Life-Saving Drugs Offer Hope To Desperate Families, But Economic Barriers And Other Obstacles Often Stand In The Way

The Wall Street Journal: One Family’s Struggle To Get Their Daughter Lifesaving Medication
Six-year-old Zahra Dehghanipour suffers from a genetic disease that causes her muscles to atrophy. She wears a painful chest brace to stay upright, and has to be carried up and down the stairs in her family’s two-story home. Her condition, spinal muscular atrophy, has a drug treatment. But her family faces many hurdles in accessing it. Cost is one: The drug, called Spinraza and made by Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen , costs $750,000 for the first year, and $375,000 annually after that. (Reddy and Eqbali, 1/20)

Stat: Lawmakers Want To End Tax Break For Drug Ads — Again. Will It Work?
Once again, lawmakers have introduced legislation to end the tax breaks that drug makers can take for advertising their medicines to consumers, a move that effectively becomes part of a wider package of bills  Democrats are devising rein in the pharmaceutical industry. The latest attempt comes from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), who argues that drug makers are spending too much to market high-priced medicines at a time of growing anger over the cost of prescription drugs. Their legislation, called the End Taxpayer Subsidies for Drug Ads Act, would amend the Internal Revenue Code to disallow deductions for such ads. (Silverman, 1/17)

Modern Healthcare: Civica Rx Aims To Stabilize Fragile Pharmaceutical Supply Chain
Saline, a sterile version of saltwater used to rehydrate patients, the anesthetic propofol and the anticoagulant heparin—which are used in almost every admission—have consistently been in shortage ... One potential solution—a provider-owned drug company—has garnered the support of around 750 hospitals and nearly two dozen founding members. Civica Rx is backed by a group of health systems and philanthropic organizations that aim to bring some stability to the pharmaceutical supply chain by producing generic drugs used in nearly every hospital. (Kacik, 1/19)

Stat: How Celgene Leaves A Legacy Of Chutzpah In Science And Drug Pricing
When the company launched thalidomide as a treatment for leprosy in 1998, it cost $6 a pill. As it became clear that it was also an effective cancer drug, Celgene slowly raised the price, quadrupling it by the time it received approval for an improved molecule, Revlimid. Then, it slowly increased the price of Revlimid by a total of 145 percent, according to Sector & Sovereign LLC, a pharmaceutical consultancy. Revlimid now costs $693 a pill. In 2017, Revlimid and another thalidomide-derived cancer drug represented 76 percent of Celgene’s $12.9 billion in annual sales. (Herper, 1/22)

CNN: Trump's Drug Ad Price Transparency Contains Huge Loophole, Researchers Identify
The Trump administration's proposal to require pharmaceutical companies to list drug prices in television ads would have a profound impact on the way consumers think about expensive drugs and whether they would ask their doctor about them, according to a study published Tuesday. But the study found that the effect was mitigated when the advertisements included modifiers, such as saying the medication might not cost anything due to insurance coverage or other discounts. Pharmaceutical companies have been pushing for such modifiers to be allowed in the ads. (Drash, 1/22)

CBS News: Rx Drug Prices Continue To Rise — Here's What You Can Do
The price you pay at the pharmacy is going up — again. Prices increased on more than 250 drugs in the beginning of the year, with an average jump of 6.3 percent, according to data from Rx Saving Solutions, a consultant to health plans and employers. That's down from the 400 drugs that saw price jumps last year, but prescription drugs still remain one of the highest out-of-pocket medical costs for many consumers. (Konrad, 1/22)

The Wall Street Journal: Eli Lilly’s Sarcoma Drug Combo Proves Ineffective In Trials
Eli Lilly & Co. said Friday it would stop promoting a relatively new cancer drug after a follow-up study found it failed to significantly prolong the lives of patients. Analysts said regulators in the U.S. and Europe could withdraw their approvals of the drug, named Lartruvo, based on the new results. The company also said it would take a charge to its first-quarter earnings. Lilly shares fell 3% on the news. (Loftus and Chin, 1/18)

Stat: Supreme Court Upholds Language In Patent Law, A Win For Generic Drug Makers
n a unanimous ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld disputed language in patent law that could lead to patents being canceled more easily, unless small drug makers and biotech companies more carefully construct deals involving their intellectual property. At issue was the intent of the America Invents Act, which in 2011 made several changes to U.S. patent law, and prohibits a company from patenting an invention if it was “on sale” for more than a year before filing a patent application. (Silverman, 1/22)

Stat: How Eli Lilly Arranged For A Surprise Purchase Of Loxo Oncology
Loxo Oncology (LOXO) chief executive Dr. Joshua Bilenker negotiated the $8 billion sale of his company to Eli Lilly (LLY) in little more than two weeks, and did not approach any other suitors or engage in a bidding war. According to a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Loxo believed that its most valuable asset was not its approved medicine, Vitrakvi, but an experimental one, the RET inhibitor LOXO-292. (Herper, 1/17)