Author: Peter

As global demand intensifies for an old malaria drug that some believe can combat Covid-19, a distributor that supplies the key active pharmaceutical ingredient to compound pharmacies in the U.S. has raised prices by huge amounts over the past week...Spectrum Chemical boosted the wholesale price for a 100-gram container of hydroxychloroquine sulfate by about 350%, to approximately $1,160, while a 1,000-gram container jumped 230% to $5,932. And the price for a 5,000 gram container roughly tripled to almost $30,000...Spectrum explained the sudden clamor for the drug has made it more difficult to obtain the active ingredient, sometimes causing its own suppliers to ship partially filled orders or cancel them outright...READ MORE

Pfizer, AbbVie, Novartis and other pharma companies are pledging millions in COVID-19 relief funds to help healthcare workers, patients and communities...Pfizer announced $40 million in both cash and grants for medical and community needs in the U.S. and around the world. In the U.S., emergency relief funds will go to government public health organizations and nonprofit community health organizations, while grants will be awarded to community health clinics for immediate and long-term needs of healthcare workers involved the COVID-19 response. Pfizer, along with Eli Lilly and Merck, previously announced a program to allow employees with medical and lab expertise to volunteer with local healthcare systems...AbbVie pledged $35 million in a COVID-19 relief package—its largest disaster donation to date—and encouraged other companies follow suit...READ MORE

Mylan is one of a group of drugmakers that have joined the global effort to supply doses of generic hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial touted as a possible COVID-19 therapy, to ongoing clinical trials. Now, after ramping up production, Mylan is ready to dole out its stockpile faster than expected...After announcing last month it would restart production of hydroxychloroquine to meet global demand, Mylan plans to donate millions of doses of the drug "ahead of schedule,"...Mylan will give away 10 million hydroxychloroquine tablets to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to supplement investigational trials for COVID-19 and bolster the FDA's emergency use program...READ MORE

Nevada’s northern and southern labs are out of coronavirus testing swabs, but officials expect to get more kits this week, including rapid-result test kits, Gov. Steve Sisolak said Monday...At a coronavirus briefing, Sisolak said the state has received 4,000 test swabs from the federal government and 3,000 reagent liquid kits that are used to test the samples...Sisolak said that while federal officials provided test components, “we did not get complete kits.”...State health workers continue to struggle to find enough kits to fill growing patient demands, and some clinics have shut down temporarily in Las Vegas as they wait for new supplies...READ MORE

This week, the top managed care news includes a report on how CDC lacks data to tell the full story on disparities in the COVID-19 pandemic, Medicare Advantage gets a pay bump amid COVID-19 rule changes, and the nation’s top infectious disease expert speaks with the editor-in-chief of JAMA.

A federal judge increased to $1.2 billion the damages that Gilead Sciences Inc must pay to Bristol-Myers Squibb Co in a patent infringement case regarding technology for treating cancer...The judgment was entered against Gilead’s Kite Pharma unit on its “counterclaims of non-infringement and invalidity”, according to a ruling by U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez...The new total of $1.2 billion includes $778 million awarded by a federal jury in December plus enhanced damages of $389 million and a pre-judgment interest on the jury’s verdict in the amount of $32.8 million, the judge said in his ruling...The patent at issue in the lawsuit, which Juno (subsidiary of BMS) licenses from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center...relates to CAR T-cell immunotherapy for cancer...READ MORE

Hospitals in Nevada are still not near their maximum capacity as the number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus grow, though Southern Nevada hospitals appear to be experiencing the most strain so far, according to a Nevada Hospital Association report shared with government officials...The data...shows that Southern Nevada hospitals have a higher percentage of occupied beds, occupied ICU beds and ventilators in use than their counterparts in northern and rural Nevada. In Southern Nevada, 65 percent of hospital beds are occupied, 79 percent of ICU beds are occupied and 56 percent of ventilators are in use, compared to 57 percent occupied beds, 43 percent occupied ICU beds and 30 percent of ventilators in use in Washoe County...READ MORE

The continued prosperity of a biopharma company is dependent on its ability to keep churning out breakthrough new drugs and turning them into commercial successes backed by a growing body of clinical evidence. Which shops are doing best on those terms?...IDEA Pharma has ranked AstraZeneca at the top of the pharma invention scale—awarding it "best pipeline" honors—and crowned Roche king in the land of innovation...READ MORE

A coalition of national and local pharmacy organizations is praising the Department of Health and Human Services’ decision to allow licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 tests during the new coronavirus disease pandemic...“The accessibility and distribution of retail and independent community-based pharmacies make pharmacists the first point of contact with a healthcare professional for many Americans,” said HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Brett P. Giroir, MD...“This will further expand testing for Americans, particularly our healthcare workers and first responders who are working around the clock to provide care, compassion and safety to others.”...READ MORE

The federal government is sending $64 billion to hospitals, post-acute facilities and other medical providers to help cope with the coronavirus fallout...Even though more funding is coming, safety net and rural hospitals fear they are getting a raw deal from the way some of the money is being distributed...Hospitals and other providers requested funding to offset higher labor and supply costs as well as lost revenue from elective surgeries and procedures that had to be halted. Those federal funds, part of the most recent stimulus package, are now flowing..."Rural hospitals are going to close this year," Alan Morgan, CEO of the National Rural Health Association, said of the initial funding distribution. "There will be a lot of blame to go around."...READ MORE