Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Eager To Deliver On Popular Drug Pricing Campaign Promises, Trump Lashes Out At Those He Views As Standing In Way
The Washington Post: Trump Advisers Battle Over How To Lower Drug Prices
President Trump was apoplectic about drug prices once again. A Wall Street Journal story in early January, picked up by Fox News, reported that prices on hundreds of drugs were going up — a slap in the face to a president who had campaigned on lowering costs and accused the pharmaceutical industry of “getting away with murder.” At a Jan. 6 Camp David meeting, Trump fumed about Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, whom he had charged with lowering drug prices, according to three people with knowledge of the conversation. (Abutaleb, Dawsey and McGinley, 7/2)
Stat: Novo Nordisk's CEO: If It Was Easy To Correct Pricing, We'd Do It
Until the rising national anger over the cost of medicines, Novo Nordisk (NVO) retained a relatively low profile among drug makers. But as one of the three large purveyors of insulin, the Danish company has more recently occupied an uncomfortable spot in the limelight. Along with Sanofi (SNY) and Eli Lilly (LLY), the company has been accused of price gouging, collusion, and indifference to people with diabetes, some of whom are now driving from the U.S. to Canada to buy insulin. The events prompted Novo chief executive Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen to go on a “listening tour” in late June to sort out the problem. We met with him at the outset of his excursion and this is an edited version of our conversation. (Silverman, 7/2)
The Hill: Million-Dollar Drugs Pose New Challenge For Congress
A new drug approved for the first time in May offers hope to children born with a rare genetic disease who previously often did not live past early childhood. The drug, Zolgensma, injected through the veins, provides a crucial functioning gene for people with spinal muscular atrophy who otherwise would have their muscles break down. (Sullivan, 6/26)
North Carolina Health News: New Funds For Hepatitis C Prevention Available Until The End Of July
North Carolina organizations providing harm reduction education and services can now apply for grants ranging from $25,000 to $150,000 with the national Harm Reduction Coalition through the end of July. As infection rates for hepatitis C continue to rise across the nation largely due to injection drug use, the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences — a major producer of hepatitis C treatment drugs — gave the Harm Reduction Coalition about $11 million to be doled out in grants to five Appalachian states with some of the highest infection rates. (Knopf, 7/1)
Stat: With A New HIV PrEP Patent, Will HHS Seek Royalties From Gilead?
For the past several months, the U.S. government has been lambasted by AIDS activists for ostensibly failing to seek royalties from Gilead Sciences (GILD) for an expensive HIV prevention pill sold by the company and therefore not using the funds to help thwart the virus. ...On Tuesday, the Department of Health and Human Services was awarded a new patent that broadly covers medicines derived from tenofovir and used to prevent HIV. Tenofovir is the basis for both an older Gilead drug called Truvada and its newer Descovy pill. (Silverman, 7/2)
CBS News: Inside The Insulin Caravan Battling Diabetes And High Drug Prices In The U.S.
The high price of insulin across the country is forcing some families with type 1 diabetes to go north to buy the medication. From 2012 to 2016, the price of insulin nearly doubled in the U.S. — and last weekend, about a dozen people took a bus 817 miles from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to London, Ontario, to buy the life-saving drug. "For us, insulin is like air — it's like oxygen, we need it," said Deb Souther, who has lived with Type 1 diabetes for 46 years. (7/2)
WBUR: Massachusetts, The Innovation Hub, Debates Aggressive Drug Price Controls
This back-and-forth between the pharmaceutical industry and advocates pushing to lower drug costs provides a glimpse of the contentious debate unfolding in public and behind closed doors on Beacon Hill. The opening chapter will close any day now because plans to tackle rising drug costs within MassHealth, the state's Medicaid program, are included in a new state budget that would take effect July 1. (Bebinger, 6/28)
Modern Healthcare: Premier's ProvideGx To Launch Intravenous Nutrition Drug
Premier subsidiary ProvideGx is now supplying cysteine hydrochloride injections to its member providers, the generic-drug division of the group purchasing and consulting organization announced Tuesday. ProvideGx teamed up with the manufacturer Exela Pharma Sciences to deliver the only Food and Drug Administration-approved version of the drug. The injection used for pediatric and adult patients who need intravenous nutrition has been in short supply since 2015. (Kacik, 7/2)
Stat: Draper Is Carving Out A Role In Drug Development
Draper Laboratory has a team working with NASA on a 2024 moon landing. Another is working with the U.S. Navy on hypersonic missiles. And then, increasingly, there are its biotech partnerships. The secretive nonprofit, which is far better known for creating the guidance systems that helped send Apollo astronauts to the moon, is working with Pfizer and six other major pharmaceutical companies. Thursday, it added Bristol-Myers Squibb to the roster; it will work with the pharma giant on technology to help make it easier and cheaper to screen for drug toxicity before clinical trials. (Sheridan, 6/28)
The Wall Street Journal: Dementia Discovery Fund Adds Biotech Investor Behr As Partner
Dementia Discovery Fund, which last year raised a $350 million venture fund, said it has added to its investment team by hiring biotechnology-focused venture capitalist Jonathan Behr as a partner. With offices in London and Boston, Dementia Discovery Fund invests in companies and research groups developing treatments for dementia. (Gormley, 7/2)
Public News Service: CT Senator Spearheads Bill Targeting High Drug Prices
Lawmakers in Congress are reaching across the aisle to address the high cost of life-saving drugs. The bipartisan Affordable Prescriptions for Patients Act targets what critics see as the pharmaceutical industry's anti-competitive behaviors that restrict access to cheaper generic drugs. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., is one of the bill's authors. He held a meeting Monday in Hartford to discuss the legislation, where he was joined by patients who are struggling with surges in the price of insulin. (7/2)
Conway Daily Sun: Shaheen Gets Earful On Prescription Drug Prices
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) said Tuesday at a roundtable in North Conway that skyrocketing prescription drug prices can return to earth if there are bipartisan agreement to pass needed reforms. The hourlong meeting was held at the Gibson Center for Senior Services. Panelists included Memorial Hospital President Arthur R. Mathisen, former state Rep. Karen Umberger (R-Conway, and representatives from Carroll County Coalition for Public Health, Service Link, Tamworth Community Nurse Association and White Mountain Community Health Center. (Steer, 7/2)
