Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
PhRMA Analysis Shifts Blame For High Drug Prices
Stat: PhRMA Report Pins Consumers' Pain From High Drug Prices On Health Plans
A new analysis from the drug industry’s top lobbying group asserts that many Americans are feeling more of a pinch paying for their prescription drugs because customers are not fully benefitting from health insurers’ negotiations with drug makers. The new report, shared exclusively with STAT by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, is the latest in an ongoing volley between drug makers, health insurers, and pharmacy-benefits managers. They are the major players, along with public officials, in the debate over drug affordability. (Scott, 3/29)
Boston Globe: Hope For Devastating Child Disease Comes At A Cost: $750,000 A Year
Parents of children with a rare disease called spinal muscular atrophy were thrilled two days before Christmas, when regulators approved the first drug to treat the condition that often kills patients before their second birthday. But in the three months since, some parents in Massachusetts have fought to get their insurer, Neighborhood Health Plan, to pay for the medicine, an enormously expensive drug called Spinraza and made by Cambridge-based Biogen Inc. (Weisman, 3/28)
Stateline: States Cut Some Red Tape In Prescriptions
The insurance industry defends the need for what it calls “utlilization management” techniques like prior authorization and step therapy, which requires patients to first fail on what are known as preferred drugs, which are generally less expensive, before they can be approved for others. Those practices, said Kristine Grow, spokeswoman for the America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), the lobbying organization for the country’s commercial health plans, “can help ensure that patients are aware of treatments that may be as effective and less expensive.” ... But many health advocacy groups say utilization management is simply a form of obstructionism that forces practitioners to spend countless hours battling bureaucrats over medical issues. (Ollove, 3/27)
Stat: Why Can't Pharma And Payers Play Nicer?
Among the drug industry’s least-escapable buzzphrases is “value-based contracting,” a system under which payers shell out for pricey drugs only when they work, creating a theoretical win-win that increases access and cuts costs all the while. So why hasn’t the idea caught on? (Garde, 3/23)
The Fiscal Times: Pfizer Chief Says Government Efforts To Contain Drug Prices Will Backfire
Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drug manufacturer, is no stranger to the growing controversy over price gouging and anti-competitive practices that have drawn sharp criticism from President Trump and prompted calls for government intervention. Last December, for example, Pfizer and Flynn Pharma Ltd. were hit with record fines totaling more than $110 million in Great Britain after they were found to have conspired to increase prices by as much as 2,600 percent for unbranded versions of the anti-epilepsy drug Epanutin. (Pianin, 3/27)
The Wall Street Journal: Alexion Names New CEO Following Internal Sales-Practice Probe
Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc. named a new chief executive Monday, months after the company’s top leadership abruptly stepped down amid an internal investigation into sales practices. Drug-industry veteran Ludwig Hantson will succeed interim CEO David Brennan. Mr. Brennan, who is now expected to serve as chairman of the board, took the helm in December after former CEO David Hallal stepped down abruptly after about 20 months on the job. (Moise, 3/27)
Reuters: Mylan Underpayment On EpiPen Could Exceed Proposed Settlement
The amount that drugmaker Mylan NV avoided paying the U.S. government in Medicaid rebates for its EpiPen emergency allergy treatment since 2007 likely exceeds a proposed $465 million settlement the company announced in October, according to a study by private drug pricing experts published on Monday. (3/27)
Stat: Senator And Father Of Mylan CEO Calls For Drug Pricing Reform
High drug prices are personal for Senator Joe Manchin: He’s seen his daughter, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch, pilloried in the press for raising the cost of EpiPen, the top-selling auto-injector used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions...But Manchin wasn’t defending Mylan, which nearly quintupled the price of a two-pack of EpiPen to over $600 in 2016, leading to widespread criticism, a heated congressional hearing, and calls for a federal investigation into potential antitrust violations. (Blau, 3/29)
Kaiser Health News: GAO To Launch Investigation Of FDA’s Orphan Drug Program
Acting on a request from three influential U.S. senators, the government’s accountability arm confirmed that it will investigate potential abuses of the Orphan Drug Act. The Government Accountability Office still must determine the full scope of what it will look into and the methodology to be used. Determining the scope will take some months, said Chuck Young, GAO’s managing director for public affairs. (Tribble, 3/21)
Stat: Gilead Faces A Challenge To A Key Hepatitis C Patent In Europe
Once again, Gilead Sciences is facing a challenge to a European patent over its Sovaldi hepatitis C treatment, which is a building block for subsequent medicines the drug maker has launched. (Silverman, 3/27)
Business Insider: Companies That Would Get Hurt If Medicare Negotiated Drug Prices
The GOP's Obamacare replacement plan got pulled from a vote in the House on Friday, and healthcare stocks have been rallying ever since. But when it comes to drug pricing, pharmaceutical companies might not be out of the woods yet. (Ramsey, 3/27)
Stat: Pfizer CEO: Europe Is 'Free-Riding' And Committing 'Blackmail'
Why are drugs cheaper in Europe than in the US? Because other countries are leeching off American ingenuity and blackmailing its innovators, according to the CEO of the nation’s largest drug company. Pfizer CEO Ian Read, rarely one to mince words, said socialized medicine in Europe has stacked the cards against the US’s $1.2 trillion pharma industry. (Garde, 3/23)
Stat: Spain's Antitrust Watchdog Probes Drug Makers Over Pricing.
Spain’s antitrust watchdog has opened an investigation into six large drug makers over long-standing accusations from wholesalers that the companies engage in unfair pricing schemes. (Silverman, 3/23)
The Wall Street Journal: Valeant Ex-CEO Michael Pearson Sues Company Over Unpaid Stock Award
Michael Pearson, former chief executive of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc., is suing the embattled drugmaker for refusing to pay him more than 3 million company shares that he said he is owed. In a lawsuit filed Monday in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, Mr. Pearson said Valeant breached his contract by not paying him 580,676 shares and 2.5 million performance shares that were due last November under the terms of his separation agreement. (McNish, 3/27)
Stat: As Blockbuster Drugs Fizzle, Biotech Looks To The Next Big Thing
Over the past year, a string of would-be best-sellers, expected to generate billions in sales, have wilted into commercial disappointments amid a fractious debate about the cost of medicine. Another highly touted — and highly priced — treatment won approval on Tuesday, and the industry may soon find out whether those failures were aberrant blips or a frightening glimpse of the new normal. That test case: Dupixent, a powerful treatment for severe eczema that Wall Street believes will bring in more than $5 billion a year at its peak. But the drug’s list price, $37,000 a year, could derail such bullish predictions. (Garde, 3/29)
