"Gilead had devised a plan to delay the new drug’s release to maximize profits, even though executives had reason to believe it might turn out to be safer for patients, according to a trove of internal documents made public in litigation against the company.

Gilead, one of the world’s largest drugmakers, appeared to be embracing a well-worn industry tactic: gaming the U.S. patent system to protect lucrative monopolies on best-selling drugs."

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/22/business/gilead-hiv-drug-tenofovir.html

#drugs #PhRMA #greed

"Seven months later, doctors and their patients are facing the unimaginable: In California, Virginia, and everywhere in between, they are being forced into grim contemplation of untested rationing plans for breast, cervical, bladder, ovarian, lung, testicular, and other cancers. Their decisions are likely to result in preventable deaths."

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/drugmakers-are-abandoning-cheap-generics-and-now-us-cancer-patients-cant-get-meds/

#healthcare #drugs #PhRMA

"With the future of a commonly used abortion medication on its way to the Supreme Court, the pharmaceutical industry has escalated its warnings: If court orders to limit or undo the Food and Drug Administration's approval of mifepristone are allowed to stand, industry executives and law experts say, the effects could reach far beyond abortion."

I'm not a legal expert, but I don't think a single activist judge should be able to override scientific experts.

https://www.npr.org/2023/04/14/1169598596/pharmaceutical-industry-mifepristone-ruling?_hsmi=254311456&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--zE_f0f2WHlkyrwf1mq5LTKR7eZJorpfhL3gH2ntwA_6dDCE1bJNJ65w3PoFJj817tT0rBD-3FIRssp_03I-Ui6lAfAg

#FDA #PhRMA

"Horizon’s CEO, Tim Walbert, who will reportedly get around $135 million when the deal closes, has mastered a particular kind of industry expertise: taking drugs invented and tested by other people, wrapping them expertly in hard-nosed marketing and warm-hued patient relations, raising their prices, and enjoying astounding revenues."

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/horizon-therapeutics-kyrstexxa-orphan-drug-profits/?_hsmi=254158093&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8ULPrRJWVaeqKSm21yAvG4R1IIWc0wHFNcKNMwtwlSyzyWTLv3aVxZ6B5X5ngZWfmCfzRpJqSk3hovQXc6trMr9ICTEQ

#healthcare #drugs #PhRMA

"It appears to be the first time a court has directly usurped the FDA’s authority to provide the final word on which medicines are safe and effective and, thus, allowed to be sold in the United States. And it could well throw the pharmaceutical industry into turmoil.

If the decision is allowed to stand, it could affect far more than abortion drugs."

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/mifepristone-texas-court-decision-pharma-industry/?_hsmi=253818067&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_edaDp4GTWzg_4YXuqxkP8_X5tMZ0oBI8zgs5LzsJG3p6okfweco8YsqLxa7qwBkcIMHIpLNZQ_RtP7GfGwmlIimWJEA

#healthcare #drugs #doctors #PhRMA

"Pharma did what pharma does."

How the drug industry uses fear of fentanyl to extract more profit from naloxone
https://www.statnews.com/2023/03/28/opioid-overdose-naloxone-industry-profits

#PhRMA #drugs #opioids

"More than a dozen states have passed such “shield” laws that conceal key details about the lethal injection process, including the identities of the execution team or drug suppliers, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit research organization. All 17 states that carried out executions between January 2011 and August 2018 withheld some information about the process."

https://khn.org/news/article/lethal-injection-death-penalty-drugmakers-opposition/?_hsmi=252381573&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_ASI0KivK3lhy0Hiicvy69JDx_T12abwKYL_i-cVEXwCkYESL2VN9OV7ZoE-PRaUGPj2r_J9fZw4GA_3rMdBoQ6gLO4g

#deathpenalty #drugs #PhRMA

"Several new [obesity] medications are potential game changers, but drug companies have priced them beyond the reach of most American families without insurance coverage.

And despite recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics that the drugs be used in some children at risk of serious health problems, many insurers have not signed on, citing their high prices and limited track records."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2023/03/26/ozempic-insurance-coverage-children/?_hsmi=251857876&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9PFDoCcogaGGhG_rXfRl-Us7VrRZxIz9piLeAIckUHato4N1fjVA4vcLuktIC9DVP1cGAlHOEVZfL-oTGGts5Rqitv-Q

#publichealth #obesity #drugs #PhRMA

"...a health plan sponsor excludes certain expensive specialty medicines from coverage and taps an outside vendor to help patients obtain the drugs for free from patient assistance programs run by drugmakers or foundations.

By doing so, plan sponsors — usually employers that fund their own health coverage — no longer have to pay for the medicines. Instead, the pharmaceutical company bears the cost."

https://www.statnews.com/pharmalot/2023/03/22/drugs-employers-jnj-abbvie-charities-foundation-health-insurance-medicine/?_hsmi=251424284&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8UFzSDD63idny4-axl5483Fr6BXMmzss0qD9GFQA5z3JLsN6XmqG69hbZf0LTZfwsC93xRMpnrNEiyFmH3R7gV_fQjhg

#healthcare #PhRMA #drugs

"Sanofi will cap the out-of-pocket cost of its most popular insulin, Lantus, at $35 per month for people with private insurance...[starting] Jan. 1, 2024....Both Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk announced changes to how they price their insulin this month. Together, the three drugmakers make up roughly 90% of the insulin market in the U.S."

