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Hospitals and health systems are building a major presence in the specialty pharmacy industry...nine out of ten large hospitals now operate a specialty pharmacy. Hospitals and other healthcare providers account for one-third of all U.S. accredited specialty pharmacies...Clinical and general financial motivations are driving hospitals’ DIY specialty pharmacy growth. The enormous profit opportunities from the 340B Drug Pricing Program offer further encouragement for hospitals. In-house specialty pharmacies are also a valuable hedge against the potential loss of contract pharmacies...READ MORE

As President Trump wrestles with trying to rein in the high cost of medicine in the United States, he is contemplating an executive order and a proposed rule from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services that would set Medicare Part B prescription drug costs based on an International Pricing Index (IPI). The problem is that the IPI includes countries that utilize socialized medicine and artificial price controls. Here, President Trump is mistakenly focused upon the symptom rather than the cause of the problem.  The symptom is the cost, the cause is the incredible barriers to approval and pernicious middle-men known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers which make medicines more expensive...READ MORE

Russia..became the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine, a move that was met with international skepticism and unease because the shots have only been studied in dozens of people...President Vladimir Putin announced the Health Ministry’s approval and said one of his two adult daughters already was inoculated. He said the vaccine underwent the necessary tests and was shown to provide lasting immunity to the coronavirus, although Russian authorities have offered no proof to back up claims of safety or effectiveness...READ MORE

Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation...tightening rules on third-party companies that play a role in negotiating pharmaceutical drug prices between insurers and local pharmacies in Georgia...The bill...requires...pharmacy benefits managers to set drug prices within a national average, a move aimed at reining in excessively high prescription prices...Senate Bill 313...also forces PBMs to offer up full rebates to health plans that are typically given by drugmakers, rather than pocketing a portion...And PBMs will need to submit to new audits by the state Department of Community Health as well as requirements for publishing data on prescription prices online...READ MORE

This past week Minnesota became the second state to reject regulations that effectively ban the controversial drug hydroxychloroquine for use by COVID-19 patients...The decision, which comes two weeks after the Ohio Board of Pharmacy reversed an effective ban of its own, was rightfully praised by local health care advocates...The reversal by (Gov Tim Walz) Walz, a first-term Democrat, clears the way for doctors to prescribe hydroxychloroquine, a drug commonly used to treat malaria and other conditions but one the FDA has declined to recommend for COVID-19 treatment...The politics of hydroxychloroquine are unlikely to cool before November’s presidential election. Yet, if Walz’s decision is any indication, at least some leaders are starting to recognize the ethical dilemma of using the long arm of government to stand between suffering patients and a drug that may have the potential to save them...READ MORE

The world’s biggest drug makers and their trade groups have cut checks to 356 lawmakers ahead of this year’s election — more than two-thirds of the sitting members of Congress…It’s a barrage of contributions that accounts for roughly $11 million in campaign giving, distributed via roughly 4,500 checks from the political action committees affiliated with the companies…The spending follows a long tradition of generous political giving. Major manufacturers typically make hundreds of modest donations to incumbent members of Congress but avoid donating to presidential candidates… pharma’s giving underscores the breadth of its influence and its efforts to curry favor through lobbying and donations to the lawmakers who regulate health care…READ MORE

India's Wockhardt and the Serum Institute of India have lined up new deals to help ramp up the production of two coronavirus vaccines advancing quickly through clinical testing...Wockhardt's 18-month agreement with the U.K. government covers fill/finish work for a vaccine under development by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca. The Serum Institute, meanwhile, entered a wide-ranging pact with Maryland-based Novavax, covering development, production and commercial licensing of its experimental shot...India is already a key supplier to the global drug industry, producing pharmaceutical ingredients, vaccines and other medicines. The two agreements boost the country's role in making the likely billions of needed doses of coronavirus vaccines, a task being shouldered by nations around the world...READ MORE

GoodRx has released its latest list of the most expensive drugs in America, with orphan drugs and therapies for rare conditions continuing to top the ranking...The most expensive drug as of July is Myalept, an orphan drug that treats leptin deficiency in patients who have generalized lipodystrophy, which is a genetic disorder where a patient has an almost total lack of body fat...Myalept's list price is $5,093 per vial, and patients typically use 14 vials in a year, GoodRx said. The drug's price most recently went up January...READ MORE

Ravicti
Mavenclad
Actimmune
Oxervate

The good news: The United States has a window of opportunity to beat back Covid-19 before things get much, much worse...The bad news: That window is rapidly closing. And the country seems unwilling or unable to seize the moment...Winter is coming. Winter means cold and flu season, which is all but sure to complicate the task of figuring out who is sick with Covid-19 and who is suffering from a less threatening respiratory tract infection. It also means that cherished outdoor freedoms that link us to pre-Covid life — pop-up restaurant patios, picnics in parks, trips to the beach — will soon be out of reach, at least in northern parts of the country...Unless Americans use the dwindling weeks between now and the onset of “indoor weather” to tamp down transmission in the country, this winter could be Dickensianly bleak, public health experts warn...READ MORE

Johnson & Johnson has agreed to supply the U.S. government with 100 million doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine, a stockpile that could be used either in clinical trials or, if cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, a widespread inoculation campaign...If necessary, the U.S. government can negotiate to buy up to 200 million additional doses of the shot, which would be available at no cost in any U.S. vaccination program, excepting charges from doctors for administration...READ MORE