Price Hikes Without Justification On Seven Widely Used Drugs Cost Americans $5.1B, Watchdog Report Finds

Stat: ICER Says Drug Price Hikes Without Proof Of New Benefits Cost U.S. $5.1B
During 2017 and 2018, drug makers raised prices on seven widely used medicines by large amounts, but without any new clinical evidence to justify the increases, leading patients and insurers in the U.S. to spend an added $5.1 billion, according to a new analysis. For instance, AbbVie (ABBV) boosted the price on its best-selling Humira rheumatoid arthritis treatment by 15.9%, after accounting for estimated rebates and other discounts, which caused Americans to spend an extra $1.86 billion than they would have if the company had not raised the price during that two-year period. (Silverman, 10/8)

The Hill: Drug Price Hikes Cost US Billions, Report Finds
The report looked at the seven top-selling drugs by sales revenue that had price increases of more than two times inflation, as measured by the medical consumer price index. According to ICER, a Boston-based research group, new evidence must “provide information different from what was previously believed in order to support a price increase.” None of the drugs examined showed evidence of improved safety or effectiveness, the analysis found. ICER’s report was the first on either the state or national level to examine whether certain price increases are justified by new clinical evidence or other factors. (Weixel, 10/8)

Boston Globe: Watchdog Group Cites 7 Best-Selling Drugs It Says Didn’t Warrant Price Increases
Biogen’s blockbuster multiple sclerosis drug Tecfidera may have generated more than $4 billion in sales last year, but its benefit to patients didn’t warrant a nearly 10 percent price increase over two years. That’s the conclusion of a Boston watchdog group that listed Tecfidera among the seven best-selling prescription drugs whose price increases in 2017 and 2018 had the biggest impact on the US health care system — but weren’t justified by new clinical evidence. (Saltzman, 10/8)

Fox Business: These Are The US Prescription Drugs With The Biggest Price Increases, Report Finds
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will hold a closed-door meeting in Seattle on Tuesday about lowering the cost of sky-high prescription drug prices, three weeks after she unveiled a sweeping proposal to reduce drug costs. Under Pelosi’s plan, which she unveiled at the end of September, Medicare would be allowed to negotiate lower prices on as many as 250 of the most expensive drugs each year, including insulin. Any pharmaceutical company that refused to negotiate could face a steep penalty, starting at 65 percent of the gross sales of the drug in question. (Henney, 10/8)

Modern Healthcare: If Prescription Drugs Are Free, Patients More Apt To Use Them
Providing free medications increased adherence among patients and led to improvements in both their health outcomes and their perceptions of the quality of their care, according to a new study. JAMA Internal Medicine on Monday released a study that examined medication adherence rates of more than 780 patients at primary-care sites throughout Ontario, Canada, from June 2016 through April 2017. (Johnson, 10/7)

Politico: Exclusive: Top Drug Lobbyist To Depart Next Year
The CEO of a leading drug industry lobby will depart at the end of 2020, he announced Tuesday, setting up the organization for a major transition as the pharmaceutical industry faces one of its toughest political environments in years. CEO Jim Greenwood will leave the Biotech Innovation Organization after 15 years atop the trade group, which represents companies ranging from Pfizer and Merck to startups that have no approved medicines. BIO also lobbies on behalf of biotechnology innovators in agriculture and energy. (Karlin-Smith, 10/8)

Bloomberg: Drug-Industry Lobbyist James Greenwood To Step Down After 2020
Greenwood, 68, will leave the trade and lobbying organization at the beginning of 2021 after serving in its top post for 15 years. BIO, as the group is known, represents some 1,000 biopharmaceutical companies ranging from pharmaceutical bellwethers like Pfizer Inc. to smaller drugmakers such as Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Griffin, 10/8)

Modern Healthcare: Michigan Wants To Save $40 Million By Cutting Out Medicaid PBMs
Michigan's Medicaid program would like to stop using pharmacy benefit managers to oversee prescription drug claims and negotiate prices with drugmakers, according to a notice from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The state proposed that it would start managing drug coverage on its own beginning Dec. 21. Michigan hopes the move will save Medicaid money by increasing its portion of drug rebates and slashing administrative costs. The department expects the proposal will save the state about $40 million. (Brady, 10/8)

