Tanner Pharma Group Increasing Product Access With Named Patient Programs

Tanner Pharma Group (Tanner) has provided highly specialized pharmaceutical services to its partners around the world for over 18 years. Leading pharmaceutical and biotech companies partner with Tanner to license and commercialize their products in challenging international markets, develop and manage their Global Access Programs, and source comparator drugs for clinical trials and bioanalysis.

By partnering with Tanner, manufacturers are able to focus on their primary markets and strategies while ensuring that the services they need will follow a strictly controlled protocol of quality.

A Named Patient Program (NPP) provides patients and physicians access to commercially approved medicines that are not available to them in their own country. These drugs must be approved in at least one country, from which it can be imported into the patient’s country under a NPP.

Tanner delivers access initiatives for products not commercially available in many parts of the world while focusing on global expansion of its footprint. Recent product initiatives include:

• Apealea (Elevar Therapeutics) has been approved by the European regulatory authorities for use in combination with carboplatin for the treatment of adult patients with first relapse of platinum-sensitive epithelial ovarian cancer, primary peritoneal cancer and fallopian tube cancer. Tanner will be the exclusive supplier of Apealea to health care providers outside of the U.S. on a named patient basis in countries where Apealea is not yet commercially available.
• Versacloz (Tasman Pharma) is indicated for the treatment of severely ill patients with schizophrenia who fail to respond adequately to standard antipsychotic treatment. The agreement names Tanner as a distributor of Versacloz in areas outside of the United States where the product is not yet registered.
• Oxervate (Dompé farmaceutici S.p.A.) is recombinant human nerve growth factor (NGF) and supports corneal innervation and integrity. Tanner will be Dompé’s exclusive distribution partner for Oxervate (cenegermin) in selected countries
• AndroFeme^®1 (Lawley Pharmaceuticals) is licensed by Western Australian regulatory authorities and is indicated for the treatment of postmenopausal women with hypoactive sexual desire dysfunction (HSDD). Tanner was selected as exclusive provider for the AndroFeme^® 1 named patient program in countries outside of Australia, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Ireland where AndroFeme^® 1 is not commercially available.

Takeaway: Named Patient Programs, although intricate to manage, increase the burden on pharmaceutical companies for compassionate supply of medicines that could potentially have a positive impact on a patient’s life