Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
The Big Drug Pricing Issues To Watch In 2020: Hep C Treatment Costs, A PBM Crackdown, And Insulin Affordability
Stat: 3 Drug Pricing Policy Experiments To Watch In 2020
Politicians spent the better part of 2019 bickering over the best way to lower drug prices. But in the meantime, states, advocates — even the drug and insurance industries — were devising novel strategies for solving this perplexing challenge. 2020 will be the year many of those experimental ideas are tested. If they pan out, they’ll undoubtedly be models for other states or companies — and perhaps serve as inspiration for Washington, too. Below, STAT looks at three of the most interesting ideas. (Florko, 1/2)
The New York Times: Crisis Looms In Antibiotics As Drug Makers Go Bankrupt
At a time when germs are growing more resistant to common antibiotics, many companies that are developing new versions of the drugs are hemorrhaging money and going out of business, gravely undermining efforts to contain the spread of deadly, drug-resistant bacteria. Antibiotic start-ups like Achaogen and Aradigm have gone belly up in recent months, pharmaceutical behemoths like Novartis and Allergan have abandoned the sector and many of the remaining American antibiotic companies are teetering toward insolvency. One of the biggest developers of antibiotics, Melinta Therapeutics, recently warned regulators it was running out of cash. (Jacobs, 12/25)
Reuters: Drugmakers From Pfizer To GSK To Hike U.S. Prices On Over 200 Drugs
Drugmakers including Pfizer Inc, GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Sanofi SA are planning to hike U.S. list prices on more than 200 drugs in the United States on Wednesday, according to drugmakers and data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. Nearly all of the price increases will be below 10%, and around half of them are in the range of 4 to 6%, said 3 Axis co-founder Eric Pachman. The median price increase is around 5%, he said. (Erman and O'Donnell, 12/31)
NPR: A Decade Marked By Outrage Over Drug Prices
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., was in the middle of describing drug price gouging as a scheme to enrich a few industry executives at the expense of everyday patients when he stopped to reprimand a witness. "It's not funny, Mr. Shkreli," said Cummings, the top Democrat on the House Committee on Oversight and Reform until his death this past October, to a smirking man at the table before him. "People are dying. And they're getting sicker and sicker." (Lupkin, 12/31)
Boston Globe: An Uncommon Form Of Dementia Hits At A Younger Age; Drug Makers Are Searching For A Treatment
Frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, is an umbrella term for group of rare degenerative brain disorders that attack people in their fifth or sixth decade — generally, much earlier than Alzheimer’s. Together, the diseases make up what appear to be the most prevalent form of dementia in people under age 60. ... There are no treatments for FTD. But at least two drug companies in Massachusetts, Alkermes and Arkuda Therapeutics, are working on potential medicines for the Larsens’ strain, which experts say affects only about 5,000 people in the United States. (Saltzman, 1/1)
Stat: STAT’s Guide To The Most Important, Beneficial Drugs Approved In The Past Decade
The new year will end in a zero, making this a perfect opportunity to look back at the past 10 years of drug approvals. Complaints abound that the drug industry lacks innovation. A quick perusal of the new drugs approved over the last decade shows that isn’t so. We dug through every drug that passed muster with the Food and Drug Administration starting in 2010 and identified ten — along with a dozen honorable mentions — that have had the biggest impact on the companies that sell them, on medicine, and on society as a whole. (Feuerstein and Herper, 12/31)
Stat: Crash And Burn: The Four Biggest Biopharma Failures Of 2019
In biotech, companies fail for a lot of reasons. The science might not quite work, the drug might be too difficult to sell or investors might run out of patience — or questionable practices might wind up undermining the whole endeavor. For some companies, 2019 was the end of the line. STAT took a look back at some of the most significant biopharma blowups of the year — and the consequences they had for patients, investors and employees. (Sheridan, 12/27)
The Baltimore Sun: Maryland Prescription Drug Board Sets First Meeting
A prescription drug affordability board in Maryland that is the first of its kind in the nation has scheduled its first meeting. All five members have been appointed, and the first meeting is scheduled for Jan. 13 in Annapolis. ...Lawmakers approved legislation in 2019 to create the independent body, which will evaluate and investigate the cost of particularly expensive prescription drugs or ones whose prices abruptly increase. If the board determines a medication presents an affordability challenge for Maryland residents, the board can set an upper payment limit that state or local government health care plans would agree to pay for the drug. (1/1)
