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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan to require direct price negotiation between the federal government and the pharmaceutical sector would reduce Medicare drug spending by $369 billion over a decade...drugmakers are likely to push back by raising list prices and reducing research and development spending, which in turn could lead to a reduction in the number of new drugs coming to market...Drugmakers...saying price controls would extend to the private sector and reduce industry revenue by as much as $1 trillion over 10 years...READ MORE

Physician-pharma rep engagement declined significantly over the past year, with fewer in-person meetings responsible for the bulk of the drop...Physicians are seeing fewer pharma sales reps than ever, which likely isn’t a surprise. But what might raise some eyebrows is the fact that digital contact by reps isn’t taking up the slack...Instead, doctors are searching for drug and treatment information online and on their own. Close to half of doctors say they never have a question for a rep that they can’t find the answer to online...READ MORE

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill...that will make HIV-prevention drugs available without a prescription. It allows pharmacists to dispense both PrEP, or preexposure prophylaxis, and PEP, post-exposure prophylaxis...The legislation also prohibits insurance companies from requiring patients to obtain prior authorization before using their benefits to obtaining the medications...The law requires pharmacists to provide instruction on using the prophylaxis, as well as its possible side effects...READ MORE

When generic challengers come for a branded med’s patent, drugmakers have in the past chosen to pony up and stall their rivals with an anticompetitive pact better known as “pay for delay.” In an effort to keep drug prices down, California is looking to end the practice...a new bill...will make California the first state to ban pay-for-delay deals in pharma...AB 824, will make it unlawful for companies to exchange anything of value in return for a halt to patent challenges from generic drugmakers. That new measure could open the door to a range of civil suits against companies seeking to keep generic competitors off the market...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

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

As Purdue restructures its business in hopes of signing a multibillion-dollar opioid settlement...Thousands of local and state plaintiffs are fighting Purdue’s attempt to halt litigation as it undergoes a court-supervised restructuring...As part of that deal...the Sacklers agreed to pay $3 billion of their own money while Purdue will reorganize as a public benefit trust...While the Sacklers’ rumored haul from Purdue and its bestselling opioid OxyContin over the years has varied...a restructuring consultant for Purdue, said the family transferred between $12 billion and $13 billion from the company...READ MORE

Facing a raft of talcum powder lawsuits nationwide, Johnson & Johnson has already been on the wrong side of big penalties in New Jersey and California. Two weeks after losing a case in the latter, J&J can take solace in notching another defense win...A Torrance, California, jury returned a defense verdict to J&J...in a lawsuit alleging the drugmaker’s talc products caused 60-year-old schoolteacher Carolyn Weirick to develop mesothelioma. The verdict followed a five-week retrial after an original jury failed to reach a decision...Despite...setbacks, J&J has emerged mostly unscathed from the talc litigation with no negative verdicts surviving appeals so far...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.

Pharmaceutical companies often preach value. Yet, for seven top-selling drugs, prices went up in 2017 and 2018 despite limited new evidence showing patients receiving treatment experienced greater benefit, according to a new report...Taken together, the price hikes added more than $5 billion to U.S. spending on those drugs over the two-year period, a study published...by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) said...The finding is the latest challenge from a group known for criticizing the drug industry's approach to pricing, and is likely to stir debate at a time when Congress is considering legislation to curb rising drug costs...READ MORE