Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pharma Company Blows Up Traditional Pricing Model To Provide Affordable Drugs
The Washington Post: These Researchers Think They Have A Solution To The Global Crisis In Drug Prices
Jerome Zeldis remembers exactly how he felt when he heard about the $84,000 price tag on a powerful new hepatitis C treatment three years ago. "I was somewhere between annoyed and outraged,” recalled Zeldis, the former chief medical officer of the biotech juggernaut Celgene. The cost of a 12-week course of Gilead Sciences' drug Sovaldi triggered fierce pushback from insurers, politicians and the public, and helped spark a national debate on high drug prices. (Johnson, 11/3)
Stat: CMS Official Says Drug Costs Are 'Unsustainable' And There Are 'Too Many' Bad Actors
In case the pharmaceutical industry is unclear what some federal officials think about drug prices, Andy Slavitt has offered a pointed and sobering reminder. In remarks before the BioPharma Congress, an industry conference that was held last Thursday, the acting administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services slammed drug makers — all of them. “Cost increases are pervasive,” he lamented. “Despite all the attention it has generated this year, Mylan’s Epipen is not even on our top 20 list for either high price increases or spending overall in 2015. Many of these have been ongoing for a while with real patient impact, and some are big stories waiting to happen.” (Silverman, 11/7)
Bloomberg: CVS Says Slowing Prescriptions Will Hurt Profits Next Year
CVS Health Corp.’s earnings forecasts for 2016 and 2017 came in below analysts’ estimates as the company said its drugstores will lose millions of prescriptions, sending the shares plunging Tuesday to their biggest daily loss in seven years. CVS expects to lose more than 40 million retail prescriptions annually as the military’s Tricare health insurance program and Prime Therapeutics, which manages drug benefits for many states’ Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, will exclude CVS from pharmacy networks, Chief Executive Officer Larry Merlo said on a quarterly conference call. The shares skidded 12 percent, the most since November 2009, to $73.53 at 4 p.m. in New York. (Langreth, 11/8)
The Wall Street Journal: Valeant Shares Plunge As It Slashes Guidance Again
Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. cut its annual forecast again Tuesday as the drug company, struggling to remake its business after a series of missteps, signaled its turnaround may take longer than expected. In 4 p.m. trading Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange, the company’s shares were down 22% at $14.98. (Steele and Rockoff, 11/8)
The Washington Post: The Bizarre Reason Two Competing Drug Prices Rose In Tandem
In 1998, the drug company Amgen launched a transformative arthritis treatment called Enbrel. At the end of 2002, federal regulators approved a similar drug called Humira. The drugs work in fundamentally the same way. They are approved for many of the same ailments. They have been hugely valuable to patients — and big drivers of profits for the two pharmaceutical companies that make them. Humira brought in $14 billion last year for AbbVie. Enbrel was the top moneymaker for Amgen, with $5.4 billion in revenue. (Johnson, 11/7)
The New York Times: Comparing Medicare Prescription Drug Plans
People covered by Medicare have a few more weeks to change their prescription drug plans, during the program’s annual open enrollment period. Much attention has been paid to Affordable Care Act coverage, because the annual sign-up period for plans sold on government marketplaces began this week. But Medicare, the federal health insurance program for people 65 and older and for the disabled, has its own annual enrollment period, which started Oct. 15 and ends on Dec. 7. (Carrns, 11/2)
Stat: FDA To Hold Two-Day Meeting On Off-Label Drug Marketing
After years of anticipation, the Food and Drug Administration will hold a public, two-day meeting starting on Wednesday to review the extent to which so-called off-label information about medicines may be disseminated to physicians. Nothing will get decided, though. The meeting is designed simply to give the public — drug makers and patient advocates alike — a long-awaited chance to convey their opinions and debate the issue. (Silverman, 11/8)
Stat: FDA Warns Valeant Over Production Problems Caused By Acquisitions
As if Joe Papa doesn’t have enough problems. The Valeant Pharmaceuticals chief executive is grappling with numerous government probes into the company’s accounting and pricing practices; its business strategy is in turmoil; assets are being sold to ward off bondholders and its stock is tanking, again. (Silverman, 11/8)
The Fiscal Times: Will The US Government Step In To Regulate Drug Prices?
With federal prosecutors investigating the generic drug industry for alleged price fixing, speculation that Congress will step in next year to find ways to contain soaring prescription drug prices is more than a rumor. They could also crack down on unscrupulous marketing tactics that have gouged consumers, health insurers and government agencies. (Pianin, 11/4)
Reuters: Buyers Clubs For Cheaper Drugs Help Fight Hepatitis And HIV
Frustrated by the high price of antiviral drugs, thousands of patients from London to Moscow to Sydney are turning to a new wave of online "buyers clubs" to get cheap generic medicines to cure hepatitis C and protect against HIV infection. While regulators warn that buying drugs online is risky, scientific data presented at a recent medical conference suggest that treatment arranged through buyers club can be just as effective as through conventional channels. (11/7)
The New York Times: Brexit Threatens Supply Of New Drugs, Report Warns
British patients could end up not being able to access modern medicines if there is a "hard Brexit", a think tank report endorsed by a former Conservative health minister warned on Wednesday. Drugmakers currently use the European Medicines Agency as a one-stop-shop to get drugs licensed across Europe, but Britain is likely to drop out of that system if it severs EU ties and leaves the single market in a scenario dubbed "hard Brexit." (Hirschler, 11/2)
New Hampshire Union Leader: Prescription Drugs Driving Health Care Costs In NH
Skyrocketing prescription drug prices are the major driver of increased health-care costs in New Hampshire, according to data for 2015 presented by the state Insurance Department at its annual meeting. More than $1 billion was spent on prescription drugs by patients and insurance companies in the state last year, with 15 scripts per person on average, according to Insurance Commissioner Roger Sevigny, who introduced the presenters at Friday’s day-long presentation. The cost of in-patient services in the state declined by 4.9 percent from 2014 to 2015, but the cost of prescription drugs rose 8.7 percent in the same period. Insurance companies are predicting that 2016 will see a 14 percent increase. (Solomon, 11/4)
