Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Drugmakers, Under Scrutiny, Find Scapegoat For Prices In Form Of Pharmacy-Benefit Managers
The Wall Street Journal: Drugmakers Point Finger At Middlemen For Rising Drug Prices
As U.S. drug prices rise, drugmakers are playing down their role, instead heaping blame on the middlemen who help determine how medicines are priced. Some of the sharpest criticism has come from drug-industry executives who have been grilled by lawmakers or skewered on social media over sharp price increases on their products. They include the chief of Mylan NV, maker of the lifesaving EpiPen, who says her company is being tarred unfairly for a dysfunctional system in which wholesalers, pharmacies and pharmacy-benefit managers take their own cut of each prescription. (Walker, 10/2)
The Associated Press: Insider Q&A: A Front-Row Seat For The Drug Pricing Battle
Dr. Steve Miller, the chief medical officer of Express Scripts, sits at the center of the storm over rising drug prices. ... Miller has watched super-sized drug prices infuriate patients and strain the health care system with growing frequency, starting when a new hepatitis C drug hit the market at $84,000 for a course of treatment and continuing through the recent revelation that the price of Mylan's EpiPen rose more than 500 percent since 2007. (10/2)
The Mercury News: EpiPen Outrage: It Costs About $8 To Make A 2-Pack, Engineers Say
Mylan insists most patients pay less than $50 out of pocket for a two-pack, though critics say insurers pass the higher wholesale drug costs along to consumers in other ways. But what does it really cost to make? To get the answer, Wallace and Krevitt dissected a two-pack of EpiPens into individual pieces, carefully weighed each plastic part and applied an industry-standard method for analyzing the manufacturing costs. (Seipel, 10/1)
In other pharmaceutical news —
The New York Times: New Drug For Severe Eczema Is Successful In 2 New Trials
The disease is characterized by an itching, oozing rash that can cover almost all of the skin. The constant itch, to say nothing of the disfigurement, can be so unbearable that many patients consider suicide. There has never been a safe and effective treatment. On Saturday, the results of two large clinical trials of a new drug offered hope to the estimated 1.6 million adult Americans with an uncontrolled, moderate-to-severe form of the disease, atopic dermatitis, which is a type of eczema. (Kolata, 10/1)
The Wall Street Journal: Novo Nordisk Bets On Riskier Insulin Research
Nearly 10 years ago, executives at Novo Nordisk A/S wondered whether the company’s decadeslong quest to make ever-better insulin had finally come to an end. The trigger was an impressive set of results for the company’s newest insulin that suggested the product would be difficult to improve upon. (Roland, 10/2)
Kaiser Health News: Young Boy’s Struggle To Survive Sparked Push For Drugs For Terminally Ill
At age 7, Josh Hardy became the poster child for a movement to help desperately ill or dying patients access experimental therapies which, they hope, will save their lives. People around the world rallied 2½ years ago when a small biotech company refused to provide the Fredericksburg, Va., boy, who had battled cancer since infancy, with an experimental drug that doctors believed could save Josh from a life-threatening infection. Within days, a social media campaign called #SaveJosh, sparked by his mother’s anguished Facebook post and propelled by well-connected supporters, spurred thousands of people to contact the company, Chimerix Inc. of North Carolina, prompting it to release the drug. (Szabo, 10/3)
