Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Perspectives: Big Pharma Needs Dose Of Own Medicine, But Prop 61 Isn't The Way To Do It
Fresno Bee: Drug Pricing Is Too Complex To Fix With Prop. 61
It would serve Big Pharma right if Californians passed Proposition 61, capping drug prices by prohibiting state agencies from paying any more for prescription medication than the rock-bottom prices paid by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The industry certainly has given voters every reason to do it – from jacking up the cost for lifesaving EpiPens by a whopping 500 percent to making the most effective treatments for hepatitis C so expensive that they’re out reach for millions of Americans. (9/19)
Investor's Business Daily: California's Proposition 61 Won't End The State's Health Care Woes
Proposition 61, or the California Drug Price Relief Act, is a ballot initiative promoted as a tool for reducing state spending on prescription drugs. If approved by voters in November, it would prohibit state government agencies (excluding managed-care plans in Medi-Cal) from paying more for drugs than the lowest price negotiated for the same drug by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Advocates believe it would safeguard California taxpayers, whom they argue are ruthlessly victimized by drug industry "price-gouging." Alas, prescription-drug pricing is much more complicated. (Paul Howard, 9/19)
Bloomberg: Sarepta Approval Hints At A Lighter-Touch FDA
One of the longest and most contentious biotech sagas in recent memory is finally over(ish). The FDA on Monday granted accelerated approval to Sarepta's drug Exondys, which treats the rare muscle-wasting disease Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD). The drug could be available to patients before the end of the year. The approval is conditional and can be reversed if a more-rigorous new trial shows the drug doesn't work. (Max Nisen, 9/19)
Fortune: Why Allergan Is Willing To Pay So Much Money For This Biotech
The pharma giant announced Tuesday that it struck a deal to buy the California biotech for an upfront payment of $28.35 per share in cash. And Allergan said it would pay as much as $49.84 per share in contingent value rights if Tobira, which doesn’t have any approved treatments on the market, meets certain developmental milestones. That means the total deal could be valued as high as $1.7 billion. ... That’s not a particularly exorbitant nominal sum in health care and biotech acquisitions. But it’s a staggering amount when it comes to the premium paid relative to a company’s current value. (Sy Mukherjee, 9/20)
Business Insider: Valeant Already Increasing Drug Prices After Scrutiny
You might think that after enduring months of government scrutiny and becoming the subject of multiple state and federal investigations, Valeant Pharmaceuticals would not immediately return to the same behavior that sent its stock price careening down 90% since last October. In that case, you are wrong. (Linette Lopez, 9/19)
Bloomberg: PARP Wars: Biotech M&A's New Hope
It's a recipe for ending biopharma's slow year for deals that almost looks designed in a lab. Cancer drugs known as PARP inhibitors have major upside sales potential. There are two potentially acquirable makers of such drugs in Tesaro and Clovis, which recently saw shares jump due to potential interest from Gilead. Both their medicines are rushing toward approval just as a number of companies are getting hungry to buy a cancer-drugmaker. (Max Nisen, 9/15)
