The University of Florida College of Pharmacy’s Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, or AMCP, Orlando chapter recently competed in the AMCP Foundation’s National Student Pharmacist Pharmacy & Therapeutics Competition and placed in the top 15 nationally among 64 participating pharmacy colleges. The annual competition is designed to provide an immersive experience in the skills necessary for effective formulary review and management.
Each pharmacy college is allowed to enter one team in the national competition. UF’s team featured Orlando students Shefa Ali, Elaine Altamura, Lydia Borah and Macy Boren. They were selected for the national competition after winning a college-wide contest that featured 13 local teams.
The AMCP Foundation provided contestants with a case scenario that included an insurance company with demographics of their policyholders, a formulary of the other drugs covered for the same disease state, and any potential formulary restrictions to help contestants make their recommendations. The drug for this year’s competition was Ponvory, which is used to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis.
UF’s team spent several months preparing a comprehensive drug monograph on Ponvory and submitted it to the AMCP Foundation for judging.
“This competition has shown us the importance of interpreting clinical and economic data for new drugs being considered for formulary,” Altamura said. “The hands-on experience of writing a monograph, researching the drug and deriving conclusions for our recommendation was invaluable. This was truly an experience that will help our future careers as pharmacists.”
This year’s contest marked the 22nd time the AMCP Foundation has hosted the National Student Pharmacist Pharmacy & Therapeutics Competition.