Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Why One Pharma Company Set The Cost Of Its Cancer Drug At About Half The List Price Of Its Competitors
Stat: Is Roche Starting A Price War In Cancer? Maybe Not
On Thursday night, Roche (RHHBY) announced that it would price Rozlytrek, its newly approved pill to treat cancer related to specific, rare genetic alterations, at $17,050 a month, about half the cost of a competing drug, Vitrakvi, sold by Eli Lilly and Bayer (BAYRY). Umer Raffat, an analyst at ISI Evercore, sent a note to clients asking if this is a “pricing war in cancer.” He noted that there are safety and efficacy differences between the drugs. “But with all the caveats, this will be a very interesting competitive dynamic to track in coming weeks,” he wrote. (Herper, 8/16)
In other pharmaceutical news —
The Wall Street Journal: Novartis CEO Battles Fallout From Data Manipulation
Novartis AG Chief Executive Vas Narasimhan has spent part of his 18 months at the helm of the drug giant cleaning up issues that emerged before his watch. Now, he is facing a storm of his own making. Dr. Narasimhan said on a call with analysts earlier this month that the company kept a data-manipulation issue under wraps while the Food and Drug Administration completed its review of Novartis’s Zolgensma, the world’s most expensive drug. The Swiss company has said it wanted to finish its own review before alerting the FDA, which it eventually did. (Roland and Burton, 8/18)
