Latest News On Prescription Drugs

Latest KFF Health News Stories

A Move to Cut Drug Prices Has Patients With Rare Diseases Worried

KFF Health News Original

A Colorado board has named five drugs it will review for affordability and potential cost caps. But patients with cystic fibrosis worry they will lose access to a life-changing therapy.

5 Things to Know About the New Drug Pricing Negotiations

KFF Health News Original

The Biden administration unveiled the first 10 drugs subject to price negotiations, taking a swipe at the pharmaceutical industry. But what does it mean for patients?

Estrategias comerciales de las grandes farmacéuticas dejan a estadounidenses sin poder comprar sus medicamentos

KFF Health News Original

Sin barreras, los precios de algunos medicamentos existentes se han disparado, incluso cuando han caído drásticamente en otros países. Los nuevos medicamentos tienen precios enormes, respaldados por el lobby y el marketing.

A Peek at Big Pharma’s Playbook That Leaves Many Americans Unable to Afford Their Drugs

KFF Health News Original

Brand-name drug prices in the U.S. — more than three times the price in other developed countries — are related neither to the amount of research and development required to bring them to market nor their therapeutic value, recent research shows. Have drugmakers overplayed their hand?

Survey: Americans Want Weight Loss Drugs Despite High Cost

KFF Health News Original

A new poll reveals enthusiasm for a pricey new generation of weight loss drugs, but interest drops if users potentially have to deal with weekly injections, lack of insurance coverage, or a need to continue the medications indefinitely to avoid regaining weight.

What the Health? From KFF Health News: Another Try for Mental Health ‘Parity’

Podcast

President Joe Biden is kicking off his reelection campaign in part by trying to finish a decades-long effort to establish parity in insurance benefits between mental and physical health. Meanwhile, House Republicans are working to add abortion and other contentious amendments to must-pass spending bills. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Céline Gounder about her podcast “Epidemic.” The new season focuses on the successful public health effort to eradicate smallpox.

An Arm and a Leg: Wait, What’s a PBM?

Podcast

Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are companies that negotiate the prices of prescription drugs. Hear about their role in raising drug prices and the ongoing efforts to regulate this complex industry.

Patients Squeezed in Fight Over Who Gets to Bill for Pricey Infusion Drugs

KFF Health News Original

To drive down costs, insurers are bypassing hospital system pharmacies and delivering high-priced infusion drugs, including some used in chemotherapy, via third-party pharmacies. Smarting from losing out on billing for those drugs, hospitals and clinics are trying to convince states to limit this practice, known as “white bagging.”

Need to Get Plan B or an HIV Test Online? Facebook May Know About It

KFF Health News Original

Twelve of the largest drugstores in the U.S. sent shoppers’ sensitive health information to Facebook or other platforms, according to an investigation by The Markup and KFF Health News.

Farmacéuticas abandonan los genéricos baratos y ahora los pacientes de cáncer en EE.UU. no pueden conseguir medicamentos

KFF Health News Original

El cisplatino y el carboplatino son algunos de los medicamentos que escasean, así como otros 12 contra el cáncer, pastillas para el trastorno por déficit de atención con hiperactividad, anticoagulantes y antibióticos.

Drugmakers Are Abandoning Cheap Generics, and Now US Cancer Patients Can’t Get Meds

KFF Health News Original

A quality-control crisis at an Indian pharmaceutical factory has left doctors and their patients with impossible choices as cheap, effective, generic cancer drugs go out of stock.

What the Health? From KFF Health News: When an Anti-Vaccine Activist Runs for President

Podcast

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s official entry into the presidential race poses a thorny challenge for journalists: how to cover a candidate who’s opposed to vaccines without amplifying misinformation. And South Carolina becomes the latest state in the South to ban abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani about her project to track the billions of dollars coming from opioid makers to settle lawsuits.

This Panel Will Decide Whose Medicine to Make Affordable. Its Choice Will Be Tricky.

KFF Health News Original

Colorado’s new Prescription Drug Affordability Board could cap what health plans and consumers pay for certain medications starting next year. The process will pit patient groups against one another.

A More Aggressive FTC Is Starting to Target Drug Mergers and Industry Middlemen

KFF Health News Original

Industry analysts are skeptical that Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan can win her first fight against a drug industry merger. It will be reviewed by a judge appointed by then-President Donald Trump.

Una FTC más agresiva persigue las fusiones en la industria farmacéutica y a los intermediarios del sector

KFF Health News Original

La Comisión Federal de Comercio está actuando contra las empresas farmacéuticas y los intermediarios del sector, como parte de la campaña de la administración Biden para reducir los precios de los medicamentos en las farmacias.

Are US Prescription Drug Prices 10 Times Those of Other Nations? Only Sometimes

KFF Health News Original

Sen. Bernie Sanders’ broad statement that some U.S. drug prices are 10 times those of other nations doesn’t paint the full picture. Studies we examined generally found that U.S. prices were two to four times those in other countries, not 10.

California Confronts Overdose Epidemic Among Former Prison Inmates

KFF Health News Original

Individuals newly released from prison are 40 times as likely to die of opioid overdoses than members of the general population, researchers say. In response, California corrections officials aim to arm departing inmates with an antidote that can be used to reverse the effects of opioid poisoning.