Protecting Patient Access to Specialty Pharmacies
The Specialty Access Alliance educates policymakers on the shared experiences of patients who rely on specialty medications as well as the pharmacies that support them by enhancing access, affordability, and health outcomes.
About
The Specialty Access Alliance
Who We Are
The Specialty Access Alliance brings together patients across medical conditions, specialty pharmacies, consumer organizations, physicians, caregivers, pharmaceutical manufacturers, and other stakeholders.
We are united by a shared goal: protect patient access to specialty care and treatments by ensuring public policy at all levels reflects what patients actually need to get healthy, remain stable, and thrive.
Our Mission
Our mission is to support patients who rely on specialty medications and related services provided by specialty pharmacies through policymaker education focused on the real-world experience of specialty care.
We concentrate on education and engagement to ensure patients can continue to:
- Access life‑changing medications without unnecessary interruptions
- Afford high‑cost, complex therapies
- Receive expert care tailored to their condition
By informing public policy, we help protect access to specialty medications and services that patients and their families depend on every day.
Who Are Specialty Patients and What Are Specialty Pharmacies?
This is high-stakes care. Specialty pharmacies provide personalized care for patients with rare, chronic, or complex conditions such as immune deficiencies, cancer, multiple sclerosis, hemophilia, and spinal muscular atrophy. Despite facing different diseases, specialty patients share similar experiences within the healthcare system, making it important for policymakers to understand this unique part of American healthcare.
Specialty patients often rely on complex medications not available through traditional pharmacies. These specialty medications have unique storage, handling, or distribution requirements, such as sub-zero temperature‑controlled shipping; may require ancillary supplies – sometimes including novel medical equipment; and may have stepped-up clinical management and detailed reporting requirements.
Specialty pharmacies have the infrastructure, resources, and clinical expertise to manage these complexities on behalf of their patients.
As medical innovation accelerates, specialty pharmacies are increasingly essential to helping patients access advanced therapies, including treatments that can slow disease progression or offer potential cures for conditions that were once considered fatal.
As medical innovation accelerates, specialty pharmacies are increasingly essential to helping patients access advanced therapies, including treatments that can slow disease progression or offer potential cures for conditions that were once considered fatal.
Beyond dispensing prescriptions, specialty pharmacies provide personalized, high‑touch support, including access to pharmacists, nurses, and care teams who:
Monitor treatment and adjust dosing when needed
Educate patients and caregivers at every stage
Offer real‑time clinical support, often available 24/7
Provide wrap-around services, including support from dietitians and social workers
Patient Story
Living with CVID
Dave's Story
Dave lives with common variable immune deficiency (CVID), a chronic condition that requires ongoing immunoglobulin infusions. He experienced years of unexplained symptoms and frequent illness which have now been remedied through these infusions.
Prior to this diagnosis, Dave suffered through many other serious health issues. While recovering, he met a dedicated hospital lab tech and 42 years later is still married to her. She remains an important part of his care team.
The journey to his current treatments included receiving monthly IV immunoglobulin infusions in a hospital setting. The next step was in- home monthly IV transfusions. Neither of these offered privacy or convenience. The final step was training to do weekly subcutaneous self-infusions. This procedure offers him the ability to schedule on his own time.
Dave receives the necessary supplies and encouragement through a specialty pharmacy. The result is a frictionless process allowing him to live his best life.
Living with CVID
Why This Matters Now
Patients need support
Specialty medications are not ordinary prescriptions. For patients, they can represent hope, stability, or a cure.
At the same time, these therapies can be expensive, difficult to access, and challenging to manage without expert support. Patients frequently face confusion, delays, and financial uncertainty while coping with serious illness.
The Specialty Access Alliance helps policymakers understand this reality by highlighting the full patient experience and the role that specialty medications and pharmacies play in supporting safe, consistent care.
Policy proposals threaten
patient access
The Specialty Access Alliance serves primarily as an educational resource. By joining together, we ensure that the complexity of these drugs and the specialized needs of the patients who take them are fully understood by those shaping the future of healthcare policy.
Through coordinated education and engagement, we help shape policy conversations that directly impact patient access and the sustainability of specialty pharmacy services.
Join Today
Help shape the future of specialty care policy
The healthcare landscape is rapidly evolving, and policymakers are making critical decisions that will determine how specialty medications are accessed, reimbursed, and delivered.
Joining the Specialty Access Alliance positions your organization at the forefront of these discussions, ensuring your perspective is heard and valued. You can tailor your participation to align with your organization’s capacity and goals and the interests of your members.
Membership Benefits
Work with organizations across the specialty care ecosystem to align on shared, patient‑focused priorities.
Demonstrate Leadership
Be recognized as a leader in specialty care, supporting policy that improves patient outcomes and reduces costs.
Protect
Access
Support coordinated efforts that promote access to specialty medication and preserve patient choice.
Ready to Highlight the
Patient’s Voice?
Reach out through the form below.