Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Generics Companies Who Make Bread-And-Butter Pills Instead Of Fancy Blockbusters Face A Crisis
Bloomberg: Are Drug Prices Too Low?
The mood at the annual generic drug industry confab in Orlando in February was especially somber. The discussion during one panel was all about plunging drug prices, consolidation among drug-buying groups, and the increasingly cutthroat nature of the business. A top executive at Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., the No. 1 supplier of generics in the U.S., which is laying off 14,000 employees and shuttering about half its 80 manufacturing plants, tried to lighten the mood with gallows humor: “Teva certainly has no challenges,” said Brendan O’Grady, the executive vice president who heads its North American commercial business. The joke hit the mark, perhaps because it landed so close to home. (Koons, 4/11)
Stat: Drug Company Payments Appears To Influence Oncologists' Prescribing Habits
In the latest look at the financial ties between physicians and drug makers, a new analysis finds that oncologists who received payments for such activities as consulting or speaking were more likely to prescribe medicines sold by those companies. Specifically, doctors who received either research funding or general payments — which included meals and travel expenses — were nearly twice as likely to prescribe a kidney cancer drug sold by a company that marketed the medicine. And the odds were 29 percent higher that doctors would prescribe a chronic myeloid leukemia sold by a company that provided such payments. (Silverman, 4/10)
The Washington Post: CVS Pharmacists Will Have New Tools To Help Patients Save Money On Drugs
CVS Health is rolling out a new tool to alert its 30,000 pharmacists to cheaper drug options when they fill patients' prescriptions. For years, pharmacists have substituted generic drugs for identical brand-name versions. But CVS Pharmacy's Rx Savings Finder program will enable pharmacists and consumers to question doctors' prescription choices to save patients money. (Johnson, 4/11)
Stat: Mass. Governor Defends Vertex Pricing, Saying 'Innovation Is Expensive'
Despite heated rhetoric over the cost of prescription drugs, pricing of today’s medicines is “messy and complicated,” the governor of Massachusetts said Monday, allowing that pharmaceutical companies have the right to try to recoup their investments. Gov. Charlie Baker, asked whether drug companies are “getting away with murder” as President Trump has alleged, said “innovation is expensive,” particularly when “figuring out the human body.” (Thielking, 4/9)
Columbus Dispatch: Ohio Legislators Hear Support For Bill Seeking Transparency In Prescription Pricing
Calls intensified Tuesday for the General Assembly to force more transparency from pharmacy middlemen accused of billing Ohio’s Medicaid managed-care plans for much more than they reimburse pharmacists. Ten witnesses — cancer patients, representatives of national consumer groups and others — appeared before the House Government Accountability and Oversight Committee to testify in favor of House Bill 479, which would require that pharmacy customers be told about and receive the cash price for medicine whenever it’s cheaper than an insurance co-payment. (Schladen, 4/10)
Stat: More Lawmakers Question FDA Over Probe Into Floridians Importing Medicines
For the second time in recent months, congressional lawmakers are asking if the Food and Drug Administration reversed a policy that allows Americans to import medicines under select circumstances. In a letter to the agency, the lawmakers referenced a series of raids last year in which FDA investigators visited Florida stores with search warrants to warn the owners that importing drugs from foreign countries is illegal. This was the same series of searches that prompted several senators last December to write the FDA about any changes in its policy toward importation. (Silverman, 4/10)
FiercePharma: Despite Reports From Merck And Johnson & Johnson, Pharma's Net Prices 'likely Not Coming Down': Analyst
Are drug prices coming down? Two leading drugmakers presented numbers suggesting the industry is facing increased pricing pressure, but Bernstein analyst Ronny Gal remains skeptical. Johnson & Johnson recently reported that net prices fell 4.6% in 2017 after the company paid out $15 billion in rebates and discounts. Merck said its net prices fell 1.9% last year. Of J&J's disclosure, Gal wrote on Monday that he believes the situation "does not represent 'real' pressure on the industry, but rather specific company circumstances." (Sagonowsky, 4/10)
The Wall Street Journal: Tishman Speyer Inks Deal With Pfizer And Wins $1.8 Billion Construction Loan
Developer Tishman Speyer has closed a large lease deal with pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc. at its Hudson Yards tower and has secured financing to move ahead with the $3.7 billion project, Tishman said. Pfizer has signed a 20-year lease to take 15 floors at the Spiral, a 65-story skyscraper featuring cascading terraces. (Morris, 4/10)
Bloomberg: Novartis CEO Spurs Rare-Disease Shift With $8.7 Billion Deal
Novartis AG agreed to acquire AveXis Inc. for $8.7 billion to gain a promising drug to treat a rare disease that afflicts infants, hastening a shift toward gene therapy and precision medicines. Shareholders of the Bannockburn, Illinois-based company will receive $218 a share in cash in a tender offer, Novartis said in a statement Monday. The price is 88 percent above where AveXis closed Friday. (Kresge and Serafino, 4/9)
Stat: Biotech Vet David Hung Wipes Axovant From His Work History
Dr. David Hung has had a distinguished career in biotech, presiding over the development of a blockbuster cancer drug and flipping a company for $14 billion. But the last act, in which he led an Alzheimer’s disease startup through a catastrophic failure, is one from which he’d like to move on. Which is perhaps why Hung scrubbed it from his LinkedIn profile. (Garde, 4/10)
FierceHealthcare: State Solutions To Bring Down Drug Prices Face Steep Resistance From Drug Industry
There are plenty of ways to tackle rising drug prices, experts say—if they aren't blocked by industry first. Even as states increasingly take legislative action on drug prices, they have been blocked by pharmaceutical companies in court, said Jane Horvath, senior policy fellow at the National Academy for State Health Policy, at a forum hosted in D.C. by Kaiser Permanente's Institute for Health Policy. "There's a whole constellation of problems or hurdles to be overcome, which is why state policy around drug prices is looking insane and just crazy," Horvath said. (Minemyer, 4/9)
Kaiser Health News: How A Drugmaker Turned The Abortion Pill Into A Rare-Disease Profit Machine
Even though the $550 yellow pills sold as Korlym have a controversial origin as the abortion pill, Leslie Edwin says they “gave me life.” The 40-year-old Georgia resident lives with Cushing’s syndrome, a potentially deadly condition that causes high levels of the hormone cortisol to wreak havoc on a body. When first diagnosed, she said, she gained about 100 pounds, her blood sugars were “out of control,” and she suffered acne, the inability to sleep and constant anxiety.“I wouldn’t leave the house,” Edwin said of her first bout with the condition. “I quit my job after a certain point. I just couldn’t keep being in front of people.” (Tribble, 4/10)
