Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Coupon Wars: Assistance Strategy Or Industry Racket?
Modern Healthcare: Drug Companies Fight Generics With Coupons
While the coupons have improved patient compliance, drug manufacturers are covering all or part of the copays to bypass efforts by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers to rein in the rising price of drugs. (Wolinsky, 6/11)
The Washington Post: How Drug Companies Use Gifts And Internships To Buddy Up To Their Most Valuable Patients
When Philip Kucab was a boy at a summer camp for kids with hemophilia in 1990, a staff member casually sat down next to him on the last day and asked where Kucab's family got their medication. After the boy explained it came from the hospital pharmacy, the camp staffer, who worked for a specialty pharmacy, explained that he could save them a trip and send the drugs in the mail. "At the time, we actually liked it. This nice man came to our house, had dinner with us," Kucab said. "It was kind of a nice relationship in a way because it was very personal. So when we used to order medication, we'd call up this nice person on the phone — 'How are the boys doing?' It was like a friend, almost." Kucab, today a physician starting residency at Detroit Medical Center, remembers big baskets of cheese and crackers arriving at Christmas — a thank-you for their business. He remembers thinking it was kind of cool. (Johnson, 6/14)
Bloomberg: Cancer Drugs Can't Stay This Expensive Forever
Cancer drugs have mostly been immune to the pricing pressure affecting many drugmakers. That's likely to change, even for new and potentially curative drugs. (Nisen, 6/13)
Politico Pro: Drug Companies Expand Doctor Marketing Practices To Patients, Researchers Say
Drug companies are using marketing strategies normally aimed at physicians to target patients, particularly children, and the practices could be pushing more patients into prescriptions for costlier medicines, a new PLOS Medicine paper argues. The authors say their paper is the first known documentation of drug companies using these methods — including gifts, financial support and one-on-one marketing — to target patients as opposed to doctors. (Karlin-Smith, 6/14)
Stat: Pfizer Just Raised Drug Prices By An Average Of Nearly 9 Percent
File this under “What controversy?” ... Pfizer increased the list prices of its medicines in the United States by an average of 8.8 percent, according to an investor note by Morgan Stanley analyst David Risinger. This marks the second time this year that the drug maker has substantially boosted prices for its prescription drugs. Back on Jan. 1, Pfizer raised prices by an average of 10.4 percent, Risinger pointed out. (Silverman, 6/9)
Stat: With Tens Of Millions On Hand, Drug Makers Fight State Efforts To Force Down Prices
Drug makers are sick and tired of coming under attack for high prices. And they’re spending tens of millions to try to make it stop. “We’re under unprecedented pressure because there really is profound misunderstanding out there,” Acorda Therapeutics CEO Ron Cohen, who chairs the industry trade group Biotechnology Innovation Organization, told a crowd at BIO’s conference. (Robbins, 6/9)
Fierce Healthcare: Rising Drug Prices Squeeze Hospital Bottom Lines
Ever-rising drug prices are beginning to put a serious squeeze on the bottom lines of hospitals, which do not see much wiggle room for negotiation at this point, Crain's Detroit Business reported. Total prescription spending on drugs increased at a 12.2 percent clip last year, up from a 2.4 percent increase in 2014, according to Crain's, which cited data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Pharma giants such as Amgen, Allergan and Pfizer have imposed double-digit percentage price increases on dozens of their branded drugs since late last year. (Shinkman, 6/13)
Bloomberg: Valeant Holds A Shareholder Meeting, And Nothing Goes Wrong
Things might finally be calming down with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. On Tuesday, the company participated in a typically uneventful ritual performed annually by corporations -- in a 100-person conference room in a Montreal suburb, stocked with coffee and bottles of Perrier, it held its annual meeting. And for the first time in a while, Valeant’s public interaction with shareholders wasn’t followed by a steep drop in its stock. During the sparsely attended, 40-minute session, the stock tracked the broader market, rising as much as 1.1 percent, then declining by about 1.2 percent. (Tracer, 6/14)
Stat: Colombia Plans To Unilaterally Lower The Cost Of A Novartis Cancer Drug
In a dramatic move, the Colombian health minister plans to unilaterally force Novartis to lower the price for its Gleevec cancer medicine after more than two weeks of talks over a price cut went nowhere, according to reports and sources in Colombia. In public comments today, Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria said he will declare a lower price for the widely used cancer medicine as being in the public interest because it would save the country needed health dollars. Under this scenario, Novartis would be obligated to sell Gleevec at the new price, although he did not specify what that might be. (Silverman, 6/9)
