Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Senators Demand Drugmakers Account For Skyrocketing Price Of Life-Saving Overdose Antidote
Bloomberg: Senators Probe Five Drugmakers On Price Of Overdose Antidote
U.S. senators want five drugmakers to account for increases in the price of a drug that’s used to reverse the effects of prescription and illegal opioids, as the number of Americans overdosing on painkillers and heroin has skyrocketed in recent years. (Edney, 6/6)
Stat: Drug Makers Pay $67 Million For Misleading Docs About Cancer Drug Survival Data
Two drug makers — Roche’s Genentech and OSI Pharmaceuticals — announced a deal on Monday to pay $67 million to resolve charges they made misleading statements about the effectiveness of the Tarceva drug to treat non-small cell lung cancer. (Silverman, 6/6)
U.S. News & World Report: How The FDA Drives Up Drug Prices
Recent congressional attempts to speed up the Food and Drug Administration approval process for antibiotics and some medical devices make only a tentative step toward addressing high drug prices. Drug development costs, driven higher by increasingly stringent FDA regulations, reduce competition and ultimately lead to higher prices for consumers. Yet many policy proposals neglect the FDA's role in driving up those prices. Drug development costs have skyrocketed over the last quarter century. Researchers at the Center for the Study of Drug Development estimated the cost of drug development in three studies stretching back to the early 1990s. According to their estimates, in 1991 a pharmaceutical company had to earn $412 million to make new drug development a worthwhile investment. By 2003, this number more than doubled to $1.047 billion. By 2016, the number more than doubled again to $2.558 billion (all numbers are in 2013 dollars). The estimates show that in the last quarter century, the cost of drug development increased more than six times. (Abdukadirov, 6/6)
The Boston Globe: Mass. Is Leader In Efforts To Rein In Soaring Drug Prices
Massachusetts is again a forceful presence at the annual Biotechnology Industry Organization’s convention, underscoring the state’s undisputed status as a hub for drug discovery. But as the gathering opened here this week, the Bay State also emerged as a focal point in the growing backlash against soaring prescription drug prices, which can run tens of thousands of dollars a year for mass market medicines and hundreds of thousands for rare-disease therapies. While the cost-containment campaign is raging nationally, Massachusetts has grabbed the spotlight on several fronts. (6/6)
The Wall Street Journal: Gilead’s New CEO Faces Pressures On Hepatitis C Pills
At a medical meeting last winter, a drug-industry executive flipped his nametag around so he could have more open conversations with the liver-disease scientists who were presenting their research. “They didn’t recognize who I am. No one does,” recalled John Milligan, who a few months later was named chief executive of Gilead Sciences Inc. Dr. Milligan may find it increasingly difficult to stay so anonymous as he settles into the pilot seat at Gilead, a company that has catapulted into one of the industry’s biggest sellers and most controversial drug pricers. (Rockoff, 6/6)
Medscape: Doctors' Prescribing Behavior A Small Part Of Drug Cost Mess
A nationwide experiment to see whether incentives will change physicians' prescribing behavior and reduce drug spending needs more input on study design and possible unintended consequences, says the author of a perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the article, published online June 2, Deborah Schrag, MD, MPH, chief of the Division of Population Sciences in the Department of Medical Oncology with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Massachusetts, outlines concerns regarding the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plan to change the way it reimburses physicians. (Frellick, 6/7)
Stat: Vermont Becomes First State To Require Drug Makers To Justify Price Hikes
Despite opposition from the pharmaceutical industry, Vermont late last week became the first state in the country to require drug makers to justify price hikes for medicines. The law is part of a wave of state legislation that comes in response to growing concern over the rising cost of prescription drugs. Around the country, lawmakers have been introducing bills in hopes of forcing drug makers to either disclose costs or explain pricing. These demands reflect industry arguments that rising prices reflect rising R&D costs. “This bill is about accountability,” Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin said in a statement. (Silverman, 6/6)
CNN Money: India Buyers Club: The New Way For Americans To Buy Cheap Drugs
A growing number of sick Americans are traveling thousands of miles to India. Why? For huge discounts on prescription drugs. Scores of life-saving medicines are sold for much lower prices in India, attracting foreigners who have been denied access to, or can't afford, them at home. (Wu, 6/2)
