Company to provide patients, physicians and case managers with disease-specific outcomes data to monitor progress of treatment for autoimmune neuromuscular diseases.
<0> BioRx Announces New Health Outcomes Reporting Program for Immunoglobulin Therapy </0>
<0> BioRxJohn Louis, 610-924-5128 </0>
BioRx, a specialty infusion services provider, has introduced a health outcomes reporting program that provides routine clinical feedback on the use of home immunoglobulin (IgG) therapy in autoimmune-related neuromuscular disorders. The program, called BioFeedback, allows patients, physicians and insurance case managers to monitor drug utilization and administration records, hospital stays and ER visits, nursing notes, as well as view trended clinical metrics for some of the most common autoimmune disorders treated with IgG.
“BioFeedback offers value-added service to physicians and case managers who typically don’t have access, on a systematic basis, to the therapeutic results of immunoglobulin,” said Eric Hill, co-founder of BioRx. “Doctors may see a patient every few months and conduct some tests but, in the interim, they don’t necessarily hear how a patient is responding to each infusion, and they have no way of telling if they should be adjusting the dose, if the drug is achieving the expected results, or if they should be calling the patient back into the office. These drugs are very expensive and each patient and condition responds differently.”
To design the program, the company conducted extensive research into the use of IgG in various autoimmune disorders, including clinical trial results, case studies, consensus opinions, and direct consultation with medical thought leaders. As a result, BioRx collects both self-reported patient health assessments and nurse-administered clinical outcome measures – all available during a patient’s routine home infusion visit. Reports are generated after each course of infusion (usually monthly), submitted directly to prescribing physicians (in electronic or print format), and trended quarterly.
Some of the most common autoimmune conditions treated with IgG are in the field of neuromuscular medicine – specifically, chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (CIDP), multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) and myasthenia gravis (MG). For these conditions, BioRx administers a number of clinically-validated, disease-specific assessments upon each infusion course to measure a patient’s level of physical disability, fatigue, pain, mobility, muscle strength, and quality of life. All of these measures can help physicians and case managers make informed decisions as they follow the progress of therapy.
“While these assessments and clinical measures do not comprise the totality of a patient’s response to therapy, they can augment the body of data available for physicians to make an informed medical judgment,” said Randy Broyles, R.Ph., National Director of Operations at BioRx. “Upon each visit, nurses apply standardized, consistent methods to collect the relevant data. The assessments are sensitive to each disease state and, trended over time, should help paint a picture of a patient’s therapeutic results. Combined with our pharmacy dispensing and infusion information, they can also help spot correlations that may not be apparent otherwise.”
BioRx is currently developing expanded uses of its BioFeedback reporting platform, including use in other diseases and therapeutic areas outside of immunoglobulin.
For more information or questions about the BioFeedback program, call 866.44.BIORX (866.442.4679), email , or visit .
Immunoglobulin (Ig) is a sterilized pharmaceutical product prepared from the pooled plasma of tens of thousands of screened blood donors. Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) is the infusion of immunoglobulin into a vein. Subcutaneous immunoglobulin (SCIg) is the infusion of immunoglobulin into tissue under the skin.
Immunoglobulins are antibodies found in human blood plasma. In the simplest terms, “immunoglobulin” and “antibody” refer to the same thing. Antibodies are important to the body’s defense against foreign substances such as viruses and other disease-causing pathogens. So, Ig therapy is essentially the infusion of human antibodies. The antibodies are collected from pooled plasma that has been carefully screened and tested for safety. Ig product manufacturers take plasma from large numbers of donors and extract the antibodies from the “pool,” then concentrate, clean and preserve the antibodies into a medically useful pharmaceutical product.
Ig is typically used for patients with autoimmune neuromuscular disorders, primary immune diseases, and certain types of leukemia and transplants. The number of diseases treated by this unique therapy is continually growing, but is estimated to exceed 150.
Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, BioRx is one of the nation’s fastest growing providers of specialty pharmaceuticals and infusion services, delivering highly customized care for patients with certain rare and chronic diseases. In addition to serving patients with autoimmune disorders, BioRx offers pharmacy, nursing and education services to patients with hemophilia, hereditary angioedema, immune deficiencies, and alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency. The company’s clinical staff reaches patients and physicians in all 50 states. To learn more about BioRx and its products and services, visit .