Author: Peter

Insurers are worried a raft of proposed changes to the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program could lead to drug manufacturers gaming the system to charge higher prices...Several insurer groups commented on the proposed rule that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released last month to get states and drugmakers to create more value-based payment arrangements...If finalized, the rule would relax some of the requirements for the average manufacturer price and best price that manufacturers must provide for Medicaid. Under the new rule, a manufacturer could report multiple best prices for a therapy under the Medicaid Drug Rebate Program, but any best price has to be tied to a value-based purchasing agreement...READ MORE

The Patient Protection Commission plans to explore the issue of health care pricing transparency...specifically some sort of a proposal that would enhance “patient health care experience and state outcomes by implementing transparency measures that help understand data trends.” ...the commission’s work plan ...includes three potential suggestions ...required reporting of all medical claims, drug costs and hospital prices to the state; a database that makes that information accessible and digitally searchable; and a provision requiring hospital data to display the finer points of how their charges are negotiated...READ MORE

AbbVie grew Humira into the world’s bestselling medicine in part through price hikes and an aggressive patenting strategy to defend against competition. The company is now deploying similar tactics to bolster Imbruvica, a cancer drug with numerous uses and big sales, experts concluded in a new report...AbbVie has filed for 165 patents on Imbruvica, and officials have granted 88 of them, the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge reports. The company’s add-on patents have earned AbbVie another nine years of patent protections for a total of 29 years of commercial exclusivity...READ MORE

A divided federal appeals court...upheld the Trump administration’s expansion of cheaper short-term health insurance plans, derided by critics as “junk insurance,” as an alternative to the Affordable Care Act’s costlier comprehensive insurance...The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said in a 2-1 decision that the administration had the legal authority to increase the duration of the health plans from three to 12 months, with the option of renewing them for 36 months. The plans do not have to cover people with preexisting conditions or provide basic benefits like prescription drugs...READ MORE

Las Vegas-area hospitals are adding beds and staff to accommodate an increasing number of COVID-19 patients...Hospital occupancy was not high enough to require activation a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan developed in April to use the Las Vegas Convention Center for up to 900 patients...Acute-care hospitals in Clark County added 441 staffed beds...according to data from the Nevada Hospital Association. Another 49 were added in other parts of the state...Dan McBride, chief medical officer for the Valley Health System, said medical facilities in the region are not in danger of being overrun...READ MORE

Drug pricing legislation hasn’t gained any steam in Congress lately, but legislatures in dozens of states are chugging ahead...States nationwide are advancing bills focused on numerous topics, a new analysis from Deloitte found. Legislation to regulate pharmacy benefit managers is the most common... while many states have passed—or are considering—measures such as transparency requirements for price increases, importation, value-based contracting and more...Overall, Deloitte found that state legislation targeting drug price transparency and PBMs—not importation or other measures—is affecting companies the most right now...READ MORE

Only days after three governments said Russian hackers were targeting groups conducting COVID-19 vaccine research, the U.S. has indicted two Chinese nationals for hacking hundreds of companies, governments and other organizations in the U.S. and beyond, including those working to combat the pandemic...A grand jury in Washington state returned an 11-count indictment against Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi for a 10-year “hacking campaign” targeting high-tech industries in the U.S. and several other countries. Recently, the hackers shifted their focus to companies researching COVID-19 vaccines, drugs and tests, according to authorities...READ MORE

The Nevada Legislature approved immense cuts to the state’s health and education budgets on Sunday in an effort to rebalance the state budget amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and plummeting revenue projections...The revised budget passed through both the state Senate and Assembly after days and nights of deliberation in the part-time Legislature, which Gov. Steve Sisolak convened for an unscheduled special legislative session on July 8 to address a projected $1.2 billion revenue shortfall...The...plan cuts more than $500 million from the state budget, with the largest reductions hitting the Department of Health and Human Services and the K-12 education system. It cuts Medicaid reimbursement rates and specialty care programs and funding allocated to the state’s most underperforming schools...The state will use a combination of reserve funds and federal relief dollars to shore up the rest of the shortfall...Sisolak said in a statement he intends to sign the bill...READ MORE

...Western intelligence officials pegged Russian hackers with an attempt to rip off leading research for a COVID-19 vaccine, linking the would-be thieves with the country's intelligence services...Russia itself denies involvement in any of those attacks—and with a new licensing deal for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 shot, the country says it doesn't need the secrets anyway...Russian drugmaker R-Pharm has signed a licensing deal with Britain's AstraZeneca to produce and distribute doses of its University of Oxford-partnered adenovirus-based COVID-19 shot, AZD1222...READ MORE

Industry has welcomed the launch of the Global AMR Action Fund, which aims to bring two to four new antibiotics to patients by 2030 to tackle antimicrobial resistance...More than 20 biopharmaceutical companies are involved in the fund and have raised US$1 billion so far in new funding to support the clinical research of innovative new antibiotics to address the most resistant bacteria and life-threatening infections. The fund is an initiative of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations...“Unlike COVID-19, AMR is a predictable and preventable crisis. We must act together to rebuild the pipeline and ensure that the most promising and innovative antibiotics make it from the lab to patients,” said Thomas Cueni, director general of IFPMA...READ MORE