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Hospitals in the 340B drug discount program spent more on drugs for prostate and lung cancers compared to facilities not in the program, a new analysis found...But the preliminary analysis from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) couldn’t find that the controversial program incentivizes hospitals to pursue higher-priced drugs. The analysis...as part of MedPAC’s monthly meeting, was requested by Congress on the program, which has faced major cuts by the Trump administration...Some lawmakers have argued that 340B, which offers safety-net hospitals discounts on drugs, has not worked as intended and led to hospitals specifically choosing higher-priced drugs to get a big discount.,,READ MORE

Christina Mattina, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case brought by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge against the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry…PBMs act as middlemen between health insurance companies and pharmacies...pharmacies have complained that PBMs have been reimbursing them below their cost to acquire a drug...U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco recommended Dec. 5 that the Arkansas case – Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association...be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Rutledge has argued that more than 16% of rural pharmacies closed in recent years due to declining PBM payments on generic prescriptions causing Arkansans to be unable to receive necessary medications...READ MORE

Christina Mattina, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Chris Collins, a former Republican lawmaker and longtime ally of President Trump, was sentenced Friday to 26 months in prison, according to local reporters, months after pleading guilty to insider trading for illegal dealings surrounding an Australian biotech company...Collins, who leaked confidential information about a failed drug trial to his son and other associates, resigned his seat in Congress in October after entering a guilty plea. His sentencing caps a three-year saga that also implicated his family, at least four fellow congressmen, and Trump’s onetime health secretary. All have been dogged by allegations that they acted unethically, and in some cases illegally, when they purchased or sold shares of Innate Immunotherapeutics...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.

California would become the first state to contract with generic-drug manufacturers to make prescription medicines to sell to residents, under a plan proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that aims to control rising health costs...Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said it will be part of his new budget proposal. Few details were provided about how the plan would work, what kind of drugs it would produce, how much it would cost to enact or how much it might save the state...Mr. Newsom is betting that California’s purchasing power can help it offer drugs at a lower price than they are offered commercially...READ MORE

A Chinese OTC drugmaker gets the distinction of ringing in the new year as the first company to be slapped with an FDA warning letter...The FDA posted a warning letter this week for Huaian Zongheng Bio-Tech for its plant in Huaian, China, which it says makes over-the-counter drug products, many of them for children. It says the company ships them to the U.S. without testing ingredients or retained samples of the finished products to see if they meet specs...The FDA was particularly concerned over the fact that the company uses glycerin in some of its products, pointing out that the use of “glycerin contaminated with diethylene glycol has resulted in various lethal poisoning incidents in humans worldwide.”...READ MORE

Changes in U.S. Food and Drug Administration procedures meant to speed approvals for medications may have resulted in less exacting standards, a new analysis suggests...Congressional acts that changed the way the FDA evaluates drugs have led to less rigorous evaluations, with drug approvals being based on fewer and/or earlier-stage clinical trials that may not be randomized, controlled, blinded or based on traditional measures of efficacy…the good news...points to the increased number of orphan drugs that have been approved...the bad news. “Faster in this case means that less data gets collected,”...“Some drugs may get accelerated approval, on thinner evidence, and wind up not being any better than existing and often cheaper alternatives.”...READ MORE

A Chinese court jailed...the founder of a local traditional Chinese medicine firm for running a pyramid scheme, after the death of a young girl with cancer was linked to the company in an online article that sparked anger on social media...Shu Yuhui, founder and chairman of Quanjian Nature Medicine Technology Development, was sentenced to nine years in prison and fined 50 million yuan ($7.2 million), according to the court. The company was fined 100 million yuan..READ MORE