIO, 09/20/2022
We are thrilled to announce that Lisa Zeitel, former Coalition & National Pharmacy Practice Lead for Aon, has joined our advisory board. During her tenure at Aon, she oversaw the fastest growing pharmacy purchasing coalition in the US, representing over $4.2B in drug spend.
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Compliance Issues with Alternative Funding Programs for Specialty Drugs
News Release, VIVIO, 06/29/2022
Our analysis indicates that Alternative Funding Programs which exclude specialty drugs from coverage and then use Patient Assistance Programs for funding are exposing employers and employees to ERISA and IRS risks and violations. More importantly it is likely a violation of fiduciary responsibility for self-funded plans. See the details of the analysis below.
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VIVIO Speaks to FTC on Healthcare Mergers
Video, FTC, 06/21/2022
VIVIO’s CEO Pramod John had an opportunity to speak with the FTC during their Listening Forum on the impacts of healthcare consolidation. Please click on the link if you would like a copy of VIVIO’s comments to the FTC on PBM Practices and how to regulate them.
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VIVIO Submits Comments to the FTC on PBM Practices
News Release, VIVIO, 04/25/2022
As a Public Benefit Company with a mission of ensuring that every patient is on an effective therapy at a fair market cost, we believe that regulatory agencies such as the FTC and DOJ have a responsibility to break up the structural monopolies that PBMs, Provider Systems and Health plans have created. These monopolies have resulted in 4% of the world's population, who are Americans, paying 49% of global healthcare costs. Please click on the link if you would like a copy of VIVIO's comments to the FTC on PBM Practices and how to regulate them.
Read More ->How Data and Analytics can be Leveraged to Manage Specialty Drugs
Formulary Watch, Denise Myshko, 04/27/2022
Pramod John, CEO, and Bhargav Raman, M.D., director, clinical product, at Vivio Health, discuss how their system can match patients to therapies based on data rather than a formulary.
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VIVIO Adds Retail Industry Leader, Marcus Osborne, to Advisory board as Consumers Need More Effective Specialty Drug Therapies at Lower Costs
News Release, VIVIO, 03/30/2022
As a Public Benefit Company with a mission of ensuring that every patient is on an effective therapy at a fair market cost, we are thrilled to announce that Marcus Osborne has joined our Advisory Board to help us get there. Marcus has a passion for working on big problems and there is no bigger problem than the waste of billions on therapies that don't work and often harm patients.
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Substandard Control Arms in Clinical Trials for Prostate Cancer
Journal of Clinical Oncology, Van Wambeke et. al., 02/22/2022
Trials designs often don't tell us what we want to know, is A better than B? Check out this article from VIVIO team member Bishal Gyawali et. al. on the gaming of metastatic prostate cancer drug trials. The Medpage article has a link to the article.
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What You Need to Know About Specialty Pharmacy Formularies and Rebating
Relentless Health Value, Stacey Richter & Pramod John, 02/03/2022
Relentless Health Value host Stacey Richter talks with with Pramod John about drug formularies and rebates and why focusing on actual patient outcomes leads to broader access and lower costs.
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Actionable Surprises About the Efficacy and Effectiveness of Specialty Pharmaceuticals
Relentless Health Value, Stacey Richter & Pramod John, 01/27/2022
Relentless Health Value host Stacey Richter talks with with Pramod John about the reality of specialty drugs and what the terms efficacy and effectiveness really mean because they might not mean what you think they mean.
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Healthcare’s Asymmetry of Information
Healthcare Upside/Down, Nick van Terheyden & Pramod John, 01/21/2022
Do you know if the drugs you are prescribed and are taking are actually delivering value? Who has your best interests front and center and you trust to make a determination and guide the clinical decision-making process on what therapy is indicated for the disease in you? If you were leaning on the FDA, recent news and events might give you pause. Recently conditionally approved Aduhelm an Alzheimer treatment by Biogen is controversial and pricey.
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Lowering clinical trial standards for the poor
The Lancet, Bishal Gyawali, 12/26/2021
Apparently the often-low standards for the FDA aren't low enough. Now we just move trials to poor countries and use control arms that we wouldn't approve here. VIVIO team member Bishal Gyawali writes about this in the Lancet. Look at the data yourselves and stop listening to the 'experts' who are paid to say 'yes.'
