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Marsh and Octaviant Financial to help expand patient access to life-changing gene, cell, and specialty therapies

New warranty solution enables drug makers to back high-cost therapies should they fail
Key Takeaways
  • The collaboration between Octaviant Financial and Marsh will allow biopharma companies to offer payers a warranty for gene therapies, cell therapies and specialty pharmaceuticals.
  • Advanced therapies hold the promise of curing rare diseases, genetic disorders, and cancers but heretofore have not had a viable mechanism to reimburse payers should a therapy not perform as expected.
  • The goals are to lower risk to payers, maintain an incentive for drug developers to innovate, and expand patient access to advanced therapies.

New York, NY -- May 8, 2023 – Marsh, the world’s leading insurance broker and risk advisor and a business of Marsh McLennan, and Octaviant Financial, Inc.,  a recognized innovator in novel drug warranty and payment models, announced today a new specialized warranty program that enables pharmaceutical companies to expand patient access to their life-changing gene, cell, and specialty therapies.

Advanced therapies hold the promise of curing rare diseases, genetic disorders, and cancers, in a single dose treatment. Since 2017, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved 27 such therapies, with thousands more in development or clinical trial phases. Each treatment, however, costs tens of thousands to several million dollars, which can strain the health care system with upfront costs and bar patient access, despite the potential to lower overall health care expenses over time. 

Marsh and Octaviant are collaborating to offer pharmaceutical manufacturers a program to customize and implement therapeutic warranties to ease these concerns. The warranties provide health care payers, including Medicaid and Medicare, reimbursement should an advanced therapy treatment fail to deliver the expected medical outcomes on a given patient. They also are compliant with the latest Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) guidelines and state insurance regulations, allowing for reimbursement up to the full cost of the therapy. In addition to the warranties, the Marsh/Octaviant program provides pharmaceutical clients access to strategic insights and proprietary tools, such as therapeutic actuarial services and Octaviant’s precision finance platform, to bring competitive warranties to market.    

“To fully realize the benefit of these advanced therapies, health care payers should have meaningful financial recourse in instances where these therapies do not perform as expected,” said Eddie Albers, US Life Science Industry Practice Leader, Marsh. “A well-structured, compliant warranty, issued in conjunction with an advanced therapy, substantially mitigates this risk. It gives health care payers more confidence to cover potentially life-altering therapies, expands access to more patients, and maintains an incentive for manufacturers to develop innovative treatments.”

Emad Samad, CEO, Octaviant, added: “Implementing successful therapeutic warranties requires specialized expertise in disciplines like corporate strategy, reinsurance, and actuarial analysis. Our collaboration with Marsh and the larger Marsh McLennan, leverages the combined capabilities of both firms and consolidates them under one offering. Pharmaceutical manufacturers finally have a platform to create differentiated warranty programs that, unlike current solutions, are meaningful to payers and drive greater utilization of therapies that can save the health care system significant cost and improve patient lives.”

The Marsh/Octaviant warranty program is available to Marsh’s life science clients commercializing any pharmaceutical, including advanced gene and cell therapies. Each warranty program and funding mechanism will be bespoke to the pharmaceutical company and in line with the latest guidelines.   


About Octaviant Financial
Octaviant Financial offers innovative financial, warranty and reinsurance solutions designed to help drug makers, payers and patients manage the cost of gene, cell and specialty therapies. Octaviant’s mission is to facilitate the adoption of transformational therapies by removing significant barriers for payers and patients seeking access. Our core strength is to leverage our combined experiences in the life sciences, finance and reinsurance industries to meet our mission. Octaviant’s culture – to be innovative, collaborative, and client-centric – has allowed the firm to develop cutting edge ideas to fuel its proprietary instruments and services offerings. We provide full-service advice to our clients and assist them to think strategically through the most complex challenges facing drug delivery and reimbursement. In doing so, it is our hope that a healthcare system evolves to bring about more cures for patients living with disease. For more information, visit www.octaviantfx.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

About Marsh 
Marsh is the world’s leading insurance broker and risk advisor. With over 45,000 colleagues operating in 130 countries, Marsh serves commercial and individual clients with data-driven risk solutions and advisory services. Marsh is a business of Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), the world’s leading professional services firm in the areas of risk, strategy and people. With annual revenue over $20 billion, Marsh McLennan helps clients navigate an increasingly dynamic and complex environment through four market-leading businesses: Marsh, Guy Carpenter, Mercer and Oliver Wyman. For more information, visit marshmclennan.com, and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
 

Key Takeaways
  • The collaboration between Octaviant Financial and Marsh will allow biopharma companies to offer payers a warranty for gene therapies, cell therapies and specialty pharmaceuticals.
  • Advanced therapies hold the promise of curing rare diseases, genetic disorders, and cancers but heretofore have not had a viable mechanism to reimburse payers should a therapy not perform as expected.
  • The goals are to lower risk to payers, maintain an incentive for drug developers to innovate, and expand patient access to advanced therapies.
Quotes
To fully realize the benefit of these advanced therapies, health care payers should have meaningful financial recourse in instances where these the...
Eddie AlbersUS Life Science Industry Practice Leader, Marsh.
Implementing successful therapeutic warranties requires specialized expertise in disciplines like corporate strategy, reinsurance, and actuarial an...
Emad SamadCEO, Octaviant
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Related Bios
Emad Samad
President, Chief Executive Officer
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Eddie Albers
US Life Science Industry Practice Leader, Marsh.
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Sally Roberts
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+1 303 952 9453
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Savannah Beaver
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(617) 804-0366
Media (Octaviant)