Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Firm That Hiked Price Of Anti-Parasite Drug Is Considering A Discount For Hospitals
The Wall Street Journal: Turing To Cut Price Of Drug Daraprim As Much As 50%
Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, the small drug maker that gained notoriety for raising the price of an anti-parasite tablet more than 50-fold, is drawing up plans to discount the drug as much as 50% to hospitals, according to a person familiar with the matter. Even with the discounts, the drug—Daraprim—would still cost hospitals far more than it did before Turing bought the U.S. rights in August and raised the price to $750 a tablet, from $13.50. The amount of the discount will depend on how much of the drug hospitals use, the person said. (Rockoff, 11/20)
The Wall Street Journal: Concerns Over Valeant Spread To Other Drug Makers
As questions mount about the viability of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.’s business model, concerns are also spreading to other drug makers seen as following a similar playbook. Shares of Horizon Pharma PLC and Mallinckrodt PLC, two of the largest companies most often compared with Valeant, have fallen roughly 25% in the past three months. ... Like Valeant, the firms are part of a new breed of pharmaceutical company that has limited costly investment in research and development and instead sought sales growth through debt-fueled acquisitions. (Walker, 11/22)
Bloomberg: The Law Of Pharma Pricing Physics: What Goes Up Often Stays Up
With most products, you'd expect a flood of new supply to quickly drive back down a price spike caused by a temporary shortage. Not so in the topsy-turvy world of hospital pharmaceuticals. Just look at prices for glycopyrrolate, an everyday drug used to dry up secretions prior to surgery. After one of only two makers of the drug temporarily closed its factory in 2012 to fix quality control problems, Hikma Pharmaceuticals raised prices on its injectable version more than 800 percent over the next year. Both manufacturers are now making the drug again, yet Hikma's prices have only fallen slightly and remain more than eight times higher than they were in early 2013. (Koons and Langreth, 11/21)
The New York Times: Administration Is Seeking Ways To Keep Prescription Drugs Affordable
The Obama administration began building a political case Friday for government actions to protect people against high pharmaceutical costs, saying millions of Americans were unable to afford lifesaving prescription drugs. "As costs go up, so does everyone’s anxiety about their continued access to their prescription medicine,” said Andrew M. Slavitt, the acting administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He spoke at a daylong forum the administration held to solicit ideas from consumer advocates, doctors, drugmakers, insurers and employers. (Pear, 11/20)
The Associated Press: Obama Administration Sets Stage For A Debate On Drug Costs
The Obama administration set the stage Friday for a national debate on the rising cost of prescription drugs, a pressing issue for voters but one that's unlikely to see quick solutions under a lame-duck president facing an opposition Congress. Saying that too many people are struggling to pay for their medications, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell opened a daylong forum that presented a range of perspectives, from the pharmaceutical industry to a cancer patient with $270,000 in bills for just one drug. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/20)
The Washington Post: Sharp Increases In Drug Costs Draw Hundreds To Government Forum
The Obama administration’s top health officials said Friday that the nation needs greater clarity about the cost and effectiveness of prescription drugs as part of a strategy to make medicines more affordable without stunting the emergence of new pharmaceuticals. The current scattered system, in which drugs are priced differently depending on who is paying for them, "end[s] up obscuring" their true cost and, in turn, the impact on which patients have access to them, said Andy Slavitt, who oversees Medicare, Medicaid and insurance exchanges in the Health and Human Services department. (Goldstein, 11/20)
