Amgen Launches Direct-To-Consumer Drugs At Discount, Joins TrumpRx
Patients who pay cash through the drugmaker's online portal will receive up to 60% off, the company announced. Other pharmaceutical news looks at where vital medicines get their start, antibiotics, cough syrup, breast cancer treatments, and more.
Bloomberg:
Amgen Offers Cash Discounts On Drugs Following Trump’s Price-Cutting Push
Amgen Inc. is the latest drugmaker to offer its medicines at a discount for cash-paying patients, following President Donald Trump’s demands that pharmaceutical companies slash their prices in the US. Patients are now able to buy the cholesterol-lowering shot Repatha for $239 a month, a discount of nearly 60%, directly through a new, online platform called AmgenNow, the company said Monday. It also plans to make AmgenNow accessible via the newly announced TrumpRx website. (Muller, 10/6)
Also —
The Washington Post:
Trump Slashed Funding For Universities That Helped Create These Vital Drugs
For most people, medicines are a bottle of pills on a shelf — made by drug companies, stocked by pharmacies, prescribed by doctors. But drugs that people take for serious illnesses — to prevent HIV, shrink tumors and treat seizures — have years-long backstories that often trace to basic science experiments in university laboratories. That foundation is now under threat. The Trump administration has abruptly frozen billions in research grants to universities it accuses of antisemitism or bias unrelated to the research. (Johnson, Douglas-Gabriel and Brasch, 10/6)
On the global pharmaceutical pipeline —
CIDRAP:
US Relies Heavily On China, Other Nations For Antibiotics
A new analysis by researchers at Johns Hopkins University shows the United States has become increasingly reliant on other countries for antibiotics over the past 30-plus years. The study, published late last week in JAMA Health Forum, found that annual importation of antibiotics increased approximately 26-fold from 1992 through 2024. (Dall, 10/6)
Bloomberg:
Eli Lilly To Invest $1 Billion In India Contract Manufacturing
Eli Lilly and Co. plans to invest more than $1 billion in India over the next few years to build new contract manufacturing capabilities in the South Asian nation, underscoring the US drugmaker’s push to bolster its global supply network. The Indianapolis-headquartered firm will also establish a new manufacturing and quality center in the southern city of Hyderabad, Eli Lilly said in a statement Monday. (Sanjay, 10/6)
Bloomberg:
India Probes Contaminated Cough Syrup Link To At Least 14 Deaths
Indian authorities started a criminal investigation into a cough syrup maker following the death of more than a dozen children who consumed the product, reigniting the issue of poor control standards in the manufacturing of the medicine. At least 14 children have died in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh according to local media. Sresan Pharmaceuticals is the manufacturer of the drug based in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. (Gupta, 10/6)
On breast cancer treatment —
MedPage Today:
FDA Says Yes To Cryoablation For Early Breast Cancer
The FDA granted marketing authorization for the ProSense Cryoablation System for small, early-stage breast cancer in older women not suitable for surgery, maker IceCure announced. A minimally invasive tool that destroys tumors by freezing them, the device is indicated for women 70 years and older who have biologically low-risk tumors, no larger than 1.5 cm, and who are being treated with adjuvant endocrine therapy. (Bassett, 10/6)
Bloomberg:
Astra Says Breast Cancer Patients Lived Longer On Datroway
AstraZeneca Plc and Daiichi Sankyo’s drug Datroway helped breast cancer patients with a particularly hard to treat form of the disease live longer. Datroway significantly improved survival and also delayed the progression of the disease compared with chemotherapy in patients with triple-negative breast cancer that had spread or couldn’t be operated on, Astra said Monday. The patients were not eligible for immunotherapy, leaving them with few other treatment options. (Furlong, 10/6)
ABC News:
New York Law Will Give Breast Cancer Patients A Chance To Keep Their Hair
When Maureen Green was diagnosed with breast cancer several years ago, the finance professional and mom-of-two decided to try scalp cooling, a treatment that helps preserve hair during chemotherapy. ... The price tag for hair preservation has long forced breast cancer patients like Green to make tough choices. ... Starting next year, New York will become the first state in the nation to ease that burden with a new law requiring private insurance companies to cover scalp cooling for chemotherapy patients. (Neporent, 10/6)