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Overhauling the Specialty Drug Industry
Speaking of Today Show, Apurv Gupta, Stephanie Feals & Pramod John, 10/21/2021
Driven by a personal passion to change healthcare and “the obligation to do the right thing for the good of every American,” Pramod John, CEO of Vivio Health, is on a mission to overhaul the specialty drug market.
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Access to cancer medicines deemed essential by oncologists in 82 countries
The Lancet Oncology, Bishal Gyawali, 09/21/2021
VIVIO clinical team member, Bishal Gyawali, MD, PhD, is part of the team that develops the WHO Essential Medicines List (EML) identifies priority medicines that are most important to public health. Over time, the EML has included an increasing number of cancer medicines. See the details of their work that spans 82 countries.
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2021 Shown to be Terrible Year for Overturns of Accelerated FDA Approvals in Oncology.
thebmj, Bishal Gyawali, 08/04/2021
If the controversial Alzheimer's drug approval hasn't changed your mind about our misunderstanding of FDA approvals, then make sure you read this article from VIVIO team member Bishal Gyawali.
Read More ->VIVIO Becomes a Public Benefit Corporation
News Release, VIVIO, 08/01/2021
We are excited to announce that we have changed our corporate status to a Public Benefit Corporation. You can find out the details behind why in the article below.
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VIVIO Adds Industry Leaders to Advisory Board as Demand Increases for Transparent and Innovative Specialty Drug Management
Article from prweb, Chris Crawford, 07/22/2021
Mary Catherine Person and Jim Pursley have joined VIVIO as the company sees unprecedented demand for its specialty drug PBM carve-out services. Mary Catherine is the former President of HealthSCOPE Benefits, a leading national Third-Party Administrator (TPA), which was sold to UnitedHealthcare in 2019. Jim was the Chief Commercial Officer for Livongo Health, which went public in 2019 before being acquired by Teledoc Health for $18.5B in 2020.
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Increased vial size of Blockbuster drug Keytruda drives billions of waste
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Daniel Goldstein, et. al., 07/21/2021
VIVIO clinical team member, Daniel Goldstein is referenced in Peter Bach's scathing commentary in Health Affairs on the waste being driven by vial size games played by Pharma. The original article describes how Merck's increase of vial size has led to billions of dollars of Keytruda being thrown away.
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Biosimilars in Oncology: A Payor, Provider, and Community/C-Suite Perspective
CE Synergy Panel Discussion, Kevin Knopf, 05/06/2021
On Thursday, May 13, 2021, learn about the current state of affairs for the global and US oncology biosimilar market.
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The Burden of Out-of-Pocket Costs for NSCLC Care
Article in MedPage Today, Bishal Gyawali, 04/09/2021
VIVIO clinical team member, Bishal Gyawali, MD, PhD, on why financial toxicity deserves more attention. "The more lung cancer patients had to pay out of pocket for treatment, the less likely they were to adhere to, or continue, therapy, reported researchers, who also found an indication of resulting less-than-ideal survival odds."
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When Enthusiasm for New Cancer Drugs Is Premature
Interview in Oncology Times, Bishal Gyawali, 04/08/2021
Interview with Bishal Gyawali, MD, PhD, VIVIO clinical team member. According to Gyawali, "what's the point in having a drug that does not reach patients because of unaffordability? Both high cost and low probability of clinical benefit should make us question the value of a drug, not hail it as a game-changer."
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VIVIO Hires Chris Crawford as Chief Growth Officer
News Release, VIVIO, 03/15/2021
San Leandro, CA – VIVIO, a leading specialty drug management company, announced today that Chris Crawford has joined the company as Chief Growth Officer. Chris is leveraging almost 20 years of employee benefits consulting and leadership experience to drive new client acquisition and build a sales organization. Chris’ relevant experience includes Mercer, where he was the US Sales & Client Management Leader, before founding a benefits consulting firm, CMC Advisory Group, which was later acquired by Cottingham & Butler ...