Modern Healthcare: Drug List Prices Climb 8% Annually In California
Drugmakers are only partially complying with a new California law that requires they disclose price increases; most ignored the requirement that they cite reasons for those increases. Among the 1,020 drug price increase reports submitted to the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, or OSHPD, 68% did not give any explanations, despite the law's requirement that they show how expenses and drug improvements necessitated the price increases. (Bannow, 10/8)

Asbury Park Press: Drug Prices: Why Won't Feds Flex Power, Get Better Deals, Pallone Asks
The federal government should be allowed to negotiate the cost of brand name drugs with their manufacturers, U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone told seniors here Monday in a bid to build support for a bill he is sponsoring. Pallone, D-N.J., and chairman of the House committee that oversees health care legislation, said the bill would bring U.S. drug costs more closely in line with other countries, even as it runs into fierce opposition from drug companies that also are in his district, which stretches from Monmouth to Middlesex counties. (Diamond, 10/8)

Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Acorda Appeal In MS Drug Patent Fight 
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Acorda Therapeutics Inc's appeal of a lower court ruling that allowed generic versions of its multiple sclerosis treatment Ampyra and caused the drug's sales to plummet. The justices refused to review a September 2018 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to cancel Acorda's patents covering Ampyra, a ruling the Ardsley, New York-based company and the pharmaceutical industry portrayed as a threat to innovation and bad for patients. The court's action came on the first day of its new term. (Chung, 10/7)

Stat: What One Doctor Thinks About Drug Shortages And How To Solve Them
Cutting-edge science and the development of groundbreaking and lifesaving drugs get a lot of attention, but the everyday practice of medicine is often more mundane: It doesn’t involve being CRISPR’d or having gene therapy delivered into your cells. The truth is that most people who are very sick and visit their doctor get treated with very ordinary and sometimes very old drugs. But in recent years supplies of some of these critical standby medicines have become disrupted. The shortages have forced doctors to make hard treatment decisions. Drugs have to be rationed or, in the worst cases, patients who need care can be turned away. (Feuerstein, Garde and Robbins, 10/4)

The Wall Street Journal: Novartis Sees Strong Potential In Eye-Disease Drug
An executive at Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG has said that an eye-disease treatment for the elderly has the potential to become a blockbuster drug. On Tuesday, the drugmaker said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Beovu as a treatment for wet age-related macular degeneration. Novartis President of Pharmaceuticals Marie-France Tschudin pointed to demographics as a driver for sales of the newly-approved drug. (Martuscelli, 10/8)

Stat: The Return Of Vioxx: Can A Drug Once Deemed Deadly Be Relaunched?
Since its recall in 2004, the pain drug Vioxx has been a symbol of pharmaceutical danger, starring in countless daytime legal advertisements explaining how you, or perhaps a loved one, might be entitled to millions in settlement dollars. But one company believes the infamous drug deserves a second chance, and is plotting to resurrect the former blockbuster as a treatment for a rare, incurable condition. (Garde, 10/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Biotech Has A Supply Problem
Biotech investors are discovering that there isn’t necessarily strength in numbers. After surging about 30% in the first quarter of the year, a broad index of biotech stocks has since given up most of those gains. The S&P Select Biotechnology Index is down about 9% since the middle of September. Investors have lately been reducing risk in their biotech portfolios, according to Jared Holz, health-care equity strategist at Jefferies. Interest is even limited for stocks with potential catalysts, like clinical data, expected soon, he added. (Grant, 10/7)

Bloomberg: Clinuvel Wins FDA Drug Approval, Surges Most Since 2014
Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd. surged the most in five years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its treatment for a rare skin disorder that causes sensitivity to light. Shares of the Melbourne-based bio-pharmaceutical firm jumped as much as 57% in Sydney, the most since October 2014, after the U.S. allowed the use of the drug Scenesse to treat erythropoietic protoporphyria. Clinuvel rose to a record high of A$44.39, valuing the company at A$2.2 billion ($1.5 billion). (Edwards, 10/8)