Another Way Drug Prices Buck Conventional Economic Wisdom: Competition Can Actually Drive Costs Higher

FierceHealthcare: Prices For Top-Selling Drugs Appear Immune To Common Market Forces: Study
When it comes to concerns over the rising costs of prescription drugs, it's not just an isolated few that should be grabbing the headlines. A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which examined prices for the 49 top-selling drugs between January 2012 and December 2017, found virtually all of them rose in price on a regular basis. The median price among those drugs rose 76% over the time period, and 78% of the drugs in the study saw price hikes of at least 50%. More than 4 of 5 products in the study more than doubled in price. (Kuhrt, 6/3)

MedPage: US Drug Prices Rise In 'Highly Synchronized' Pattern
The costs for certain widely used medicines continue to rise in the United States even amid competition from similar products, according to a new study. The results run contrary to normal expectations about market forces on prices. "That was one of the more disheartening findings" of the study, lead author Nathan E. Wineinger, PhD, from Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, told Medscape Medical News. (Young, 5/31)

NBC News: No End In Sight To Rising Drug Prices, Study Finds
The cost of many popular prescription drugs has increased substantially in the U.S. in the past six years, and the trend may continue if bold bipartisan action isn’t taken, according to a study published Friday. The study, in the journal JAMA Network Open, found a substantial industry-wide rise in insurer and out-of-pocket costs for top-selling, brand-name prescription drugs, highlighting one of the foremost problems in health care today: unimpeded price increases in the pharmaceutical market. (Charles, 5/31)

CNBC: The Drugs With Biggest Price Surge Are For Erectile Dysfunction: Study
The prescription drugs that have seen the most rapid growth in cost in the U.S. don’t treat depression, cholesterol or even autoimmune diseases. Blockbuster male libido treatments Viagra and Cialis saw the biggest price hikes among the 17 top-selling brand-name drugs that have seen costs surges from 2012 through 2017, according to a new study published Friday in the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical Association. (Lovelace, 5/31)

Stat: Nevada Makes Pharma Disclose Asthma Med Costs. To What End? 
In the latest state effort to peel back the curtain on drug pricing, Nevada has adopted a law that requires pharmaceutical companies to disclose prices and costs associated with their asthma medicines, a step that mirrors action taken two years ago on diabetes treatments. Specifically, drug makers must submit reports to the state detailing costs for producing or acquiring medicines used to treat asthma, as well as profit margins, any financial assistance provided to patients, and the factors contributing to recent, significant price increases. (Silverman, 6/4)

NPR: AIDS Activists Take Aim At Gilead To Lower Price Of HIV Drug PrEP
When the first HIV drug, AZT, came to market in 1987, it cost $10,000 a year.That price makes Peter Staley laugh today. "It sounds quaint and cheap now, but $10,000 a year at that time was the highest price ever set for any drug in history," he says. At the time, the price Burroughs Wellcome set for the drug sparked outrage. The AIDS epidemic was an urgent national crisis. For many, the diagnosis was a death sentence. The TV-viewing public was horrified by endless images of young men, suddenly sick and dying. A lost generation. (Simmons-Duffin, 5/30)

FiercePharma: Is CEO Pay Linked To Drug Prices? Curious Investors Failed Their Campaign To Find Out
Some Big Pharma investors wanted to know whether drug prices are rising because executives personally benefit from the hikes. But when they put that question up for a vote, their fellow shareholders turned them away. In a series of annual meetings at top drugmakers, shareholders rejected calls for more information on executive compensation—namely, whether price hikes directly fueled increases in C-suite pay. (Sagonowsky, 5/30)

Stat: Could We Nationalize Insulin To Make It A 'Public Good'?
If you’re an avid follower of #healthpolicytwitter, you may have seen a pretty head-turning statement from former CMS Administrator Andy Slavitt: “Yes, I went full socialist.” The eyebrow-raiser came after Slavitt endorsed a plan to nationalize insulin and make it a “public good” — and when I caught up with Slavitt for a brief interview, he didn’t back down. He made the argument that insulin is an essential part of life for people with type 1 diabetes, much like water. “We wouldn’t sell bottled water at $80 a bottle,” he told me. He also isn’t buying the argument that tweaks around the edges can solve the insulin affordability issue. (Florko, 6/4)

The Wall Street Journal: These Drug Companies Are Too Frail To Cure
The calamity engulfing generic-drug stocks has many causes, but they are all made worse by one simple malady: too much debt. Solving the problem is much tougher than identifying it. Years of weak performance for these companies has lately broken into a share-price crisis. In the past month alone, shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries and Mylan have plunged by about 40%. Smaller rivals, such as Mallinckrodt and Lannett haven’t fared any better. (Grant, 6/2)

Stat: U.K. Patients Form A Buyer’s Club To Get A Cheaper Version Of A Vertex Cystic Fibrosis Drug
As a long-running battle over access to a pricey cystic fibrosis drug grinds on in the U.K., an advocacy group and several families have formed a buyer’s club in order to make a lower-cost version of a Vertex Pharmaceuticals treatment available to patients in the next few weeks. The new buyer’s club is working with Gador, a drug maker based in Argentina, which will ship a generic version of the Orkambi medication to the U.K., where cystic fibrosis patients and their families can expect to pay roughly $25,000 a year, depending on how many people sign up. This would be 80 percent less than the approximately $132,000 that Vertex reportedly wants to charge the National Health Service in England. (Silverman, 6/4)

KTSA: Coalition Of Pharmacists, Doctors And Nurses Fights Skyrocketing Drug Prices
Prescription drug prices continue to soar, and the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing is calling for transparency and accountability. Former State Senator Leticia Van de Putte says some people are reducing the dosage of medications or doing without them because of the skyrocketing prices. “Blood pressure medicine, diabetes, cholesterol, seizure medication–these are medications that people absolutely need to stay alive, and that’s where we’re seeing these huge increases,” said Van de Putte, a longtime pharmacist in San Antonio. (Ruiz, 6/3)

The Philadelphia Inquirer: New Jersey Drug Maker To Pay $7 Million To Settle Claims Of Inflating Drug Prices
New Jersey-based Heritage Pharmaceuticals, Inc., has agreed to pay over $7 million to settle allegations that it schemed to fix prices for several of its drugs. Federal prosecutors say the generics drug maker conspired with competitors between 2012 and 2015 to artificially inflate the price of pharmaceuticals, rig bids, and allocate customers. The drugs, including those to treat high blood pressure, asthma, and diabetes — were supplied to Medicare, Medicaid, and the Department of Defense. (Wood, 5/31)