Author: Peter

Posaconazole, an antifungal medication, is priced at $4,500 for a 30-day supply—while an alternative, fluconazole, costs less than $14...This is an example of a growing trend: medications, including many generics, with "hyperinflated" prices, experts at CVS Caremark say. The pharmacy benefit manager giant culled 72 such drugs from its formulary in 2020 alone, leading to savings of $1.2 billion compared to 2018...CVS first launched a program to address hyperinflated drugs in 2017, and it pulls drugs from its formulary when they have a far cheaper equivalent or if the price doesn't match up with quality metrics...READ MORE

On December 30, 2020, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an advisory opinion on the 340B Program...This program limits the prices drug manufacturers can charge for therapies sold to specific healthcare facilities, including public hospitals and community health centers. The opinion was designed to address whether drugmakers could refuse to sell drugs to those pharmacies at the “ceiling price.”...AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi turned around and sued HHS over the issue...HHS responded saying it “never intended to do what plaintiffs in those suits allege: to create new, binding obligations on plaintiffs or to serve as the predicate for enforcement against those plaintiffs.”...READ MORE

Heavy metal band Twisted Sister urged '80s teens to stand up and say, “We’re not gonna take it.” Now, founding band member Jay Jay French is teaming up with Bayer to convince the now grown-up teens to take the same stance against prostate cancer…French, a guitarist who also managed Twisted Sister, knows from personal experience why it’s important. His father died from prostate cancer, and French himself was diagnosed in 2018… French and Bayer, along with prostate cancer patient organization Zero – the End of Prostate Cancer, are working together on the social media and digital We’re Not Gonna Take It campaign…READ MORE

Discounted purchases under the program reached at least $38 billion in 2020. That figure is an astonishing 27% higher than its 2019 counterpart—and more than quadruple the value of discounted purchases in 2014…The 340B program’s size now exceeds the Medicaid program’s outpatient drug sales—and accounts for nearly 20% of the total rebates and discounts that manufacturers provide for brand-name drugs. Alas, many elements of the 340B program—including its controversial contract pharmacy component—lack a comprehensive regulatory infrastructure…READ MORE

Use of the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin could reduce COVID-19-related deaths, data from a peer-reviewed study shows...The study, published last week in the American Journal of Therapeutics, analyzed data from multiple clinical studies assessing ivermectin as a potential treatment for COVID-19. Ivermectin, which is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for intestinal strongyloidiasis and onchocerciasis...The latest assessment of those multiple studies seems to confirm the potential of ivermectin against COVID-19. However, the FDA currently maintains a web page warning against the unauthorized use of ivermectin to treat the virus...The FDA notes that clinical studies are underway assessing ivermectin against COVID-19, but until those are reviewed and confirmed, it will warn against taking unauthorized medication...READ MORE

A senior manager in operations at Johnson & Johnson. A sales specialist at McKesson. A manager for international tax planning at Cardinal Health...What do these recent postings for remote jobs have in common?...All specify that those who live in Colorado need not apply...The issue, it seems, is Colorado’s Equal Pay for Equal Work Act, which requires companies to disclose the pay range for job openings. The goal of the new law, which went into effect on Jan. 1, is to narrow gender wage disparities by in part forcing salary transparency. Instead, companies that prefer not to disclose pay are barring remote workers from the state...READ MORE

Many of the underlying causes of vaccine-related errors are ongoing issues, so health care providers who plan to stock and/or administer COVID-19 vaccines should anticipate the types of errors that can and do happen and take the necessary steps to prepare and mitigate the risk for COVID-19 vaccine–related errors…A recent analysis of more than 160 COVID-19–related event reports submitted to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices National Vaccine Errors Reporting Program from December 14, 2020, through April 17, 2021, underscores that more needs to be done to reduce the risk for vaccination errors because they can lead to inadequate immunity, increased cost, and reduced confidence in the health care delivery system…READ MORE

1. Shoulder injury related to vaccine administration.
2. Not checking/documenting administration in the immunization information system.
3. Wrong diluent.
4. Wrong diluent volume.
5. Errors related to vaccine storage.
7. Administration of air in empty vaccine syringe.
8. Wrong dose.
9. Age-related events.
10. Vaccine competency.

South Africa's president said...the "selfish, unjust" refusal of pharmaceutical companies and allied Western governments to entertain emergency patent waivers on COVID-19 vaccines was endangering the entire world...In unusually impassioned remarks, Cyril Ramaphosa lambasted a resistance to calls by India and South Africa for temporary patent waivers to ramp up production...The proposed waiver from the WTO's agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights has support in principle from U.S. President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron...But the pharmaceutical industry is against the waiver, as are Germany, Switzerland and the World Bank. They argue it would stifle innovation and that vaccine supplies are constrained by a lack of manufacturing capacity...READ MORE

The FDA’s fallout from its controversial approval of Biogen’s Alzheimer’s drug Aduhelm is rolling on with one pivotal Democratic lawmaker calling on the administration to dethrone the agency’s top decision-maker...Sen. Joe Manchin called on President Joe Biden in a letter...to oust the FDA’s interim commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock...The moderate Democrat took aim at the FDA’s decision last week to approve Biogen’s Aduhelm, also known as aducanumab, for Alzheimer’s patients despite intense controversy over whether the treatment actually helps with cognitive decline...READ MORE

The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine takes another hit to its safety profile as the European Medicines Agency adds a new side effect to the label of its shot…The EMA identified a rare blood condition, capillary leak syndrome, as a potential side effect of AstraZeneca’s Vaxzevria. The condition causes plasma leaks from blood vessels into neighboring body cavities and muscles. Blood pressure experiences a sharp drop as a result, and, left untreated, the disorder can lead to organ failure and death…READ MORE