The Latest News and Notes, plus Conversation with Allison W. Shuren, JD, MSN

Eyeluminaries

Hosts Jim Mazzo and John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS, discuss the latest ophthalmic industry news and interview Allison W. Shuren, JD, MSN.

• Welcome to the Eyeluminaries podcast :10
• A review of the previous episode :30
• News and notes with John and Jim 1:20
• On the return of in-person medical meetings 1:28
• Byooviz, biosimilar to Lucentis, to be available July 1 2:40
• First patient dosed in the phase 3 registrational COMET-2 study of AR-15512 for the treatment of dry eye disease signs and symptoms 5:50
• Apellis Pharmaceuticals submitted a new drug application to the FDA for intravitreal pegcetacoplan, for the treatment of geographic atrophy secondary to age-related macular degeneration 9:04
• Kala enters agreement to sell commercial portfolio to Alcon 11:30
• FTC opens investigation into pharmacy benefit managers 13:30
• Introduction of Allison W. Shuren, JD, MSN 15:45
• The interview 17:44
• The FTC investigation of pharmacy benefit managers and other enforcement trends 18:12
• Have you seen an increase in cases against practices and industry and if so, why? 19:36
• Prior authorization and trends in reduced access to care 22:12
• What advice would you give to practices who are considering selling to private equity? 23:50
• What advice are you giving to the private equity buyers? 25:32
• What advice would you give to young surgeons coming out now to succeed in the future? 27:19
• Introducing the next guest, David Chang, MD 30:55

Allison W. Shuren, JD, MSN, is a partner at the law firm Arnold & Porter, where she co-chairs the life sciences and healthcare regulatory practice and advises a wide range of health care clients on regulatory, compliance, enforcement and legislative matters. Before starting her career as a lawyer, she was a practicing critical care pediatric nurse practitioner.

John A. Hovanesian, MD, FACS, is a faculty member at the UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute and in private practice at Harvard Eye Associates in Laguna Hills, California.

Jim Mazzo sits on numerous ophthalmic industry corporate boards and committees after serving in executive roles with Allergan, Avellino Labs, Carl Zeiss and AMO.

We’d love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to [e-mail]. Follow John Hovanesian on Twitter @DrHovanesian. You can reach Shuren via email at [e-mail].

Disclosures: Hovanesian consults widely in the ophthalmic field. Mazzo reports being an adviser for Zeiss, Bain Capital, Avellino Labs, CVC Capital, Anivive Lifesciences; executive chairman of Neurotech, Preceyes BV and TearLab; and sits on the board of Crystilex, Lensgen, IanTech, Centricity Vision and Visus.