Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Importing Drugs, Rebates And Medicare: A Deeper Look At Administration's Flurry Of Ideas To Lower Prices
Stat: Unpacking The Bold — And The Bluster — In Trump’s Plan To Bring Down Drug Prices
Top health officials are exploring the idea of importing drugs from other countries, despite broad and long-standing opposition from drug makers. There’s a new pitch to lower the prices Medicare pays for new drugs, at least for the first few months they’re on the market. The Food and Drug Administration might soon allow some prescription drugs to be sold over the counter. The same agency also released a polished plan to speed biosimilar drugs to market and promote competition. And the administration got closer, too, to releasing a new plan to change the way pharmacy benefit managers get paid. (Mershon and Swetlitz, 7/23)
The Hill: Trump Battle Over Drug Prices Heats Up
The Trump administration is taking credit for a series of announcements by drug companies to freeze drug prices for the remainder of 2018, arguing it is proof that the president’s tough talk is leading to results. Amid a pressure campaign led by President Trump himself, five drug companies have said they will not increase prices this year, while one announced decreases for some medicines. (Hellmann, 7/22)
Politico Pro: Americans Skeptical Of Trump’s Drug Plan — If They’ve Even Heard Of It
Only about one in four — 27 percent — adults say they have heard or read about Trump’s prescription drug plan, a new POLITICO-Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health poll found. Of that group, just 37 percent believe it will lower the prices Medicare pays for prescription drugs while 42 percent think it will accomplish the task for the country overall. (Karlin-Smith and Ehley, 7/22)
In other pharmaceutical news —
Stat: "Father Of Gene Therapy" Faces Harsh Reality: A Tarnished Legacy And An Ankle Monitor
This is what it has come to for a world-renowned scientist who was convicted of sexually molesting a colleague’s young daughter. [Dr. W. French] Anderson has been hailed as the father of gene therapy and was honored at George H.W. Bush’s White House. In 1991, the New York Times ran a laudatory story headlined “Dr. Anderson’s Gene Machine.” He started the first gene therapy company and sold it to a major drug maker in 1995 for $325 million, was a Time “hero of medicine” in 1997 and scientific consultant to the 1997 film “Gattaca,” and was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1998 (with singer Reba McEntire). ...But in July 2006, Anderson was convicted of three counts of lewd acts on a child and one count of continuous sexual abuse, including fondling her genitals. (Begley, 7/23)
Stat: In Lawsuit, Human Longevity Alleges That Craig Venter Stole Trade Secrets
The genomics pioneer Craig Venter is being accused of stealing trade secrets by Human Longevity, the San Diego genomics company he founded and recently departed. Human Longevity on Friday filed a suit in civil court against the J. Craig Venter Institute, Venter’s nonprofit research organization that employs more than 200 scientists and staff at facilities near San Diego and Washington, D.C. Venter, the 71-year-old celebrity scientist who at the turn of the millennium raced the U.S. government to sequence the human genome, is not named as a defendant. (Robbins, 7/22)
Stat: What You Need To Know Ahead Of Biogen’s Big Alzheimer’s Reveal
Partners Biogen and Eisai shook up the drug industry this month with the surprising revelation that an in-development drug for Alzheimer’s disease showed unprecedented promise in a clinical trial. And that’s about all they said. On Wednesday, the companies will divulge the details on the drug, called BAN2401. Here’s your guide to how experts are approaching what could be the biggest Alzheimer’s news in years. (Garde, 7/23)
