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The novel coronavirus has put an enormous strain on the pharmaceutical supply chain, with spot shortages of certain meds increasingly common. Now, with thousands of COVID-19 patients flooding U.S. hospitals, drugs used during treatment and ventilation are growing scarce...Increased demand for drugs used in hospitals as painkillers and surgical anesthetics for patients with COVID-19 have sapped supply, potentially threatening access for months...the FDA posted updated shortages of anesthetics propofol and midazolam, citing increased demand. For generic propofol, produced by a number of manufacturers, a resupply could occur as late as October...READ MORE

Scientists have developed a technique that could significantly reduce the time of discovering potential new antibody-based drugs to treat disease...New research...has resulted in a technique that allows fragments of antibodies to be screened for susceptibility to aggregation caused by structure disruption much earlier in the drug discovery process...a significant problem has been the failure rate of candidates upon manufacturing at industrial scale. This often only emerges at a very late stage in the development process -- these drugs are failing at the last hurdle...READ MORE

How the target proteins are screened

Directed evolution

...PhRMA submitted comments on a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed rule on policy and technical changes to Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage...part of the proposed rule, CMS is seeking to allow Part D plan sponsors to establish formularies with up to two specialty tiers. If there are two specialty tiers, one must be a “preferred” tier that offers lower cost-sharing than the proposed maximum allowable specialty tier cost sharing. Consistent with CMS’s current policy, beneficiaries would not be able to appeal to access medicines from either specialty tier at preferred tier cost-sharing rates...PhRMA has expressed concern with the specialty tier and the impacts the policy has on beneficiaries’ ability to access and afford needed medicines that happen to meet the specialty tier criteria. The new proposal for a second specialty tier is a step in the wrong direction for the Part D program...READ MORE

As global demand intensifies for an old malaria drug that some believe can combat Covid-19, a distributor that supplies the key active pharmaceutical ingredient to compound pharmacies in the U.S. has raised prices by huge amounts over the past week...Spectrum Chemical boosted the wholesale price for a 100-gram container of hydroxychloroquine sulfate by about 350%, to approximately $1,160, while a 1,000-gram container jumped 230% to $5,932. And the price for a 5,000 gram container roughly tripled to almost $30,000...Spectrum explained the sudden clamor for the drug has made it more difficult to obtain the active ingredient, sometimes causing its own suppliers to ship partially filled orders or cancel them outright...READ MORE

Prescriptions for vaccines are suffering materially during the COVID-19 pandemic...It’s understandable that retail prescriptions of drugs have declined since COVID-19 hit the U.S., as patients refrain from visiting physicians. But still, some drugs are suffering terribly, while others appear to be holding steady...total prescriptions for drugs for acute use have plummeted by 28% since February...vaccines saw the most decline, probably because people stopped going to public spaces to address a disease they don’t even have...the autoimmune market, HIV and anticoagulants have so far experienced no impact...READ MORE

U.S. eyes have turned abroad as the coronavirus crisis raises concerns about the safety of the global drug supply. In moves that could shore up confidence, the FDA has given a trio of overseas generics plants the all-clear to produce...Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Reddy's Laboratories and Biocon all received clean FDA reports at manufacturing facilities in India and Malaysia...With the novel coronavirus pandemic continuing its march, focus has turned to the stability of the supply chain, including for generic medicines...READ MORE

...the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services recently released their new projections for U.S. National Health Expenditures. Unfortunately, the coronavirus almost immediately made these predictions obsolete...It’s still useful to analyze these forecasts for a pre-pandemic examination of U.S. healthcare spending. A few highlights of the 2024 outlook: READ MORE

• Total U.S. spending on healthcare was projected to grow, from $3.6 trillion in 2018 to $5.0 trillion in 2024.
• Spending on hospitals and professional services was expected to grow by a combined $800 billion—more than 60% of CMS’s projected $1.4 trillion increase in U.S. healthcare spending. That’s consistent with historical trends.
• Net spending on outpatient prescription drugs in 2024 was projected to shrink to less than 9% of total U.S. spending. That would be its lowest level since 2000.

Some drugmakers work for years to take one of their meds from launch to blockbuster status––a journey defined by competition, the market, branding and a dash of luck. But even for pharma's biggest whales, growth-minded executives have a question: What have you done for me lately?...we here at FiercePharma have compiled a list of top 10 drugs by estimated sales increase in 2020––a group comprising some of the most successful launches in recent years, with a few surprises thrown in as well...READ MORE
1. Keytruda
2. Biktarvy
3. Revlimid
4. Eliquis
5. Ozempic
6. Dupixent
7. Tagrisso
8. Imbruvica
9. Ocrevus
10. Stelara

As we’ve seen with COVID-19, the response speed of supply chains is critical in helping slow down and even prevent the total number of casualties in a global health emergency. The sooner solutions can be assembled — whether it is a hospital being built or getting PPE into the hands of medical teams — the sooner people can be treated and the less spread that occurs...A model simulation cited in Nature shows that, “…if China had implemented its control measures a week earlier, it could have prevented 67 percent of all cases in the country. Implementing the measures three weeks earlier...would have cut the number of infections to 5 percent of the total.” Similarly, Italian officials estimate that if they had acted 10 days sooner, they could have avoided tens of thousands of fatalities. Supply chains play an important role in implementing response measures and building out a local healthcare system’s capacity...READ MORE

...in the letter, Abramowitz explained that, although ASHP is grateful for the action the Administration has taken to provide hospitals with necessary personal protective equipment and ventilators, they “will be rendered useless without an adequate supply of the medications…that must administered concomitantly with mechanical ventilation in critically ill patients…to ensure the successful use of this life-saving supportive care.”...Medications used in conjunction with ventilator include opioids, sedatives, and paralytics...This week, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced it will take additional steps to allow for the increased production of controlled substances used in COVID-19 care...READ MORE