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President Joe Biden‘s executive order on competition resurrects Trump administration policy plays geared toward cutting down drug prices, calling for efforts that policy analysts say may face challenges getting off the ground...The executive order signed Friday includes measures to bolster health-care industry competition in the interest of lowering drug prices. Among its proposals are a push for the Food and Drug Administration to work with states to import prescription drugs from Canada and a call for the Federal Trade Commission to crack down on brand drugmakers paying generic manufacturers to delay putting their cheaper products on the market...READ MORE

Nevada will become one of the first states to allow pharmacists to prescribe human immunodeficiency virus prevention drugs to patients at risk of contracting the virus, as the state works to combat one of the highest rates of HIV diagnoses in the country...A bill signed by Gov. Steve Sisolak on June 6 authorizes pharmacists with sufficient liability coverage to prescribe, dispense and administer HIV prevention drugs — including post-exposure prophylaxis to people who may have come into contact with HIV and pre-exposure prophylaxis for people at risk — without a prescription from a practitioner starting as early as Oct. 1, in accordance with protocols to be developed by the State Board of Pharmacy over the next several months...READ MORE

The Supreme Court agreed to hear a major dispute between the hospital industry and the federal government over cuts to 340B hospitals...The court agreed to hear the case during its next term that begins in October...A decision could be rendered sometime next year...The case called American Hospital Association v. Becerra centers on the Medicare reimbursement rate paid for outpatient drugs and whether the Department of Health and Human Services singled out 340B-covered entities...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

Medicare Part D spent $2.6 billion more in 2018 on generic drugs compared to Costco, likely due to the inefficient distribution system...The study published...in the Journal of the American Medical Association focuses on how intermediaries in the generic drug supply chain may be driving up costs for Medicare. In 2018, 88% of Medicare Part D prescriptions were for generic drugs, the study said...“Our analysis highlighted the inefficiencies the current system introduces through its complex and opaque system of intermediaries, which Costco largely bypasses,”...READ MORE

In the culmination of a 10-year case, the U.K. Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Servier Laboratories in its defense against England’s National Health Service over a patent on cardio drug Coversyl...The lawsuit surrounded the French pharmaceutical company’s alleged attempt to block the sale of generic versions of Coversyl by defending a patent that the company knew was not valid. The NHS claimed that Servier caused the government financial loss by deceiving the European Patents Office and the courts and sought €220 million ($300 million) in damages...By a unanimous vote, the court ruled in favor of Servier...READ MORE</strong>