So they really could have done this anytime they wanted.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/sanofi-insulin-price-cap-rcna75346?_hsmi=250640889&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8LuQPY-DucBRN4sALiJRukpX2Dbf4jk0X2vmamCn2QgHDsX7HsOWmjkddGRaTABQkg25W7pFeSUNgW1vLTwxQXAF1REg

#healthcare #drugs #PhRMA #insulin

"The cost of expanding U.S. Medicare prescription drug coverage to pay for expensive, new obesity medications could be catastrophic, health economists warned in a report published on Saturday.

Big-selling diabetes drugs have been repurposed as obesity treatments after demonstrating weight loss of more than 20% in clinical trials. While they are far more effective than older drugs, lifetime use might be required to keep lost weight off."

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/economists-warn-costs-if-us-medicare-covers-new-obesity-drugs-2023-03-11/?_hsmi=249959157&_hsenc=p2ANqtz---PGxA3m3QgUseB89yjbdrYJw1hzXDpZzZ6d5Py3zC5mhYVLT9UK6zBfMqNt-FmGsjcD0jEXNCZk1RvPVkyC2uczUO9g

#drugs #PhRMA #Medicare

"Even as Lilly promotes its altruism, this move may actually save it money, said health care analyst Sean Dickson. A federal rule taking effect next year penalizes companies that charge Medicaid high prices, especially for older, branded drugs. Lowering the list price of Humalog would allow Lilly to pay significantly less in rebates to government Medicaid programs that buy the drug."

https://khn.org/news/article/insulin-costs-pharmacy-benefit-managers-drug-manufacturers/?_hsmi=249472902&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9AuF-gwLHRSBvlEWmHCcAbo_NIx3HzSpgZaq_35q5nJaEahFDYlBD3J9Zb3PoL67Lx2xOM5DYzctnxm6726lGERrA0kw

#healthcare #drugs #PhRMA #PBMs

"The U.S. government paid around $10 billion in the early years of the pandemic to develop and purchase Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine...So far, any American who wants the shot has paid nothing out-of-pocket for it — the federal government has footed the bill.

But once...the next version of the vaccine...individual patients will have to pay for the shot if their health insurance doesn't cover it. The proposed price: roughly $130 per dose."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/03/08/1161353892/modernas-covid-vaccine-gambit-hike-the-price-offer-free-doses-for-uninsured?_hsmi=249290594&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9TLyJvkEXYPt-UbRqZC4UW6fHbNiDvi1Srd_-sRcQfpGU8nkqtrOv-8JaNPWvrT-qx5fFJO6kxkx68687knx1LGarq5A

#COVID #immunizations #PhRMA

"No other country comes close to spending as much on insulin as the U.S., according to an analysis by the Rand Corporation. In 2018, the average price of insulin in the U.S. was $100 per vial, five to 10 times more than 33 other countries. Chile, the next biggest spender, paid just $21.48. Many Americans end up paying much less than this, after insurance and other discounts, but prices still remain much higher than elsewhere."

https://www.grid.news/story/science/2023/03/02/how-much-insulin-costs-around-the-world-vs-the-us/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

#healthcare #PhRMA #drugs

How high prescription drug prices hurt independent pharmacies: "Hux is among a group of independent pharmacists who have stopped carrying Ozempic and other drugs in the same class, in part, they say, because of the underpayments by pharmacy benefits managers, who act as middlemen between pharmacists and insurers. These drugs, called GLP-1 agonists, are relatively new and still under patent, meaning there are no generic alternatives."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/asbury-university-revival-potential-measles-exposure-20000-people/?_hsmi=248453029&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_GqHYWgwpllK5my7uQCcNDJkXXFNnggpuAPCW8moTeW7MdH96CFNQ3LKbfuN9SWCSxF8dinwKmbGnWjQs0NkROx56gqg

#healthcare #drugs #PhRMA

“The real benefits of these drug advertisements is getting people to talk about the drugs,” said Adrienne Faerber, an independent researcher and expert in drug market advertising and regulation. “In this process, nobody is learning anything about these drugs and how they work on the body and whether they’re effective and whether they’re of good value for the money.”

https://www.vox.com/23583280/prescription-drug-ads-commercials-ozempic-humira-fda?utm_source=pocket-newtab

#healthcare #PhRMA #drugs

Beginning in 2026, Medicare will begin negotiating the price of 10 drugs that cost the federal government the most money, followed by 15 more drugs in 2027, another 15 drugs in 2028, and another 20 drugs in each subsequent year. This will likely save #Medicare billions.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/medicare-negotiating-drug-prices-will-likely-us-billions-study-says-rcna67820?_hsmi=243729397&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--DLnlvV8BhDaX24leET6gzhPC_eyh87nl5pdE5ki-bevVrqZDsXqOaCMiz8aAU21C6leskCiw4cQMMVMQCCvPdTcDL1g

#healthcare #PhRMA #drugs

AZ wins patent fight with Viatris, gains more exclusivity for blockbuster Symbicort — AbbVie leaves PhRMA, BIO: reports —Astellas’ Phase III gastric cancer therapy trial meets primary endpoint -- See more on our front page news http://bit.ly/w28kSd #astrazeneca #patents #Symbicort #BIO #PhRMA #abbvie #astellas #clinicaltrials #gastriccancer #pharma #pharmanews #biotech #biotechnology #biopharma #cafepharma