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Cutting Costs: CHG Healthcare Carves Out Specialty Pharmacy
Catalyst for Payment Reform Webinar, Anne Hopkins, CHG Healthcare & Pramod John, 11/12/2020
What is causing prescription drug costs to keep rising? Come find out in this podcast in which Pramod John, the CEO of VIVIOHealth,...
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Case Study: Dean Foods Attempts Savings via Specialty Carve-out
The Centers for Biosimilars, Skylar Jeremias, 10/17/2020
Discussing its methodology for promoting biosimilar use, VIVIO said biosimilars are specified for use when therapeutically equivalent and appropriate for a patient, with “no exceptions.”
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Target and Tame the Drug Spend Monster
Podcast of Pramod John , with David Saltzman, 06/22/2020
What is causing prescription drug costs to keep rising? Come find out in this podcast in which Pramod John, the CEO of VIVIOHealth,...
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VIVIO Biosimilars Case Study
Carving out Specialty Pharmacy and Using Biosimilars to Control Specialty Spend, By Gallagher, 05/18/2020
In recent years, Dean Foods has been besieged by surging healthcare costs, with specialty drugs being a key cost driver.
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The Secret Behind High Drug Costs
Podcast of Pramod John , By The Commonwealth Club, 10/17/2019
What is causing prescription drug costs to keep rising? Come find out in this podcast in which Pramod John, the CEO of VIVIOHealth,...
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VIVIO Wins Coveted EHIR Innovator Award
VIVIO, a specialty drug management company, won one of two innovator awards offered by Employer Health Innovation Roundtable, News Release, 10/10/2019
Minneapolis, MN, October 2019 - VIVIO, a specialty drug management company, won one of two innovator awards offered by Employer Health Innovation Roundtable.
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Using Real-World Data The Right Way
Interview in First Report Managed Care, Pramod John , 09/01/2019
Pramod John, PhD, CEO of VIVIO Health, discusses a recent presentation where he spoke about using real-world data to drive better...
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This spoonful of sugar will help the medicine go down!
Podcast interview with Michael Andrade, PRAMOD JOHN, 07/23/2019
We discuss the current challenges within managing specialty management for both the patients and doctors and how VIVIO...
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Are Specialty Pharmacy Treatment Decisions Really Evidence-Based?
quoted in article by David Wild, PRAMOD JOHN, 07/19/2019
"Many of the basic assumptions we make about an FDA approval and drugs ‘working’ are just not true,” Pramod John, ...”
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National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions, 2019 Leadership Summit
06/26/2019
Panel discussion, Precision Pharmacy Management: Optimizing Your Rx Spend, Pittsburgh PA.
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VIVIO Health named winner of 2019 Health Value Award for Specialty Drug Managers
04/30/2019
Washington, D.C. (April 30, 2019) – VIVIO, a specialty drug management company, won a prestigious first place Health Value Award for improving outcomes...
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Saying No to the Drug Crisis
quoted in article by Brian Klepper, Pramod John, 11/27/2018
In a recent essay, VIVIO Health’s CEO Pramod John guides us through four sensible drug policy changes and supporting rationales that could make drug pricing much fairer.
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Four Policy Solutions That Would Bring Fairness to Drug Pricing
article originally published by Validation Institute, Pramod John, 11/01/2018
Pramod John Other than the grip that the pharmaceutical industry has on Congress and our state legislatures primarily through their lobbying and control of...
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CVS, Cigna Deals Could Thwart Nascent Pharmacy Benefit Services to higher prices
quoted in Bloomberg Big Law Business, PRAMOD JOHN, 10/11/2018
The market is “broken,” and concentration already has warped payment incentives, VIVIO Health CEO Pramod John told Bloomberg Law. His company runs a tech platform on specialty drugs, using data analytics to reduce the amount employers spend on expensive drugs for their employees.
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Imagine there are no PBMs. It’s easy if you try
article published in STAT, SALLY WELBORN and PRAMOD JOHN, 08/23/2018
If you doubt that pharmacy benefit managers could go the way of the travel agent, start with this statistic: About 9 out of 10 drug purchases in the United States...
