Author: Peter

Nevadans will soon be able to save big on prescription drugs after the state joined a coalition that negotiates lower drug costs, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services...Last month, Gov. Steve Sisolak announced that Nevada will join Oregon and Washington in the Northwest Prescription Drug Consortium, a partnership that allows residents to use drug discount cards to purchase prescription drugs at lower costs. The consortium rebranded to ArrayRx in 2021...It is expected that the drug discount card program could cut the cost of generic drugs by 80 percent and by up to 20 percent on name-brand drugs...READ MORE

Pfizer Inc and Bayer said on...they would maintain humanitarian supply of medicines to Russia, but would pull back from other non-essential spending in the country...Global companies have decided to step back from Russia as pressure mounts from consumers in the West to take a stand against its invasion of Ukraine..."Ending delivery of medicines, including cancer or cardiovascular therapies, would cause significant patient suffering and potential loss of life, particularly among children and elderly people," Pfizer said...READ MORE

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has recently released its 2022 data on enrollment in Medicare Part D prescription drug plans. Our exclusive analysis of these numbers finds that for 2022, an astounding 99% of seniors are enrolled in the wonderland of PDPs with preferred pharmacy networks...For the second year, the big supermarket chains—Albertsons, Kroger, and Publix—outpaced the big three drugstore chains and Walmart...
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Last last year, Moderna lost a legal bid to invalidate two Arbutus Biopharma patents tied to the delivery of its COVID-19 vaccine. At the time, it wasn’t so much a question of whether Arbutus would sue the messenger RNA vaccine giant for infringement, but when. Now...Arbutus and Roivant’s Genevant Sciences on Monday filed a lawsuit against Moderna in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware. In their suit, the companies seek damages for infringement on six patents they claim Moderna infringed with the production and sale of its COVID-19 vaccine...The patents relate to nucleic acid-lipid particles and lipid vesicles, plus compositions and methods for their use...READ MORE

...Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., said the company would halt its investments in Russia but still supply needed medicines there. Now, Pfizer is taking its humanitarian commitment a step further by pledging to donate all profits from its Russian subsidiary...Specifically, the Big Pharma will give those profits to "causes that provide direct humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine," the company said in a...statement. The move comes after Bourla recently told CBS News' "Face the Nation" Pfizer would be shutting down new investments in Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine..READ MORE

The Sackler family owners of Purdue Pharma LP reached a deal with a group of attorneys general to pay up to $6 billion in cash to resolve widespread litigation alleging that they fueled the U.S. opioid epidemic, bringing the OxyContin maker closer to exiting bankruptcy...The attorneys general for eight states and the District of Columbia, who had blocked a previous settlement that included a $4.3 billion cash payment, announced the deal after weeks of mediation with the Sacklers...The family agreed to pay at least $5.5 billion in cash, which will be used for abating a crisis that has led to nearly 500,000 U.S. opioid overdose deaths over two decades...READ MORE

As Nevada’s COVID-19 case rates plummet to their lowest levels since last summer, state health officials are turning more attention to therapeutic treatments for those who can’t get vaccinated or are most at risk of severe illness or death...It’s the latest step in the evolution of a nearly two-year effort to combat the virus after the omicron variant pushed caseloads to new highs in January, said Julia Peek, deputy administrator for Nevada’s Division of Public and Behavioral Health. It comes as governments across the country lift restrictions and move away from emergency measures...READ MORE

The House Oversight and Reform Committee...on Monday pressed the departments of Justice and the Treasury to look into the tax deductions of four U.S. drug companies that agreed to a multibillion-dollar settlement last month to end opioid-related lawsuits...In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, the panel said it had found four companies that agreed to the $26 billion settlement — Cardinal Health, McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen, and Johnson & Johnson — are possibly trying to "put taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars in settlement costs."..."We request that you determine whether these tax maneuvers comply with the law, and we urge you to do everything in your power to ensure transparency and accountability for the companies and executives that fueled our country’s deadly opioid crisis," wrote the committee...Read More</strong>