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Yet another health care provider is accusing Genentech of fudging the amount of the Herceptin medicine that the company provides in each vial, causing the facility and many other hospitals to overpay for the pricey treatment...the Comanche County Memorial Hospital filed a lawsuit alleging that Genentech...shortchanges hospitals by placing less of the breast cancer medication in vials, or alternatively, misrepresenting the amount of the drug that must be mixed in a solution. Under either scenario, the lawsuit contends providers would unnecessarily be forced to purchase additional vials...Genentech maintains that its medicine comes in vials as a freeze-dried powder, which must be mixed with a liquid. But the hospitals and health care providers contend that the resulting solution yields less than the amount claimed by the drug maker...

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is exploring the sale of some of its smaller cosmetic and pharmaceutical assets...as the Canadian drugmaker scrambles to raise cash and reduce debt...The company is considering the disposal of Obagi Medical Products Inc., a dermatology company it acquired in 2013, as well as Provenge, a treatment for advanced prostate cancer that was purchased last year...Valeant may also sell drugs acquired from Marathon Pharmaceuticals last year, one of the people said. Those treatments include Isuprel and Nitropress...The divestitures could raise as much as $1 billion...The process is at a preliminary stage, no decision is imminent, and the company may decide against selling some or all of the assets...

Drug price increases are lower so far in 2016 than in 2015, according to a note from Deutsche Bank analysts. The trend comes as some pharma companies such as Valeant face pushback for hiking prices on certain branded meds...Pharma raised list prices on average by 5% through April 2016, compared to 7.8% for the same period a year ago. Valeant's "significant change in pricing behavior" was a key factor behind this change, analysts said...The company's list price increases dropped to 1.2% in January to April 2016 from 25.8% during the same period last year...There were a couple caveats to the analysts’ findings. Their analysis was only based on list prices, which don’t factor in rebates or discounts that go into final pricing for a drug...The findings also don’t "consider how reliant companies have been on price for growth in the past, or how changes to pricing behavior could affect future growth...We are not making any stock calls based on this analysis...

Demonstrating the efficacy, safety and differential benefit of a new drug relies on collecting and analyzing enormous amounts of data generated in a clinical trial. Yet this process of extracting knowledge from data is often the source of many inefficiencies...We recently spoke with Dimitris Agrafiotis, PhD, Vice President and Chief Data Officer at Covance, to hear his thoughts on how informatics has affected drug development and will continue to transform the pharmaceutical industry.

• Why is informatics important in a global context?
• How does informatics support the conduct of efficient clinical trials?
• What role can informatics play in data management, analysis and integration in a clinical trial?
• How is informatics currently being employed to improve clinical trial performance?
• What role does informatics play in increasing patient safety?

Vermont could become the first state in the country to require drug makers to justify price hikes on their medicines, a move that may prompt others to take similar action but also spark a battle with the pharmaceutical industry...A bill that would force companies to explain their pricing recently passed the legislature, but must still be signed by Governor Peter Shumlin…The development comes amid mounting furor over prescription drug costs. Several states have responded by proposing legislation that requires drug companies to either reveal their costs or explain their pricing. These demands reflect industry arguments that rising prices reflect rising R&D costs...Transparency is the first step in getting prices under control...I don’t think this bill will lower prices next year, but hopefully it will get other states to pass similar laws and pressure Congress to act...Some companies will resist turning over this information because it looks at the most important business metrics that they don’t want to share with the world...the language in the bill is troublesome, because it is "virtually impossible" to comply with what he described as an "open-ended" requirement for companies to provide all of the relevant information and documents to justify price hikes.

Robert Mulroy, Merrimack Pharmaceuticals CEO, discusses the company's oncology pipeline and clinical basket trial.

Seeking to blunt criticism of its pricing, Valeant Pharmaceuticals...announced a new program to offer discounts of at least 10 percent to hospitals for a pair of life-saving heart drugs. The move comes after the company caused a firestorm last year by raising prices for the medicines – Nitropress and Isuprel...The price hikes sparked outrage over the cost of pharmaceuticals, in general, and led to several congressional hearings last fall that focused on Valeant’s strategy of buying drugs from other companies and then quickly jacking price tags to previously unseen heights. Valeant responded by signaling it would offer up to 30 percent discounts to hospitals, but never followed through and continued raising its prices, upsetting hospitals still more...It’s definitely much more information than we got last time, but we’re still going to pay a huge markup...A 10 percent discount is helpful, but not meaningful...It’s really like a slap in the face, because you have to buy a lot more to get a 30 or 40 percent discount...

The Colombian government and Novartis appear to be headed toward a showdown over the widely used Gleevec cancer treatment. In the latest twist, Health Minister Alejandro Gaviria is giving the drug maker a few more weeks to reduce its price for the medicine, or he will issue a so-called "compulsory license" that will allow generic companies to sell lower-cost versions...For us, it’s a question of survival...The ultimatum comes amid heightened tension over the government’s plan to widen access to the medicine...Novartis has consistently maintained that it is "actively seeking a resolution" to the dispute, while arguing that compulsory license should not be used to force price negotiations. The company has also insisted that the price for Gleevec in Colombia is subject to government controls and that generics are available in the country...The episode has quickly become another heated example of the clash over intellectual property rights and access to medicines between the pharmaceutical industry and cash-strapped governments. Global drug makers argue that compulsory licenses should be reserved for public health emergencies and as a measure of last resort, not a tool to use in negotiations for a lower price...

Novartis is splitting its pharmaceuticals division into two business units, one focused on cancer and the second on other drugs, while switching out its current pharma head in the second high-profile management reshuffle this year...David Epstein, the American head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals...will leave the company to "explore new challenges from the U.S."...Epstein's re-location to the United States implies he is not in the running to replace Andrew Witty as chief executive of British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline next year...Novartis' reorganization of its main drugs unit, which accounts for about two-thirds of its $49 billion in annual sales, shows the growing importance of oncology to the company...Cancer drugs tend to enjoy high profit margins and the therapy area is highly valued by investors at present, thanks to recent advances in fighting the disease and the premium prices commanded by cancer treatments...A split makes sense because oncology now has critical mass, following the GSK deal, and oncology is in many ways becoming a differentiated business from the rest of pharmaceuticals...

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, is joining forces with McKesson Corp., the largest U.S. pharmaceutical distributor, to purchase generic drugs, allowing the two companies to use their collective size to get better prices...The move reflects growing consolidation in the pharmaceutical supply chain, as drugstores, drugmakers and the companies that manage pharmacy benefits are collaborating more closely -- in some cases merging -- to wring costs out of the process. Wal-Mart and McKesson, which have a three-decade history of working together, say the move to buy generic medicines together will add efficiency and value to their operations.