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After years of facing allegations of price-fixing on a massive scale, Teva Pharmaceuticals has agreed to settle with the state of Mississippi for $925,000. That "modest" sum could be just the tip of the iceberg...The case dates back to 2019 when Mississippi, along with 43 other states, sued 20 generic drugmakers for divvying up markets and setting prices...it seems states are breaking away from the coordinated effort. Teva’s Mississippi settlement, filed in Pennsylvania federal court on Monday, marks the first agreement the Israeli drugmaker has inked as part of the larger price-fixing debacle...READ MORE

A California jury has cleared CVS in a years-long lawsuit alleging the pharmacy giant overcharged them by more than $121 million for generic drugs...A group of insured pharmacy customers in six states filed suit against CVS Pharmacy in 2015, claiming that the company overcharged them and their insurers for generic drugs while charging low, flat-fee prices through a discount program for cash-pay customers...A federal jury in the court for the Northern District of California unanimously determined...day that the pharmacy chain did not violate statutes in the six states with its Health Savings Pass program...READ MORE

Pfizer announced it is pausing the distribution of Chantix (varenicline), its drug to help people stop smoking, after identifying increased levels of nitrosamines in the pills. Nitrosamines are potentially cancer-causing agents. The company is also recalling several lots of the drug...READ MORE

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

Generic giant Mylan has faced a slew of lawsuits targeting its EpiPen marketing strategies. Now known as Viatris, the drugmaker says it's scored a win against serious charges in an antitrust case that's been running for several years...The case dates back to 2017 when the plaintiffs...charged Mylan with a number of anticompetitive strategies to build and maintain its EpiPen empire...Mylan also paid excessive rebates to pharmacy benefit managers, commercial payers and state Medicaid programs as long as they didn't reimburse competing products, plaintiffs said. They further cited the well-known and dramatic price hikes Mylan implemented over the years...READ MORE

U.S. lawmakers...announced an investigation into the approval and pricing of Biogen Inc's Alzheimer's drug, Aduhelm, amid concerns over its steep price and doubts if the clinical evidence proves the drug works...The drug, which has a list price of $56,000 per year, was approved by the U.S. regulators as the first treatment to attack a likely cause of Alzheimer's..."We have serious concerns about the steep price of Biogen's new Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm and the process that led to its approval despite questions about the drug's clinical benefit," House Committee on Oversight and Reform said in a statement...READ MORE

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

Johnson & Johnson has reached a $230m agreement to settle an opioid lawsuit brought by the attorney general of New York state...“Johnson & Johnson helped fuel this fire, but today they’re committing to leaving the opioid business – not only in New York, but across the entire country...READ MORE

The U.S. drug regulator...added a warning to the literature that accompanies Pfizer Inc/BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccine shots to indicate the rare risk of heart inflammation after its use...For each vaccine, the fact sheets for healthcare providers have been revised to include a warning that reports of adverse events suggest increased risks of myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly after the second dose and with onset of symptoms within a few days after vaccination, the FDA said...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