Author: Peter

- Improving regulatory procedures to encourage innovation

- Better integration into the international pharma market...READ MORE

Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Eli Lilly rolled out an $850 million investment plan for the U.S. two years ago, with a chunk of that earmarked for its hometown. But one of those Indianapolis building projects is getting some pushback now, thanks to a local tax break...Despite objections from some local lawmakers, the Indianapolis City-County Council approved a $7 million abatement for Eli Lilly's $91 million expansion project...It was at least the second local tax break Lilly has won in the last few years...Council has approved the statement of benefits from @EliLillyCo, which has applied for tax abatement for real and personal property located in an economic revitalization area...Several Democrats and Republicans voted against the deal...Zach Adamson, a Democrat on the council, said it’s the “second or third” abatement “where the city is not seeing any direct benefit,”...READ MORE

Democratic Assemblywoman Ellen Spiegel presented two bills...that would allow patients to apply cash payments on drugs and the costs of out-of-network emergency bills to their insurance plan deductibles or annual out-of-pocket maximums...The two bills aim to reduce the financial burden of meeting high deductibles and annual out-of-pocket maximums, which have become increasingly common in recent years, by allowing patients to contribute payments made outside the scope of his or her insurance plan to them. But health insurers, at a hearing on the bills during a meeting of the Assembly Commerce and Labor Committee...expressed concerns that the requirements as written could be technically difficult to accomplish and overly burdensome...READ MORE

Oklahoma’s top court...declined to delay a landmark trial set for May in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit accusing OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and two other drugmakers of helping fuel an opioid abuse and overdose epidemic in the state...The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision was a win for the state’s attorney general, whose case is set to be the first to face trial of roughly 2,000 lawsuits nationally seeking to hold opioid manufacturers responsible for contributing to the epidemic...Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter’s 2017 lawsuit accuses Purdue, Johnson & Johnson & Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd of engaging in deceptive marketing that downplayed the risks of addiction associated with opioid pain drugs while overstating their benefits...READ MORE

Select CVS locations in California and seven other states are now selling hemp-derived CBD products...The national drugstore chain will be marketing the topical cannabidiol products as “an alternative source of relief,” CVS said in a statement to NBC News. The chain also will be partnering with another company to test and verify the quality of the CBD topicals sold in 800 drugstores at this point...READ MORE

Comedian and former late night host Jay Leno isn’t laughing about his cholesterol numbers. But he is using humor to get the message across in an awareness campaign with Amgen that focuses on the dangers of high cholesterol...The new campaign, “Cholesterol 911,” looks to sound the alarm with digital and social media creative combining Leno’s love of cars, his personal cholesterol concerns and a dash of humor. The 911 theme is an effort “to bring urgency to this message and help people avoid an emergency situation,”...READ MORE

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Canada will create a national drug agency to help cut the cost of prescription medications as part of a plan to broaden the state-funded healthcare program, the finance ministry said in its budget...Unlike other countries with universal healthcare, Canada does not cover prescription drugs, leaving most Canadians to rely on a mixture of public and private insurance plans...Prescription drug spending in Canada has jumped to C$33.7 billion ($25.3 billion) in 2018 from C$2.6 billion in 1985 and a promise to boost drug coverage is set to be a major plank for the ruling Liberals in an election this October...The new Canada Drug Agency would “take a coordinated approach to assessing effectiveness and negotiating prescription drug prices,” which could help lower the cost of medications by up to C$3 billion a year in the long term...READ MORE