- Senators blast Pfizer’s proposed COVID vaccine price hike as ‘profiteering’ (fiercepharma.com)
With the era of free COVID-19 vaccines winding down in the U.S., lawmakers are pressing Pfizer for a fair Comirnaty price tag and singling out the pharma giant for its “unseemly profiteering.”...Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Vermont Sen.-elect Peter Welch blasted Pfizer’s purported Comirnaty pricing scheme—which could see the company charge between $110 and $130 per vaccine dose on the private market—as “pure and deadly greed.”...To date, more than 650 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the U.S...Warren and Welch explained. But that “public health achievement” is “now at risk” thanks to Pfizer’s greed, they warned...READ MORE
- Pharma prepares to continue fight as drug pricing bill passes House (biopharmadive.com)Newly-launched U.S. drugs head toward record-high prices in 2022 (reuters.com)
The main U.S. drug lobby has said it will push back against the legislation, which includes policies that drugmakers have opposed for decades...The pharmaceutical industry is gearing up to minimize the effect of major drug legislation passed by Congress on Friday, the first time in many years lawmakers have overcome the drug lobby’s opposition to limits on their pricing power...the House of Representatives passed the Inflation Reduction Act in a 220-207 party-line vote, sending the bill to President Joe Biden...The bill would allow Medicare to negotiate prices on up to 60 drugs by 2029...The pharma industry spent heavily to lobby against the bill and, after decades of forestalling action to curtail the industry’s pricing power in the U.S., its main lobbying group signaled the fight would continue...READ MORE
- Pfizer pledges to donate all Russian profits to humanitarian causes amid war in Ukraine (fiercepharma.com)
...Pfizer's CEO Albert Bourla, Ph.D., said the company would halt its investments in Russia but still supply needed medicines there. Now, Pfizer is taking its humanitarian commitment a step further by pledging to donate all profits from its Russian subsidiary...Specifically, the Big Pharma will give those profits to "causes that provide direct humanitarian support to the people of Ukraine," the company said in a...statement. The move comes after Bourla recently told CBS News' "Face the Nation" Pfizer would be shutting down new investments in Russia amid its invasion of Ukraine..READ MORE
- What would Medicare price negotiations bring to the US? Look to Europe, Lilly CEO Ricks says (fiercepharma.com)
When posed with the decades-old question of how drug price reform would affect their operations in the U.S., pharma execs have a ready-made response: Reducing drug prices would hinder innovation...While Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks falls in line with the mantra, he bolsters his case with a cautionary example, pointing to Europe and the effect government pricing regulations have had there...“In the 80s and 90s, this was a European industry,” Ricks said in an interview. “Eighty percent of global R&D was happening on the European continent and today it’s less than 20. Where’s that going? It’s gone to America.”...READ MORE
- Biotechs reveal layoffs, research revamps in third quarter earnings (biopharmadive.com)
Third quarter earning reports have brought news of layoffs from at least six biotechnology companies this week as a weak market continues to weigh on smaller drugmakers...Through Wednesday, Tricida, Freeline Therapeutics, Harpoon Therapeutics, Adamis Pharmaceuticals, Neoleukin Therapeutics and NexImmune have all announced workforce reductions. The cuts range from 30% of employees at NexImmune to 57% of staff at Tricida, putting scores of workers out of a job...READ MORE
- The top 20 pharma companies by 2021 revenue (fiercepharma.com)
It was a good year to be a pharmaceutical company, especially one that came up with a product to combat COVID-19. Of the world’s top 20 pharmas ranked by 2021 revenues, 12 had at least 10% growth, including five that saw their sales boom at least 40%...No company pulled in more revenue from COVID products than Pfizer. Fueled by Comirnaty, Pfizer nearly doubled its top line.Johnson & Johnson needed a healthy 14% increase in revenue to stay comfortably in front of Pfizer and remain in the top spot, where it has resided since 2012. But that reign is in jeopardy this year, as Pfizer is projecting combined sales of $54 billion from Comirnaty and its oral COVID-19 treatment, Paxlovid...READ MORE
- Michigan signs PBM reform law with new transparency requirement (fiercehealthcare.com)FTC deadlocked on whether to study PBM contracting practices such as DIR fees (fiercehealthcare.com)
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a series of pharmacy benefit management reforms into law...including bills that don’t discriminate against pharmacies they don’t have a relationship with...The signing of the three bills...comes less than a week after the Federal Trade Commission was deadlocked on whether to investigate PBM contracting practices...“For too long, unlicensed pharmacy benefit managers have been able to engage in practices that drive up costs for Michiganders whose lives and health depend on critical prescription drugs like insulin,” said Whitmer in a statement Wednesday. “This bill brings much-needed transparency to our healthcare system.”...READ MORE
- Pharma earnings outline drug law’s looming impact on sales, development (biopharmadive.com)
While many companies are still unsure of the law’s effects, some have begun to warn investors about the likelihood of lower sales and reduced profitability...Biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are still parsing the U.S. drug pricing law enacted in August, but recently have begun to warn investors of looming impacts to their development plans and to future sales...In regulatory filings and earnings calls over the past few weeks, major drugmakers described significant uncertainty over how the law will be implemented and how it might directly affect their business. But some have been more specific, with Merck & Co. and Amgen noting they expect it to impact future sales. And a few, including Eli Lilly, Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Alkermes, have cited the law specifically in decisions to cut back or reshape their drug research...READ MORE
- Nevada Supreme Court rules against disclosure of records from diabetes drug manufacturers (thenevadaindependent.com)
The Nevada Supreme Court ruled...that the state’s public records law does not require the disclosure of drug pricing information that could violate a federal trade secrets law, affirming a lower court ruling...Weighing laws and regulations that allow businesses to keep competitive records confidential, the court’s order limits the public release of information on high insulin prices, including the cost of producing diabetes drugs, administrative expenses and profits reaped by drug companies...The dispute over drug transparency records stems from a 2017 law...The statute required diabetes drug manufacturers and other companies involved in pricing, known as pharmacy benefit managers, to disclose information about pricing for insulin...READ MORE
- Pfizer expects $54 billion in 2022 sales on Covid vaccine and treatment pill (cnbc.com)
Pfizer projects it will generate record-high revenue in 2022, saying...it expects to sell $32 billion of its Covid-19 shots and $22 billion of its antiviral coronavirus treatment pill Paxlovid this year...Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said sales of Paxlovid could be higher than the company’s guidance, but the expectations are based on deals signed or close to being signed...However, Pfizer’s fourth-quarter revenue more than doubled overall to $23.84 billion year-over-year, driven by $12.5 billion in sales of its Covid vaccine. The company’s antiviral pill that fights Covid, Paxlovid, contributed $76 million in U.S. sales during the fourth quarter...READ MORE