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Three drugmakers will pay $122.6 million to resolve claims they used charities that help cover Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket drug costs as a way to pay kickbacks aimed at encouraging use of their medications, including some expensive ones...The U.S. Justice Department...said Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc, Lundbeck A/S and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc had become the latest companies to settle claims stemming from an industry-wide probe of drugmakers’ financial support of patient assistance charities...The government has alleged in earlier settlements that drugmakers used such charities as a means to improperly pay the copay obligations of Medicare patients using their drugs in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute...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.

State legislators in Massachusetts are preparing to review a slew of bills aimed at state-level drug pricing, and the pharmaceutical industry is opening its checkbook to fight back...The state’s Joint Committee on Health Care Financing on April 11 will examine 21 bills targeting price transparency and affordability for patients. State Sen. Cindy Friedman...will take a hard look at measures to open up drugmakers' pricing secrets and lower sticker prices for patients...But pharmaceutical companies aren’t taking that challenge sitting down...the Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America, told FiercePharma that the state’s push to cap prices would keep patients from getting the drugs they need...“We oppose government price-setting proposals in the states,” spokeswoman Priscilla VanderVeer said. “Government price controls limit access to medicines for patients and they stifle new innovation.”...READ MORE

Novartis AG must face a U.S. government lawsuit accusing it of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to doctors so they would prescribe its drugs, after a federal judge ruled in a decision...that the government had offered evidence of a “company-wide kickback scheme.”...U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan also rejected the Swiss drugmaker’s bid to keep key government evidence out of the case, and ruled that the government does not have to prove a direct “quid pro quo” agreement between Novartis and doctors for the company to be liable...READ MORE

The founder of Insys Therapeutics Inc put profits over patients’ safety by bribing doctors to prescribe an addictive fentanyl spray, fueling the U.S. opioid epidemic, a federal prosecutor said...at the end of a landmark trial...John Kapoor, who served as the drugmaker’s chairman, and four colleagues are the first executives of a painkiller manufacturer to face trial for conduct that authorities say was tied to a drug abuse epidemic that kills tens of thousands of Americans each year...He (Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathaniel Yeager) said Kapoor also sought to defraud insurers into paying for Subsys and carried out the scheme with the help of his co-defendants, former Insys executives and managers Michael Gurry, Richard Simon, Sunrise Lee and Joseph Rowan...All five have pleaded not guilty to racketeering conspiracy...READ MORE

As Purdue Pharma grapples with thousands of lawsuits blaming the company for contributing to the opioid crisis, the drug maker has signaled it may file bankruptcy. If that happens, some newly created subsidiaries are likely to come under scrutiny...Purdue has launched two limited partnerships that are now marketing or developing drugs that were previously listed as part of the Purdue product portfolio. Several current and former Purdue executives run these companies, both of which the drug maker refers to as operating subsidiaries...The timing of all these activities — from creating the subsidiaries to transferring assets and employees — could be an issue for Purdue and the Sacklers, since these occurred not long before the drug maker indicated bankruptcy is a possibility...READ MORE

China will add fentanyl-related substances to a supplementary list of controlled narcotic drugs from May 1, the government said...The statement was jointly issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the National Health commission and National Medical Products Administration...U.S. Trade Representative Lighthizer said in March he would prefer to include China’s commitments to curb fentanyl in any trade agreement...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

Unlike several other markets, the U.S. consumer healthcare system generally does not allow for the “third leg” of health care: pharmacists prescribing prescription medicines...A U.K. pharmacy can be qualified as one of three general types in terms of the services it provides. The baseline or essential services... enhanced pharmacy services...The highest level...is called advanced...The more advanced level is the independent prescriber who is responsible for the assessment of patients with undiagnosed or diagnosed conditions, who makes decisions about the clinical management required, and who ultimately draws up a treatment plan...The United States is dipping its toe in the waters of pharmacy prescribing in such rural states as Idaho, and even California and Washington, but it is not a national structure. Filling gaps in care through pharmacist prescribing would strengthen community pharmacy’s value proposition within the healthcare system...READ MORE

After running the FDA for two years, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s last day is Friday...Gottlieb discusses the personal toll of commuting to work in Washington, D.C. from his home in Westport, Connecticut...Gottlieb said he has “no idea” what he will do next other than spending time with his three young daughters...READ MORE