Author: Peter

California lawmakers have fast-tracked legislation to loan out $150 million to hospitals across the state struggling to stay open with promises to provide further support when finalizing the state’s budget next month...The bill, passed Thursday in California’s senate and assembly, AB-112, would establish a Distressed Hospital Loan Program through Jan. 1, 2032. The program would provide interest-free loans to nonprofit and public hospitals “in significant financial distress,” as well as to “governmental entities representing a closed hospital to prevent the closure or facilitate the reopening of a closed hospital.”...If passed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has signaled his support, the bill instructs the state Department of Health Care Services and the state Department of Public Health to develop a methodology for handing out the loans “that shall consider factors” such as whether the hospital is small, rural, a critical access hospital or treating a disproportionate share of Medicaid patients, among other factors. Facilities will be excluded from consideration if they’re part of a system with more than two hospitals, investor-owned hospitals and free-standing inpatient psychiatric hospitals...READ MORE

In my most recent video webinar, I explored how the rapid expansion of patient-paid prescriptions—via cash-pay pharmacies and discount card vendors—is transforming the prescription market...Below, I follow the dollar when a patient uses a discount card to pay for a generic drug prescription...As you’ll see, a discount card can save money for consumers by leveraging several quirks of U.S. retail pharmacy pricing. Such cards also enable novel profit streams for both pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and the card vendors themselves...READ MORE

More than 5,000 employees have been let go from biotech and pharmaceutical companies so far this year...At least five dozen biotechnology companies have laid off employees so far this year in a sector-wide contraction that has reached large and small drugmakers alike...Brought on by enduring funding challenges, the consolidation has resulted in roughly 3,200 biotech employees losing their jobs between Jan. 1 and early April...While the workforce reductions aren’t a new development — more than 100 biotech companies conducted layoffs last year — the pace of announcements has accelerated, suggesting the industry hasn’t recovered from 2022’s market downturn...READ MORE

...the Domestic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Caucus for the 118th Congress...will focus on domestic production of finished drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients...Members of the caucus said they will look to advance legislation that incentivizes more domestic production for essential medicines as part of an effort to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign countries. The lawmakers also aim to head off potential supply chain disruptions and ensure a steady supply of pharmaceuticals in the event of public health emergencies...READ MORE

As a long-awaited advisory committee meeting on Perrigo’s over-the-counter birth control prospect Opill nears, the FDA says many big questions remain. Chief among them: Will people use the drug as intended in the real world?...Ahead of this week’s joint expert panel meeting, the FDA released briefing documents posing two main questions for its expert committees: First, just how likely are consumers to use Opill “in an effective and safe manner,” relying solely on the nonprescription prospect’s label and without help from a healthcare professional?...Second, will consumers who shouldn’t use the product avoid the temptation?...READ MORE

The clock is ticking on the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency and, with it, telehealth flexibilities that enabled doctors to virtually prescribe controlled medications to their patients...Facing major backlash to its proposed rules released in February, the Drug Enforcement Administration is looking to buy some time to reconsider whether it should enforce stricter limits around the prescribing of controlled substances via telehealth...The Biden administration said at the time that the new rule seeks to provide safeguards to prevent online over-prescribing of controlled medications. Teleprescribing has been touted as a robust tool for bringing medications for opioid use disorder to rural areas in the ongoing treatment of the opioid epidemic...READ MORE

The stay suspends an order by a Texas judge that had invalidated the FDA’s approval of mifepristone, keeping it available while a circuit court hears the case...The Supreme Court on Friday allowed the abortion pill mifepristone to remain on the market for the time being, suspending a lower court order that would have curtailed its availability in the U.S....The 7-2 ruling stays a verdict earlier this month by U.S. District Court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk invalidating the Food and Drug Administration’s 2000 approval of mifepristone. Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented...READ MORE

CVS reported first quarter financial results premarket Wednesday fresh off closing some of its biggest acquisitions since its $70 billion megamerger with insurer Aetna in 2018...The retail health giant tied up its $10.6 billion acquisition of value-based medical group Oak Street Health...and completed its $7.8 billion acquisition of home care provider Signify Health in March. The acquisitions are meant to advance CVS’ value-based strategy in primary care and home health...READ MORE

Four people were injured and one woman was killed in a mass shooting Wednesday in a downtown Atlanta medical office waiting room, local law enforcement said...The suspected gunman, a 24-year-old man, entered Midtown medical building and shot the victims around noon, police said. He escaped in a stolen vehicle, kicking off a manhunt before he was taken into custody without incident later that evening, they said...The victim who was killed has been identified as Amy St. Pierre, a 39-year-old who worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a statement from the agency...READ MORE

...the FDA approved the first over-the-counter naloxone product...the U.S.’ drug regulator blessed Emergent’s 4mg Narcan nasal spray with a nonprescription nod, teeing up direct-to-consumer sales at places like drug stores, convenience stores, supermarkets and gas stations...the timeline on which the product will be made available at stores—as well as its price—is up to Emergent...Other formulations and dosages of naloxone will remain prescription only, though there are access laws that technically permit pharmacies across all 50 states to dispense the emergency drug without a doctor’s note...READ MORE