Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Pricetags For New Therapies, Generics Push Up Drug Spending
Reuters: Drug Spending Tops $1 Trillion On Hep C, Cancer Therapies
Global pharmaceutical spending will break the trillion dollar mark in 2014, driven by high prices in the United States for novel treatments such as Gilead Sciences Inc's Sovaldi for hepatitis C and new cancer drugs, according to a study released on Thursday. Total spending on drugs will hit $1.06 trillion, an increase of 7 percent over 2013 levels, according to the report from the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. The increase also reflected a slowdown in the introduction of cheaper generic versions of branded medicines. (Humer, 11/20)
Kaiser Health News: Costly Hepatitis C Treatments Help Drive 12 Percent Drug Spending Jump
After several years of modest increases, American spending on medications is projected to shoot up by 12 percent this year, pushing the nation’s drug bill to between $375 billion and $385 billion, according to a report by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Several factors are driving the spending spike, including the introduction of expensive new hepatitis C drugs and fewer drug patent expirations than in previous years, the report found. Such expirations typically lead to savings as cheaper generics replace brand-name drugs. (Rabin, 11/20)
NPR: Gilead Buys Shortcut For FDA Drug Review For $125 Million
How much is a fast track for the Food and Drug Administration review of a new drug worth? Try $125 million. In an auction, Gilead Sciences, a maker of HIV and hepatitis medicines, just bought a coupon good for the accelerated review of a drug of the company's choice from Knight Therapeutics, a Canadian company. The priority review voucher entitles Gilead to move a drug of its choice through the FDA four months faster than the normal track. (Hensley, 11/19)
The Philadelphia Inquirer: Justice Department, Senate Investigating Generic Drug Price Hikes
The 1984 federal law that spawned the generic pharmaceutical industry was designed to use the basic idea of economic competition to lower the cost of prescription medicine for millions of Americans. The law has largely served its intended purpose. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in January that the national rate of retail prescription drug spending slowed in 2012, growing only 0.4 percent because of "numerous drugs losing patent protection, leading to increased sales of lower-cost generics." But no market can be perfect, even good, for every participant all the time, and some of the 12,000 generic drugs on that market have skyrocketed in price in the last 18 months, according to people in the industry. (Sell, 11/20)
The Wall Street Journal's Pharmalot: Sticker Shock: Some Medicare Part D Beneficiaries Will Pay More Next Year
As the new year approaches, many Americans with prescription drug coverage provided by Medicare Part D may encounter sticker shock. The reason is that more Part D beneficiaries will be expected to pay co-insurance, which means they will be asked to pay a higher percentage of the total cost of their medicines. As many as 66% of Part D plans will apply co-insurance, an increase of 83% from last year, for their top formulary tiers, according to an analysis by Avalere Health, a consulting firm. These tiers include expensive specialty medicines and so-called non-preferred brand-name drugs, which are reimbursed at lower rates. (Silverman, 11/19)
Meanwhile, the government is taking steps to compel scientists to make study results public even when they are not in the interest of drugmakers -
The Wall Street Journal: NIH Proposes Greater Disclosure Of Clinical Studies
Federal health officials on Wednesday took steps to compel scientists to make clinical study results public even when the findings cut against the interest of pharmaceutical companies. The National Institutes of Health released a proposed rule that would give federal officials more power to enforce a 2007 law that generally called for results of many medical studies to be published. The proposed rule would, for example, typically require researchers to publish later-stage studies even when the FDA doesn’t approve the drug or device being evaluated. (Burton, 11/19)
