Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Running Against 'Big Pharma': Democratic Challengers Focus On Ridding Party Of Drug Industry's Influence
Stat: In Delaware Primary, Democrats Spar Over Pharma's Influence
[Kerri Evelyn] Harris’s go-to campaign topics include drug pricing, special interests, the opioid crisis — and what she views as the throughline joining all three: the pharmaceutical industry. The race, broadly, is emblematic of the Democratic Party’s struggle to become more inclusive — Harris is a queer biracial woman in her 30s, Carper a straight white man in his 70s. But Harris, an Air Force veteran and community organizer, is among a select few candidates engaged in a different fight for the party’s identity: the desire to rid it of pharmaceutical industry influence. (Facher, 9/4)
NPR: High Price Of Insulin Leads Patients To Ration The Drug. That Can Be Lethal
Diabetic ketoacidosis is a terrible way to die. It's what happens when you don't have enough insulin. Your blood sugar gets so high that your blood becomes highly acidic, your cells dehydrate, and your body stops functioning. Diabetic ketoacidosis is how Nicole Smith-Holt lost her son. Three days before his payday. Because he couldn't afford his insulin. "It shouldn't have happened," Smith-Holt says looking at her son's death certificate on her dining room table in Richfield, Minn. "That cause of death of diabetic ketoacidosis should have never happened." (Sable-Smith, 9/1)
CQ: Fall Legislative Preview: Drug Prices
The Senate recently endorsed a Trump administration proposal to require pricing information in drug advertisements, and Congress could soon build on this with other modest measures. One thing lawmakers seem to agree on is that pharmacists should have the right to tell customers when a lower-cost option is available. (Siddons, 9/4)
Vice News: Meet The Middlemen Who Play A Big Role In High Drug Prices
Shareholders voted in August to approve health insurer Cigna’s $67 billion acquisition of Express Scripts, the country’s largest pharmacy benefit manager. The deal still needs the go-ahead from government antitrust regulators. But what does Express Scripts do, what even is a pharmacy benefits manager ... and why should you care? (McKinley, 9/1)
Stat: Agios Pharma Names A New CEO, One With Commercial Chops In Biotech
Jacqualyn “Jackie” Fouse was one of the top executives at Celgene, beloved by Wall Street and credited with helping to oversee a period of strong revenue growth and stock performance for the biotech company. Then, last year, she “retired,” after reportedly being passed over for the top job. Now Fouse has a shot to run her own show. On Tuesday, Cambridge-based Agios Pharmaceuticals said it had hired Fouse, already a board member, as its chief executive, effective Feb. 1. Current Agios CEO David Schenkein is retiring up to become the biotech’s executive chairman. (Feuerstein, 9/4)
Stat: The New Chilean Health Minister Endorses Compulsory Licenses For Hepatitis C Drugs
In a setback to the pharmaceutical industry, the health minister in the new Chilean government has endorsed the idea of allowing the government to grant compulsory licenses for hepatitis C treatments, despite a vigorous campaign by drug makers to abandon the notion. (Silverman, 8/30)
Bloomberg: Novartis Targets Production Streamlining As U.S. Prices Decline
Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG wants to increase its operating margins by making production and other processes more efficient as it positions for possible further declines in U.S. drug prices, its chairman said in an interview. Joerg Reinhardt told the newspaper NZZ am Sonntag that his company is taking steps to increase its operating profit margin towards 35 percent in no more than five years, from 32 percent, and is closely watching developments in the U.S. (Bosley, 9/1)
Stat: After Price Drop, Novartis Wins U.K. Coverage For Its CAR-T Drug
In a boost to Novartis (NVS), the National Health Service in England has agreed to provide some coverage for its CAR-T gene therapy for combating leukemia in children and young people, a move that may give the drug maker an edge in a closely watched showdown with Gilead Sciences (GILD). (Silverman, 9/4)
Bloomberg: Wall Street Expats Angle For Piece Of China’s Biotech Drug Boom
A growing herd of former Wall Street bankers and drug industry veterans from the West are rushing to cash in on China’s embrace of biotechnology. For years, China has been seen as a backwater in the pharmaceutical business. Despite its vast potential market, cumbersome regulations kept brand-name treatments from reaching patients for years after they became available elsewhere. Facing a bureaucratic gauntlet, many drugmakers either waited or didn’t bother to seek approval for blockbuster therapies in China at all. (Spalding, 8/29)
Reuters: Gene Therapy Breakthrough Wins World's Largest Vision Award
Seven scientists in the United States and Britain who have come up with a revolutionary gene therapy cure for a rare genetic form of childhood blindness won a 1 million euro ($1.15 million)prize on Tuesday, Portugal's Champalimaud Foundation said. Established in 2006, the annual award for work related to vision is one of the world's largest science prizes, more than the latest 9 million Swedish crown Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. (Khalip, 9/4)
