Business
Kala Pharmaceuticals Announces EYSUVIS® Now Covered on UnitedHealthcare Commercial and Cigna Medicare
-- Expands Commercial Coverage to 118 million lives and Medicare Coverage to 7.1 million lives -- ARLINGTON, Mass., March 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kala
About this update from Kala Bio, Inc.
[{"type":"text","content":"-- Expands Commercial Coverage to 118 million lives and Medicare Coverage to 7.1 million lives -- ARLINGTON, Mass., March 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Kala Pharmaceuticals, Inc., (NASDAQ:KALA), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative therapies for diseases of the eye, today announced that UnitedHealthcare, one of the largest commercial health care plans in the United States, covering approximately 13 million lives, has added EYSUVIS (loteprednol etabonate ophthalmic suspension) 0.25% as a covered brand on its commercial formularies effective March 2022. EYSUVIS now has coverage for approximately 118 million lives, or 70% of all commercial lives. Also today, Kala announced that Cigna Medicare has added EYSUVIS as a preferred brand effective February 2022, adding an additional 1.9 million Medicare lives. EYSUVIS now has Medicare preferred coverage for select plans with Express Scripts, Prime Therapeutics and Cigna. Total EYSUVIS Medicare coverage is now approximately 7.1 million lives, or 15% of all Medicare lives. “Today’s announcement marks significant progress toward our goal of expanding access to EYSUVIS for the millions of people who suffer from dry eye disease, including dry eye flares,” said Todd Bazemore, President and Chief Operating Officer of Kala Pharmaceuticals. “We look forward to continuing to engage with other commercial and Medicare Part D health plans as we execute on our goal of providing broad market access to EYSUVIS for eye care professionals and their patients.” EYSUVIS became commercially available in January 2021 as the first and only FDA-approved medicine for the short-term (up to two weeks) treatment of the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. About EYSUVISEYSUVIS (loteprednol etabonate ophthalmic suspension) 0.25% is approved for the short-term (up to two weeks) treatment of the signs and symptoms of dry eye disease. EYSUVIS utilizes Kala's AMPPLIFY® mucus-penetrating particle (MPP) Drug Delivery Technology to enhance penetration of loteprednol etabonate (LE) into target tissue of the ocular surface. In preclinical studies, the AMPPLIFY Drug Delivery Technology increased delivery of LE into target ocular tissues more than three-fold compared to an active LE comparator by facilitating penetration through the tear film mucin...