Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
'I Just Took My Chances And I’m Hoping That It’s Safe': Desperate Patients Turn To Black Market For Lower Cost Drugs
Bloomberg: Drug Prices Drive Many Americans To Black Market For Medicines
During graduate school, Lacy Mason got insulin from elderly friends who had extra. When a friend’s mother died and left behind a stockpile, she took that, too. Her mother-in-law, a nurse, salvaged samples and half-used vials from her hospital. Mason used expired doses and stretched them longer than intended. Sometimes, she bought insulin from strangers online, in secretive Facebook groups where people sell or give away spare supplies. As the Trump administration pledges to bring down America’s high-and-rising drug prices, people like Mason live with the burden of costly medications. Trump officials have proposed ways to increase competition, press middlemen for transparency, and limit patients’ costs in Medicare pharmacy plans. (Tozzi and Ockerman, 5/18)
The Hill: GOP Chairman In Talks With 'Big Pharma' On Moving Drug Pricing Bill
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Monday he is in talks with drug companies about a possible deal to pass a drug-pricing bill in exchange for separate action that the companies want. Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he is hoping the Senate will soon pass a bill known as the Creates Act, which cracks down on the tactics drug companies use to delay the introduction of cheaper generics. (Sullivan, 5/21)
The New York Times: Requiring Prices In Drug Ads: Would It Do Any Good? Is It Even Legal?
If President Trump has his way, television viewers who see commercials for the drug Keytruda will learn not only that it can help lung cancer patients, but also that it carries a price tag of $13,500 a month, or $162,000 a year. Viewers who see advertisements for Neulasta, a drug that reduces the risk of infections after chemotherapy, would learn that the list price for each injection is $6,200. And magazine readers would see a new bit of information in ads for Humira, the world’s best-selling drug, prescribed for rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases: its list price, which has been widely reported as approximately $50,000 a year. (Pear, 5/19)
Columbus Dispatch: Powerful, Secretive Middlemen Affect Drug Prices
The East Side pharmacist is ready to shout out the names of his customers before they walk through the door of his spotless and brightly lit pharmacy. Typically, the medication is on the counter before the customers make their way to the register. For an independent pharmacist, those close relationships are vital to staying in business.But what the pharmacist can’t share with customers is the rationale behind the prices they pay for their prescription drugs. (Sullivan, 5/19)
Bloomberg: Gene Therapies That Could Transform Diseases Get Easier FDA Path
New therapies that may cure diseases caused by defective genes will get a faster path to approval by U.S. regulators, part of an effort by the Food and Drug Administration to keep pace with one of biotechnology’s fastest-growing fields. Unlike traditional drugs, gene therapies are intended to be given once, transform the inner workings of the body and last for a lifetime. For regulators, the challenge is to find ways to get the new therapies to desperate patients while balancing the need to monitor their long-term safety for years after approval, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Tuesday. (Cortez, 5/22)
PBS/The Open Mind: The Real Drug Crisis
Investigative reporter Katherine Eban [talks about] the dangers of generic pharmaceutical manufacturing and a looming shortage. (Heffner, 5/19)
FiercePharma: Senators To Big Pharma: Better Step Up With Drug Prices In DTC Ads, Or We'll Make You
In the immediate aftermath of President Donald Trump's big drug pricing speech, industry watchers noted a relatively unique proposal: forcing drugmakers to slap sticker prices into consumer advertising. Now, five senators are taking the next step. It's a small one, granted. They're asking top drugmakers to voluntarily add pricing information in their TV commercials and print ads. In letters to executives at Pfizer, AbbVie, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Janssen, Merck & Co., GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, five Democratic and independent senators asked the drugmakers to immediately add drug prices to their direct-to-consumer promos. (Saganowsky, 5/21)
CBS News: A Tricky Wrinkle In Trump's Medicare Rx 'Blueprint'
The Trump administration's "Blueprint" to lower drug prices and reduce patient costs made one thing clear: The government will not directly negotiate with drug companies to secure lower prescription prices. But that doesn't mean it isn't proposing changes that would dramatically alter the way Medicare pays for some of the most expensive drugs, and in the process, potentially raise out-of-pocket costs for some of the country's sickest patients. A cornerstone of the Trump plan calls for all Medicare drug payments to be consolidated under Medicare Part D, the prescription drug plan for Medicare enrollees administered by private insurers. Under Part D, insurers and middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) negotiate with drug companies for discounted prices in exchange for the drug companies' products being included in the PBMs' list of covered drugs. (Konrad, 5/22)
CNBC: Investors Have Shrugged Off Trump Drug Price Plan, But It Could Be Early
The biopharma and drug supply chain sectors outperformed the market last week, even as Trump administration officials pressed the president's blueprint to lower drug prices, with tough rhetoric for drugmakers and public shaming of pharmaceutical firms for supposedly blocking competition. "Drug companies have insisted we can have new cures or affordable prices, but not both," said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said in a speech Monday. "I've been a drug company executive — I know the tired talking points: the idea that if one penny disappears from pharma profit margins, American innovation will grind to a halt. I'm not interested in hearing those talking points anymore, and neither is the president." (Coombs, 5/21)
Stat: After Trump's Drug Speech, Investors Poured Big Money Into Biotech Funds
Investors deposited $819 million into health care and biotech funds this week — the largest weekly infusion of money into the sector since last July, according to a new report. The timing of the big biotech inflow is also significant, coming in the same week that President Trump rolled out a series of proposals to lower prescription drug prices. Despite some sharp rhetoric, the snap judgment from Wall Street was that Trump’s plan would have limited impact on biotech and pharmaceuticals companies. Now, the $819 million of net inflows is an early but tangible sign that biotech stocks could be in the early stages of a rally. (Feuerstein, 5/18)
Kaiser Health News: Drugmakers Blamed For Blocking Generics Have Jacked Up Prices And Cost U.S. Billions
Makers of brand-name drugs called out by the Trump administration for potentially stalling generic competition have hiked their prices by double-digit percentages since 2012 and cost Medicare and Medicaid nearly $12 billion in 2016, a Kaiser Health News analysis has found. As part of President Donald Trump’s promise to curb high drug prices, the Food and Drug Administration posted a list of pharmaceutical companies that makers of generics allege refused to let them buy the drug samples needed to develop their products. For approval, the FDA requires so-called bioequivalence testing using samples to demonstrate that generics are the same as their branded counterparts. (Lupkin, 5/23)
Stat: Most Emergency Docs Report Shortages Of Critical Medicines
As medicine shortages worsen around the country, nine out of 10 emergency doctors say they have lacked a critical treatment this month, and 69 percent reported that shortages have increased “a lot” over the past year, according to a new survey. At the same time, 43 percent said that anywhere from six to 10 medicines were in short supply recently and nearly every doctor — 97 percent — was forced to use an alternative because of shortages. Still worse, 36 percent of the physicians reported patient outcomes were worse, including instances of harm. (Silverman, 5/22)