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CHG’s Nicole Thurman featured in Managed Care Magazine
quoted in Bloomberg Big Law Business, CHG BLOG, 08/06/2018
After receiving a claim for $172,000, Nicole thought it was an error. She soon learned it was not an error but a specialty medication for an employee. ‘My heart sank because knowing that there are more and more specialty drugs being approved and put to market every day, there was no way we could afford spending at that rate,’ Nicole says.
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Data Analytics and Outcomes Based Models to Help Employers Control Their Specialty Drug Spend
interview by Michael Menerey, PRAMOD JOHN, 07/24/2018
Discussed in this episode: the problems with the traditional prior authorization process and how VIVIO Health has changed the process to be a data-driven...
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’60 Minutes’ Was Right About Huge Drug Prices, But Wrong About The Villain
Forbes article featuring CHG and VIVIO Health, LEAH BINDER, 05/11/2018
Thurman continued to see the problem of very high-priced drugs as a top priority for her company. She hired a startup company called VIVIO…
Read More ->VIVIO Health customer CHG Healthcare wins Health Value Award
05/04/2018
Washington, D.C. (May 4, 2018) – CHG Healthcare, a leading healthcare staffing agency, won a prestigious first place Health Value Award...
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VIVIO Health, One Year Later
Interview with Mabel Jong, World Congress Correspondent, at World Health Care Congress 2018, PRAMOD JOHN, 04/29/2018
Pramod John, VIVIO CEO, describes company progress toward improving specialty drug outcomes while lowering costs.
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Preview: VIVIO Health’s 4/29/18 presentation at World Health Care Congress
interview by journalist Mabel Jong, PRAMOD JOHN, 04/09/2018
Mabel Jong: “We spoke last year and I’m very curious about what has happened the past twelve months. What market traction have you been able to experience?”...
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Companies Looking Outside Government Oversight For Lower Drug Prices
interview by Bronson Teichert for Utah Public Radio, PRAMOD JOHN, 03/13/2018
CHG Healthcare, the 2,600 employee company in Utah provides health care staffing. They have turned to a California company,...
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Cigna’s Express Scripts deal could lead to higher prices
quoted in MarketWatch, PRAMOD JOHN, 03/09/2018
Independent PBMs essentially worked to create consistency in drug pricing and to restrict drug manufacturers from overpricing — though some have also accused...
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Cigna to buy Express Scripts in $67 billion deal
quoted in Modern Healthcare, PRAMOD JOHN, 03/08/2018
With all of these insurer-PBM mergers, none of them have shown to benefit the consumer,” said Pramod John, CEO and founder of VIVIO Health,...
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3 Tips to Help Tame the M&A Beast
article published in BenefitsPRO, PRAMOD JOHN, 02/23/2018
Planning on larger mergers to control costs is a fool’s errand. Take a look at UnitedHealth Group (UHG) which owns UnitedHealthcare (UNH) and OptumRx.
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Challenging Oncology Therapies With Moonshot Price Tags
article originally published as a Lundberg Institute Blog, PRAMOD JOHN, 12/13/2017
New oncology therapies carry astronomical price tags—most people know this. Receiving far less attention is the question of actual therapeutic value...
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VIVIO Health is a Winner in TiE Award Competition
accepts achievement certificate and $2,500 prize from TiE Pittsburgh, T. J. TEDESCO, 12/12/2017
VIVIO Health places second of 30 entrants in TiE Pittsburgh’s 4th Annual Startup and Showcase event
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Carving Out Specialty Pharmacy Benefits
interview by Stacey Richter for Relentless Health Value, PRAMOD JOHN, 12/07/2017
Specialty drugs that run through pharmacy benefit managers will soon comprise 50% of pharmacy budgets, even though they represent a small number of Rx’s taken by a small number of patients.
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What will the CVS-Aetna deal mean for consumers?
appearance on CNBC’s Capital Connection, interview by Nancy Hungerford, PRAMOD JOHN, 12/04/2017
Past mergers similar to the CVS-Aetna deal had not resulted in better pricing for consumers, says Pramod John, founder and CEO of Vivio Health.
