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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

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.

Congress legalized industrial hemp in December. With it, they also legalized hemp-derived CBD, short for cannabidiol, a cannabis compound that supposedly delivers the calming effects of marijuana without the high from THC...Last year, retail sales of CBD consumer products in the U.S. were estimated at between $600 million and $2 billion, according to investment research firm Cowen. The bank conservatively forecasts sales to reach $16 billion by 2025, with health and wellness products leading the way and food, beverage, beauty and vapor to also play a role.

- From seed to CBD - The current supply chain — from plants, to extraction, to labs — is riddled with issues...

- Wild West...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

New York State...laid out one of the most detailed and sweeping legal cases yet against the family that owns Purdue Pharma…The lawsuit, filed by the state attorney general Letitia James, is one of the very few in a wave of opioid litigation across the country that name the Sacklers. It targets eight family members: Richard, Jonathan, Mortimer, Kathe, David, Beverly and Theresa Sackler, as well as Ilene Sackler Lefcourt...The lawsuit, filed in New York State Supreme Court...seeks to recover the state’s costs for unnecessary prescriptions and related health care expenses, along with financial penalties...The suit also seeks to claw back funds that it alleges were transferred from Purdue Pharma to private or offshore accounts held by members of the Sackler family in an effort to shield the assets from litigation; to order the Sacklers to return any transferred assets; and to restrain them from disposing of any property...READ MORE

OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP...reached a $270 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit brought by the state of Oklahoma accusing the drugmaker of fueling an opioid abuse epidemic...The settlement unveiled by Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter...was the first to result from a wave of lawsuits accusing Purdue of deceptively marketing painkillers, helping create a deadly crisis sweeping the United States...Hunter alleged Purdue, Johnson & Johnson and Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd engaged in deceptive marketing that downplayed the addiction risk from opioids while overstating their benefits, contributing to the epidemic...READ MORE

- Improving regulatory procedures to encourage innovation

- Better integration into the international pharma market...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

...Eli Lilly pulled the curtain back on the confidential pricing structure for one of its blockbuster drugs...disclosing for the first time what it charges wholesalers versus what many patients typically pay...The company’s list prices for its popular insulin injection Humalog, versus what most patients are charged after insurance company rebates and other discounts, highlight the disparity in prices between uninsured and insured patients. The move is also a pre-emptive one as the Trump administration and Congress pressure drugmakers for more transparency and to lower drug costs...The “net price ” patients actually pay for Eli Lilly’s insulin fell by 8.1 percent to $135 a patient per month in 2018 from $147 in 2014...The net price is the total paid after factoring in rebates and discounts. The insulin’s average list price before the discounts rose 51.9 percent to $594 per patient each month...The Trump administration earlier this year proposed a rule to end the industry-wide system of rebates, a change that Lilly and other pharmaceutical companies welcomed...READ MORE

Oklahoma’s top court...declined to delay a landmark trial set for May in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit accusing OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP and two other drugmakers of helping fuel an opioid abuse and overdose epidemic in the state...The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decision was a win for the state’s attorney general, whose case is set to be the first to face trial of roughly 2,000 lawsuits nationally seeking to hold opioid manufacturers responsible for contributing to the epidemic...Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter’s 2017 lawsuit accuses Purdue, Johnson & Johnson & Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd of engaging in deceptive marketing that downplayed the risks of addiction associated with opioid pain drugs while overstating their benefits...READ MORE