Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Price-Fixing Investigation: Patients Say They Couldn't Afford Crucial Psychiatric Drug After Generic Companies Hiked Cost
Bloomberg: Drugmakers’ Alleged Price-Fixing Pushed A Needed Pill Out Of Reach
In May, attorneys general in more than 40 states accused three pharmaceutical companies that make clomipramine — Taro Pharmaceuticals Industries Ltd., Mylan Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Novartis AG's generics arm, Sandoz — of conspiring to raise the drug’s price in concert. The allegation is part of a sweeping lawsuit that names 20 generic drugmakers and subsidiaries in all, as well as 15 current and former industry executives. It says they communicated with one another to fix prices and divvy up customers for more than 100 drugs, treating a range of maladies from HIV to high blood pressure to fungal infections. (Elgin, 7/31)
Stat: An Expanded Label For Amarin's Fish-Oil Drug Looks More Likely
With a key approval decision less than two months away, Amarin said Wednesday that the Food and Drug Administration is “unlikely” to convene an advisory committee meeting to review data on an expanded use of its heart drug Vascepa. Amarin’s statement, offered as an update with its second-quarter earnings announcement, was meant to quell any residual investor concerns about the FDA’s ongoing review of Vascepa — with a decision deadline of Sept. 28. No FDA advisory committee meeting is good news for the Vascepa review. (Feuerstein, 7/31)
CNN: Chemo-Free Drug Combo Shows 'Dramatic' Improvement Against Common Leukemia In Adults
When used together, two drugs that treat the most common leukemia in adults significantly increase survival and lower the risk that the disease will worsen, according to a new study. The interim analysis of a clinical trial for chronic lymphocytic leukemia, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the drugs -- ibrutinib and rituximab -- fared better than a combination chemoimmunotherapy that's known to be effective against the cancer. (Nedelman, 7/31)
MPR: Lawmakers Are Trying To Control The Cost Of Insulin — Why Our Bodies Need It
A bipartisan group of lawmakers announced Monday the beginnings of a plan to help supply emergency insulin to Minnesotans who cannot afford the rising cost of the drug. Insulin prices have tripled over the last 10 years, according to the governor's office. (John, Hallberg and Shiely, 7/31)
And the fight over CRISPR technology continues —
Stat: The Latest CRISPR Patent Fight Is On. So Is The Mudslinging
The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard lied about who invented the use of CRISPR genome editing in animal cells, and its lead CRISPR scientist Feng Zhang made statements to the patent office that he knew were “untrue,” attorneys for the University of California and its partners claim in legal documents filed Tuesday night with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. In strikingly tough language, the lawyers accused the Broad of trying to “deceive the Office” in order to win patents on the revolutionary technology, claimed another Broad scientist made a “materially false declaration” about when Zhang’s lab got CRISPR to work, and argued that Zhang didn’t know what molecules the genome editor needed until he read a rival’s key paper — all of which makes Zhang’s work “unpatentable.” (Begley, 7/31)
