Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Former CVS Executive To Lead HHS' Efforts To Curb High Drug Prices
The Hill: Azar Taps Former CVS Executive To Help Lower Drug Prices
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is tapping a former CVS Caremark executive to lead the agency’s efforts to lower drug prices. According to HHS, Daniel Best will be Azar’s senior adviser for drug pricing reform. Best was most recently a vice president of industry relations for CVS’s Medicare Part D business. This included the company’s prescription drug plans, Medicare Part D plans and other clients. (Weixel, 3/29)
Stat: FDA Charts Biosimilars' Future — But Drug Makers Aren't All On Board
In his recent public appearances, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has sounded a repeating note: drug prices are too high, and especially prices for complicated protein-based drugs called biologics. The answer, he says, is in part encouraging generic biologics, called biosimilars, to enter the market. And one way in which the FDA can do so, Gottlieb told an assembled crowd of insurers at an industry conference earlier this month, is to set clearer standards for what these drugs have to prove to be considered equivalent — or interchangeable — to the originals. (Swetlitz, 3/30)
Stat: Students Push UCLA To Improve Access To A Cancer Drug Developed By Its Scientists
Students at UCLA are calling on the university to ease access to a prostate cancer drug developed on campus. The drug, Xtandi, is at the center of a legal battle in India over whether generic competitors can enter the market — a battle in which, students say, the university is on the wrong side. (Cooney, 3/30)