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CVS Health to buy Aetna for around $69 billion
quoted in CNBC, PRAMOD JOHN, 12/03/2017
These high complex-care cost members, the very, very sick, or the ones that are using expensive drugs, tend to be the highest profit for the industry,” said Pramod John,...
Read More ->What if Amazon Breaks into the Pharmacy Business?
interview by Stacey Richter for Relentless Health Value, PRAMOD JOHN, 11/02/2017
In this episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Pramod John, who sums up the four structural roadblocks Amazon will face if they decide to gin up a pharmacy division.
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Potential CVS-Aetna merger: Key takeaways for health execs
quoted in Managed Healthcare Executive, PRAMOD JOHN, 11/01/2017
This is the first significant change to the carrier markets in a long time. This purchase squarely puts CVS Health and Aetna ahead of UnitedHealth Group [M&A activity] on many fronts,” says Pramod John, CEO, VIVIO Health, a specialty drug...
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A Test Case on Sanity of Drug Prices
article published in Insurance Thought Leadership, PRAMOD JOHN, 09/18/2017
American healthcare dwells in never-never land. We have neither explicit price controls through regulation nor implicit controls through a functional market...
Read More ->Disrupting pharmaceuticals
article published in BenefitsPRO, PRAMOD JOHN, 08/31/2017
Mavyret, manufactured by AbbeVie is the first example of new brand name Hepatitis C drug that is actually better for patients and costs far less. Eighty percent of patients with Hep C can do an eight-week course, versus the alternative, manufactured by companies including Gilead and Merck, which requires a 12-week course.
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The Emperor’s New Clothes: Biosimilars and Cost in Oncology
article published on ASCO POST, KEVIN KNOPF, MD, 07/10/2017
Biosimilars are biologic products similar to the parent (branded) molecule in structure and function—such as erythropoietin and filgrastim (Neupogen).
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Why are Our Drugs so Expensive? And, what do Businesses Need to Know?
interview with Jeffrey Hayzlett, PRAMOD JOHN, 06/29/2017
Can Amazon Crack the Rx Code?
blog article published, PRAMOD JOHN, 06/22/2017
There is a lot of scuttlebutt about retail powerhouse Amazon bringing its proven brand of simplicity to the drug markets. We at VIVIO Health applaud...
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Do Specialty Drugs Work?
interview with Mabel Jong, PRAMOD JOHN, 04/30/2017
interview with Mabel Jong, World Congress Correspondent, at World Health Care Congress 2017
Read More ->Unrigging the High Cost of Drugs
interview with Steve Ambrose of Red Hot Healthcare, PRAMOD JOHN, 02/02/2017
In this episode, Steve Ambrose and VIVIO Health CEO Pramod John discuss The political process and healthcare consumerism
Read More ->America’s Healthcare Challenge (AHC), Radio Appearance
AHC hosted by Sean McGuire, PRAMOD JOHN & T. J. TEDESCO, 09/24/2016
VIVIO Health’s CEO and VP Customer Experience appeared on AHC hosted by Sean McGuire
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Epi-Pen Pricing: It’s the System, Stupid
blog article published on LinkedIn, PRAMOD JOHN, 08/29/2016
Drug manufacturers can’t catch a break, but are they the real culprit? Sure, we could shake our finger at Heather Bresch, CEO of Mylan, but...
Read More ->Why Our Problem With Drug Pricing Goes Way Beyond Shkreli
blog article published on LinkedIn, PRAMOD JOHN, 07/15/2016
I’d like you to know about an exciting development in my life. I recently became CEO of VIVIO Health, a company focused on solving one of the biggest problems...
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Explaining Rising Drug Costs
blog article published In healthreform EXPLAINED, SEAN McGUIRE, 07/11/2016
According to Pramod John, CEO of VIVIO Health, “in other countries the price for drugs are much lower and in some cases, developing countries are 1/10...”
Read More ->America’s Healthcare Challenge (AHC), Radio Appearance
AHC hosted by Sean McGuire, PRAMOD JOHN, 06/11/2016
VIVIO Health’s CEO appeared on AHC hosted by Sean McGuire
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