"Walmart (WMT.N) is asking some of its 16,000 pharmacists across the U.S. to voluntarily take pay cuts by reducing their working hours in a bid to lower costs, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The cuts...highlight the new pressures at Walmart pharmacies, where shoppers are lining up to buy weight-loss drugs that drag on profits, despite their high price."

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/walmart-cuts-pharmacist-pay-hours-while-workload-piles-up-2023-08-29/

#healthcare #labor #pharmacists #drugcosts

"The Biden administration this week is expected to announce the first 10 prescription drugs the federal government will negotiate under a new federal law that aims to reduce the cost of Medicare's most expensive medicines.

For the first time, the federal government is allowed to negotiate drug prices for older Americans because of the Inflation Reduction Act..."

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2023/08/27/biden-administration-to-negotiate-costs-on-medicares-priciest-drugs/70669256007/

#healthcare #drugcosts #prescriptiondrugs

"As KFF’s analysis found, a one-month supply of Ozempic — which is indicated for diabetes but is sometimes prescribed for weight loss off-label — has a list price of $936 in the U.S. Among the nine other countries that KFF looked at, none paid more than $200 for a month’s supply of the same drug."

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/4157724-the-us-pays-more-for-newer-weight-loss-drugs-than-its-peers-report/

#healthcare #drugcosts #prescriptiondrugs

"Pharmaceutical manufacturers say high U.S. prices support research and development and point out that Americans tend to get new treatments first. But recent research has shown that the price of a drug is related neither to the amount of research and development required to bring it to market nor its therapeutic value."

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/column-big-pharma-drug-price-regulation-tactics-medicare-negotiations/

#drugcosts #heathcare #prescriptiondrugs

"Some private insurers are balking at paying for the first drug fully approved to slow mental decline in Alzheimer’s patients.

Insurers selling coverage in North Carolina, Pennsylvania and New York, among other states, told The Associated Press they won’t cover Leqembi with insurance offered on the individual market and through employers because they still see the $26,000-a-year drug as experimental."

https://apnews.com/article/leqembi-insurance-coverage-alzheimer-ec7fcdf99ceaaa60ad1cee737c0b7ecb

#healthcare #drugcosts #insurance #dementia

"Bertagnolli’s candidacy is stalled indefinitely, caught up in a standoff between the administration and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) over Biden’s drug pricing agenda.

A second senator, Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), has made her own demands, pressuring Bertagnolli to sign expanded ethics agreements that include swearing off working for or on behalf of major drug companies for four years after leaving NIH."

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/07/11/sanders-biden-nih-nominee-00105738

#USpol #NIH #drugcosts #ethics

"In recent months ominous ads about prescription drugs have flooded the TV airwaves. Perhaps by design, it’s not always clear who’s sponsoring the ads or why...House and Senate members from both parties have launched at least nine bills, parts of which may be packaged together this fall, that take aim at pharmacy benefit managers, companies that channel prescription drugs to patients. Here’s a primer to help you decipher what’s happening."

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/drug-price-ads-pbm-pharma-insurance/

#USpol #healthcare #drugcosts

“There is nothing restricting manufacturers from charging as high a price as the market will bear,” said Benjamin Rome @harvardmed . “And as a result, the manufacturers can continue to charge higher prices, as long as you have new products.”

Excellent piece by @Loftus @WSJ #medicine #DrugCosts #pharmaceutical #medtwitter

After gouging diabetes’ customers for years & forcing some to ration their use of #insulin , Eli Lilly is slashing prices.

Facing competition from outside the industry, the company “sees the writing on the wall,” says Larry Levitt, exec VP for health policy at KFF 👏👏👏

#medicine #medtwitter #prescriptionmeds #DrugCosts
https://nbcnews.to/3ZweSbK

Amidst hype and misinformation about new #Obesity meds, there's not enough attention to #DrugCosts and #insurance coverage. Kudos to Karen Weintraub for serving up a strong dose of of solid reporting in @USATODAY.
https://conscienhealth.org/2023/02/real-conversations-about-obesity-med-costs/

@wigwam The US Pharmacy Industry and medical industry in general has the American people by the short hairs. #pharmacy #drugcosts