Express Scripts is kicking off 2023 with a new leader at the helm.
Adam Kautzner was tapped to lead the massive pharmacy benefit manager as its president in mid-January, succeeding Amy Bricker. Kautzner has spent 15 years at Express Scripts and has expertise across pharma relations, formulary development, value-based solutions and pharmacy network strategy.
Express Scripts is a tentpole within Evernorth, Cigna's health services subsidiary.
"That broad breadth of experience certainly positioned me well to step into this role," Kautzner told Fierce Healthcare in an interview. "I'm really looking forward to spending more time with our clients and understanding from them the main challenges they're facing today."
Kautzner is a pharmacist by background and spent time working as a nuclear pharmacist before joining Express Scripts. Initially, he worked as a clinical product manager, developing solutions to address challenges in the pharmaceutical supply chain, before joining the supply chain team.
His seven years in supply chain at Express Scripts involved building relationships with drugmakers and contracting for medications.
That experience will come to play in a big way as the PBM prepares for one of this year's key trends: a growing wave of biosimilars is set to hit the market. PBMs broadly view these products as crucial in addressing the high costs associated with a number of popular specialty therapies.
Kautzner said these drugs offer a "tremendous opportunity" to offer greater patient choice and manage rising drug costs. But there's work to be done to encourage greater adoption as these products become more available.
"Biosimilars have been top of mind for many of us in this space for years," he said. "We've seen mixed adoption on the medical side."
Pushing for greater uptake of biosimilars is an example of an area where Express Scripts can push toward one of its broader goals in harnessing the strengths of other Evernorth segments. Within the Evernorth umbrella, the PBM is connected to data analytics services, telehealth, value-based care management and more that it can tap into.
Express Scripts' sister company, specialty pharmacy Accredo, also sits within Evernorth.
Developing ways to utilize the expertise within Evernorth is something the PBM's clients want to see, Kautzner said. They are seeking "unique" ways to manage whole-person health, including behavioral health, equity and more.
"Innovation is always one of the most fun things in this fast-paced industry," he said. "We never stand still."
Another major task on Kautzner's plate this year? Leading the charge as Express Scripts onboard Centene's 20 million members to its PBM services. Centene named Express Scripts as its new PBM late last year, moving its business from CVS Caremark.
He said that Express Scripts has established an "innovative partnership" with the government insurer that focuses on affordability and accessibility while also driving growth at both companies.
"We have an innovative partnership that we’ve been able to do with Centene," Kautzner said. "We really appreciated their broad thinking as we’ve developed that partnership."