Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Insulin Costs Up To 10 Times More In US Compared With Other Nations
Stat: Insulin In The U.S. Cost Up To 10 Times More Than In OECD Countries
Amid raging debate over the cost of insulin, a new report finds prices in the U.S. were often five to 10 times higher two years ago than in all the other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, an intergovernmental group that was created to stimulate economic progress and world trade. In 2018, the average U.S. price per standard unit across all types of insulin was $98.70, compared with $6.94 in Australia, $12.00 in Canada, $7.52 in the U.K., and $8.81 across all other OECD countries combined, according to the report by the RAND Corp., which conducted the analysis on behalf of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. (Silverman, 10/6)
In other drug-pricing news —
The New York Times: Kamala Harris And The Push To Cut Hospital Bills In California
As a former state attorney general, Senator Kamala D. Harris, the Democratic nominee for vice president, has received significant scrutiny of her record on law enforcement, facing questions and criticism about uneven prosecutions of killings by police officers. But she is less known for another role she took on, opposing the consolidation of institutions in the health care industry, which has become a major force driving the cost of medical care higher for consumers. She challenged proposed mergers between industry behemoths and anti-competitive behavior by powerful hospital systems and drug makers. (Abelson, 10/6)
Wisconsin Examiner: Big Fight Over Drug Pricing Heads To The Supreme Court
A years-long fight over whether states have the authority to regulate important aspects of drug pricing will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday morning. At issue is whether prescription middlemen, known as “pharmacy benefit managers,” will have to bow to state authority over a huge swath of their business or if federal law preempts state regulation. Both sides in the litigation say that if the other wins, the result will be even higher costs for prescription drugs when their prices already are growing at three times the rate of inflation. The magnitude of the case, Rutledge v Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, is illustrated by the parties fighting it. (Schladen, 10/5)
Casper Star Tribune: Lawmakers Proposed Several Options To Lower Prescription Drug Costs. None Of Them Are Feasible, A New Report Says
Officials with the Wyoming Department of Health said that a number of concepts suggested by lawmakers earlier this year to lower the cost of prescription drugs in Wyoming — including importing cheaper drugs from Canada — are likely unfeasible. The long-awaited study, approved by the Legislature in the 2020 Budget Session, evaluated a number of avenues to lower the cost of prescription drugs, including the potential to purchase drugs in bulk or in conjunction with another state as a “group purchasing” option. (Reynolds, 10/6)
Salon.com: Katie Porter Eviscerates Big Pharma CEO Over "Exorbitant" Drug Prices
House Democrats—including three Squad members—tore into pharmaceutical industry chief executives during a Wednesday congressional hearing on Big Pharma profiteering, with Rep. Katie Porter verbally eviscerating one CEO for more than tripling the price of a critical cancer drug. Wednesday marked the first day of a two-day House Oversight Committee hearing titled "Unsustainable Drug Prices: Testimony from the CEOs." Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Giovanni Caforio, Teva Pharmaceuticals CEO Kåre Schultz, and former Celgene CEO Mark Alles all endured nearly four hours of grilling over the price of prescription drugs—which are almost always far more expensive in the United States than anywhere else in the world. (Wilkins, 10/4)
