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A new legislation recently passed by the Michigan’s House of Representatives would require reforms to many pharmacy benefit manager reimbursement practices in the state...The provisions listed in HB 4348 would prohibit PBMs from reimbursing pharmacies affiliated with the PBM more than non-affiliate pharmacies; prohibit patient steering to PBM-owned pharmacies; prohibit retroactive clawbacks; require reimbursement be based on the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost; and establish fair audit procedures for community pharmacies...READ MORE

In their clinical trials, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines did okay, well enough for the FDA to grant emergency use authorization. But in a real-world study, where participants were all on the front lines fighting Covid, the vaccines proved 90% effective against the virus – not just the symptomatic disease. In the clinical studies, Pfizer and Moderna were testing against disease...According to the CDC-sponsored study released today, it didn’t matter which vaccine the participants received. What mattered was that both vaccines were designed using messenger RNA to repel the coronavirus. The results showed that the vaccines were even effective against asymptomatic virus...READ MORE

Nevada has struck a $45 million settlement deal with McKinsey & Company for the global consulting firm’s role in advising opioid makers how to sell more prescription painkillers amid a national overdose crisis...The western state reached the deal after sitting out a multi-state settlement with McKinsey announced in February. The hard bargaining has allowed Nevada to win a settlement that’s three and a half times larger than the average settlement with other states...READ MORE

Drug names often draw curiosity and confusion—and they always get a once-over by the FDA. The agency is more than usually interested these days, though...After a round of new guidance issued in December, the FDA is dipping back into the issue by reopening a proposed study to determine how drug names influence consumers and healthcare providers...Its December report “Best Practices in Developing Proprietary Names for Human Prescription Drug Products” includes suggestions for drugmakers and their naming agency partners to avoid misbranding violations...READ MORE

Here's a look at how it was created, what it offers – and how it grew to reach more than 38 million visits in seven months...Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Johns Hopkins Medicine needed to provide accurate content very quickly in an information environment that was changing by the hour...In a pre-pandemic world, the organization's content team would look to search engine optimization strategies to see what questions people are asking and determine what information would be most useful. However, that data was just not yet available for COVID-19 when the pandemic hit...READ MORE

Democrats...are united behind an idea that Republican lawmakers and major drugmakers fiercely oppose: empowering the Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate the prices of brand-name drugs covered by Medicare...Democrats hope to authorize Medicare negotiations on payments for at least some of the most expensive brand-name drugs and to base those prices on the drugs’ clinical benefits...READ MORE

The United States plans to send roughly 4 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine that it is not using to Mexico and Canada in loan deals with the two countries, yielding to requests to share vaccines with allies...Mexico will receive 2.5 million doses of the vaccine and Canada is to receive 1.5 million doses...The Biden administration has come under pressure from countries around the world to share vaccines, particularly its stock of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, which is authorized for use elsewhere but not yet in the United States...READ MORE

Forged vaccination certificates and fake negative tests are also reportedly available for purchase on the black market...The World Health Organization...issued a warning about counterfeit and stolen COVID-19 vaccines being sold on the dark web...Fake vaccination certificates are also being sold, as well as fake negative tests, aimed at those traveling abroad...The WHO is "aware of vaccines being diverted and reintroduced into the supply chain, with no guarantee that [the] cold chain has been maintained...READ MORE

In an unusual move... officials with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases urged AstraZeneca to ensure it is providing the most recent efficacy data on its coronavirus vaccine. The statement came 1 day after the manufacturer released interim data from its U.S. trials...NIAID...said an independent monitoring board informed it that AstraZeneca's disclosures of the study results may have been based on outdated evidence. The agency's response to the company...READ MORE

China only approved its first biosimilar drug in 2019, but the market is already looking too crowded for one Big Pharma company...Pfizer has halted its biosimilar programs in China and is selling a biologics facility there to Chinese CDMO giant WuXi Biologics...The “difficult decision” came after a “comprehensive review of the biosimilars market and the company’s global manufacturing network,” Pfizer said...READ MORE