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State lawmakers in Oregon have tried to lower high drug prices from nearly every angle: They’ve sought to cap how much people can pay for insulin, install a panel that could determine how much state agencies should pay for medicines, and even import drugs in bulk from Canada. Nearly every proposal has failed...One reason, at least according to the effort’s supporters: Two-thirds of the state legislature accepted at least one campaign check from the drug industry during the 2020 election cycle...READ MORE

Eli Lilly is asking a federal court to stop the federal government from imposing any penalties over its decision to restrict sales of 340B-discounted products to contract pharmacies...The request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order...comes less than a week after the Health Resources and Services Administration wrote to Lilly and five other drug companies over the contract pharmacy restrictions...The injunction and order show that drug companies appear likely to fight HRSA’s order to immediately offer 340B-discounted drugs to contract pharmacies, which are third-party entities that dispense drugs on behalf of the 340B covered entities...READ MORE

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

Gilead Sciences’ new business service center is a win for North Carolina but comes with some losses for the company's home state of California...The Foster City-based pharma plans to cut 178 jobs in California effective May 30...It’s “the latest example of a major Bay Area company moving workers to a cheaper location”...Half of the jobs are expected to shift to Gilead's now-underway Research Triangle Park service center in North Carolina...Under a North Carolina economic development and jobs grant program, Gilead can earn up to $10 million in reimbursement payments over 12 years through the project. North Carolina estimates it will see an annual economic gain of more than $39 million...READ MORE

It turns out pharma sales reps didn't need to worry about a pandemic effect on their salaries. Pharma reps’ average pay jumped to $158,013 in 2020 from $151,217 the previous year, according to MedReps’ annual survey...That’s good news for the three-fourths of reps who last March said they were concerned about pay cuts. What actually happened? Only 14% reported earning less money during 2020...READ MORE

Four years after passing the state’s first drug transparency law, lawmakers may finally put dollars behind the effort as they continue to build upon the original legislation this session...Members of the Senate Finance Committee this week considered a $780,000 fiscal note from the Department of Health and Human Services on the latest drug transparency bill, SB380, which would allow state health officials to transfer the existing drug transparency database to the state’s Enterprise Information Technology Services Division, where it would live and be maintained moving forward. It also would allow the state to hire a pharmacist to manage the drug transparency program and a management analyst to assist with the program’s facilitation...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

The search for novel therapies has long been a trial-and-error process that costs drug companies a vast amount of time and money. Now, with artificial intelligence (AI) set to transform the pharmaceutical industry more than any other emerging technology, a growing number of pharma and biotech groups are harnessing the cutting-edge tech to minimise the hit-and-miss nature of R&D and discover new therapies with previously impossible speed and accuracy...READ MORE

In the first three months of 2021, Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine pulled in as much revenue as some pharma blockbusters make in an entire year. That’s just the beginning, as Pfizer eyes sales from more than a billion additional doses before the end of 2021...The mRNA-based shot Comirnaty—first to market in the U.S.—reeled in $3.5 billion globally in the first quarter...For the full year, Pfizer projects a whopping $26 billion in Comirnaty sales, based on the 1.6 million doses the company has pledged worldwide...READ MORE

About half of gross drug sales earned by three large drugmakers in the U.S. are returned to insurers as rebates or discounts, the companies said in annual pricing reports that showed the net prices of their products declined last year when averaged across their businesses...In a report...Sanofi said its net price, or what it keeps after rebates and discounts have been factored, declined 7.8% in 2020, following earlier reports from Merck & Co. and Novartis, which reported drops of 0.9% and 0.5%, respectively...The disclosures from the companies contrast with reports from insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, which often focus on list, or wholesale, prices...READ MORE