Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
As Countries Move Up Rungs On Economic Ladder It Actually Gets Harder To Pay Affordable Prices For Drugs
NPR: Drug Prices Can Take A Surprising Turn When A Poor Country Gets Richer
A new report, published by the Center for Global Development in June, finds that as countries move up the ladder of economic development, it becomes harder for government agencies, hospitals and health care companies to buy drugs at reasonable prices. The report compares the range of prices that seven low- and middle-income countries pay for 25 medicines, including acetaminophen for pain relief, bisoprolol to treat high blood pressure, insulin to treat diabetes and omeprazole to treat heartburn. (Lu, 7/8)
Stat: What We Know — And What We Don’t — About Trump’s ‘Most Favored Nation’ Drug Pricing Policy
President Trump’s surprise promise to pen an executive order ensuring the U.S. gets the best deal around the world for drugs has left more questions than answers for the nation’s top drug pricing experts. Trump made it sound easy ....But in the United States’s complex drug pricing system, minute details matter. Those details could mean the difference between Trump dismantling the nation’s existing drug pricing system in favor of a central price-setting scheme more akin to those employed in European nations, or making much smaller — albeit still significant changes — within the existing system, experts said. (Florko, 7/9)
The Hill: Trump Misleadingly Says Prescription Drug Prices Have Gone Down
President Trump on Sunday wrongly claimed drug prices declined in 2018, saying bipartisan cooperation on the issue would “get big results.” “Last year was the first in 51 years where prescription drug prices actually went down, but things have been, and are being, put in place that will drive them down substantially,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “If Dems would work with us in a bipartisan fashion, we would get big results very fast!” (Budryk, 7/7)
The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Rise After Trump Pricing Rule Is Blocked
Shares of drugmakers are rallying on hopes of greater pricing flexibility. The blocking of a Trump administration rule that would have required drugmakers to disclose their products’ pricing in television ads is expected to help pharmaceutical and biotech companies avoid some of the near-term pricing pressures that had weighed on those stocks in recent months. (Wursthorn, 7/9)
CQ: More States Eye Importing Canadian Drugs
In June, Florida became the third state, after Colorado and Vermont, to enact a law permitting drug imports from Canada, but the first with both a Republican-controlled legislature and a GOP governor. (On June 24, Maine, which has a Democratic governor, also opened the door to Canadian drugs.) Though the imports are conditional on approval of the Health and Human Services Department, the law’s enactment puts further pressure on President Donald Trump to follow through on his campaign pledge to reduce drug prices. (Cunningham, 7/8)
Pioneer Press: Diabetics From Minnesota Make Trek To Canada In Search Of Affordable Insulin
The weary travelers on the bus, most of them diabetics from Minnesota, erupted into cheers at the GPS announcement: “Welcome to Canada.” They had just spent 15 hours on a chartered bus traveling from the Twin Cities to buy insulin in London, Ontario. There they can buy the life-saving drug for a tenth of the price it is being sold for in Minnesota. (Pross, 77)
Kaiser Health News: Watch: High Cost Of Insulin Sends Americans To Canada To Stock Up
Insulin is a vital drug that some 7.4 million Americans must take daily to manage their diabetes. But its price nearly doubled from 2012 to 2016, leaving some patients with no choice but to turn to black-market drugs or traveling to Canada, where insulin can be 90% cheaper. KHN senior correspondent Sarah Varney reports in collaboration with PBS NewsHour about the skyrocketing cost of insulin — and the trend’s deadly consequences. (Varney, 7/10)
Kaiser Health News: How To Get A Cheaper Prescription Before Leaving The Doctor’s Office
When Mary Kay Gilbert saw her doctor in May for a skin infection on her leg, she wasn’t surprised to receive a prescription for an antibiotic cream.But Gilbert, 54, a nurse and health consultant, was shocked when her physician clicked on the desktop computer and told Gilbert the medicine would cost $30 on her Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan. “I was like, ‘Wow — that’s pretty cool that you know that information,’” she recalled telling the doctor in Edina, Minn. (Galewitz, 7/10)
Columbus Dispatch: Dispute Over Reining In Drug Middlemen Key In Ohio Budget Impasse
A key holdup in Ohio’s state budget stalemate centers on how to deal with pharmacy benefit managers.The middlemen in the Medicaid drug supply chain were targeted by both branches of the legislature. But House and Senate members remain far apart on what they see as a solution. (Rowland, 7/8)
Columbus Dispatch: Pharmacy 'Deserts' Appear In Ohio As Stores Close Amid Drug Pricing Debate
In an era of low reimbursements for drugs they dispense — especially under the Ohio Medicaid program — hundreds of Ohio pharmacies have closed, creating more than a dozen areas with no easy access to medicine and a pharmacist’s care. Scores of other places across the state are one closure away from joining them, according to a Dispatch analysis of state pharmacy data. (Caruso and Schladen, 7/7)
The Star Tribune: Minnesota Is Aiming For More Transparency On Drug Prices
At a time of worrisome increases in drug prices, Minnesota is joining a growing number of states that regulate a set of powerful but little-known companies that critics say are contributing to the problem. Known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, these companies are hired by health insurers to manage their drug benefits, and they influence what drugs are available, where consumers can buy them, and ultimately the price consumers pay at the drugstore counter. (Howatt, 7/6)
Austin American-Statesman: Merck Walks Away From $7M In Incentives For Austin Tech Hub
Merck & Co. is walking away from nearly $7 million in taxpayer-funded state and local incentives aimed at luring to Austin a major technology innovation center operated by the pharmaceutical giant, a project once heralded as the private-sector anchor of a developing medical district around the University of Texas Dell Medical School. Merck spokeswoman Pamela Eisele on Tuesday attributed the move to “internal priorities and events” that have slowed the New Jersey-based company’s hiring in Austin since the incentive deals were announced in July 2017. (Sechler, 7/2)
Kaiser Health News: ‘An Arm And A Leg’: The Full Story Of Insulin And Its Cost ― No Sugarcoating It
One out of every 4 people with Type 1 and 2 diabetes rations insulin. Adeline Umubyeyi is among them. She’s a college grad with a professional job and health insurance who still sometimes goes to bed without dinner — because skipping a meal allows her to skip a dose of her costly insulin. On Episode 5 of “An Arm and a Leg,” meet Umubyeyi and take a 98-year journey with host Dan Weissmann as he traces insulin’s origins. (Weissmann, 7/10)
