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Declines in the value of the Egyptian pound coupled with a shortage of foreign exchange have made it harder for Egyptian pharmaceutical companies to import active ingredients they need to make generic medicines millions of poor Egyptians rely on...Though medicines are classed as essential goods, putting them high on the priority list at banks deciding how to allocate precious dollar rations, pharmaceutical companies say they still face serious problems that force them to slow or pause production...A weaker currency has also made it more expensive to import raw materials while the price of finished medicines is fixed by the Health Ministry, forcing manufacturers to stop making some cheap generic medicines to staunch growing financial losses...

Not to be left on the sidelines, several pharma companies took to the airwaves Sunday for the biggest ad show of the year, also known as the Super Bowl. With one of the largest consumer audiences on TV, dozens of advertisers jockey to get their messages in the game, this year at an estimated $5 million per 30 seconds...Valeant Pharmaceuticals nabbed two spots, one for its IBS-D fighter Xifaxan and another for anti-fungal cream Jublia...AstraZeneca ran an unbranded :60 spot addressing opioid-induced constipation, encouraging people to talk to their doctors "and ask about prescription treatment options." The ad included a callout to the website OICisdifferent.com...However, just being in the Bowl doesn't guarantee success with the cheese dip and beer-drinking crowd. In the all-important social conversation around the game, pharma spots ranked in the middle of the pack or even lower...AZ's OIC spot ranked highest among the pharma group at No. 28 for total social impressions, garnering more than 26 million by mid-Monday morning. Xifaxan, which debuted a follow up to its current campaign with new creative in which the 'Gut Guy' races to the restroom at a football game, ranked No. 54. Jublia continued its celebrity star theme...ranked No. 68...

RBC Capital Markets BioTech Analyst Michael Yee and CastleArk Management President & CIO Jerry Castellini discuss the bull and bear cases for biotech stocks.

The ongoing outrage over the cost of hepatitis C treatments is, once again, prompting consumers to fight back against insurers that deny them access to the medicines. In the latest instance, a pair of lawsuits was filed that accuse two large insurers in the state of Washington of rationing...The lawsuits...seek class action status, charge that Group Health Cooperative and BridgeSpan restricted access to the medicines except to the "most severely ill" people, but not for a "clinical purpose." Instead, the consumers charge the insurers do so due to "financial concerns." And they want the insurers to provide coverage...BridgeSpan requires "infected individuals wait for treatment...until they demonstrate serious scarring or cirrhosis of the liver from hepatitis C infection," one lawsuit charges. Meanwhile, patients are "forced to live with…an increased risk of cancer or death."...The newest crop of hepatitis C medicines...boast cure rates exceeding 90 percent...Health care experts had predicted still more lawsuits would be filed while prices remain high. What remains to be seen is whether the arrival of a new Merck hepatitis C drug, which is priced at $54,600, will generate sufficient discounting so that insurers loosen restrictions.

A medical advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration...recommended approval of a cheaper biosimilar form of Johnson & Johnson's Remicade (infliximab) arthritis drug that could eventually batter sales of the branded product...The panel, by a vote of 21-3, supported use of the biosimilar from Celltrion Inc and Pfizer Inc, called Remsima. The FDA usually, but not always, follows the advice of its advisory panels...The independent panel determined that clinical trials of Remsima showed no clinically significant differences with Remicade in treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and a related condition called ankylosing spondylitis...Moreover, the panel agreed Remsima is likely as safe and effective for other conditions Remicade treats, including psoriasis and inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, even though Remsima was not tested against those conditions.

In response to mounting criticism over prescription drug prices, the pharmaceutical industry’s trade group is running a new ad campaign aimed primarily at federal and state lawmakers in hopes of shifting their focus away from controversy over costs...Under the banner "From Hopes to Cures," the effort does not mention pricing. Instead, the ads emphasize the "value of innovation" and advancing science, while adding select patient stories. Several million dollars will be spent on the campaign, which will appear on social media — such as Facebook and Twitter — as well as on radio and in print. Ads will not run on television...The campaign by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents the largest drug makers, emerges as the industry is getting skewered over pricing... the industry trade group wants to influence the influencers and choke off the possibility that lawmakers will take action...the ads will also run in some states, a PhRMA spokeswoman tells us, although those states have not yet been selected. That decision is designed to counter moves by some states where bills have been introduced in response to rising prices.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee convened...to hold an oversight meeting about the Biologics Price Competition and Innovation Act of 2010...Among the stakeholders in the enactment of the law is the Generic Pharmaceutical Association’s Biosimilars Council...GPhA president...Chip Davis commented on the hearings, noting the need for more straightforward naming conventions for biologics and biosimilars and calling for price calculations that ensure sufficient reimbursement from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services...Biosimilars Council...is concerned that different international nonproprietary names for biologics and biosimilars could lead to patient and provider confusion, increasing the likelihood of prescribing errors...The Council also urges [CMS] to provide non-interchangeable biosimilars with a unique average sales price calculation and billing code, to ensure a competitive reimbursement…

U.S.-based health insurers Cigna Corp and Aetna Inc have struck deals with Novartis AG for a performance-based price for the Swiss drugmaker's new heart drug, Entresto...The agreements are among the few performance-based deals that have been made public by drugmakers and managed-care companies, which say they have been having more discussions about linking price to health outcomes in order to cut unneeded drug spending...Under the agreement, Cigna said its payments to Novartis will be linked to how well the drug improves the relative health of Cigna customers...Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan) is approved for the treatment of chronic heart failure...Cigna said payments will be based on a reduction in the proportion of customers who are admitted to hospital for heart failure...Aetna...said it signed a value-based agreement with Novartis that is based on the drug replicating results that it achieved during clinical trials. In trials, Entresto cut hospitalizations and the rate of cardiovascular death related to heart failure...Epstein (David Epstein, head of pharmaceuticals, Novartis)...said that under the deals, Novartis had agreed to a base price and a modest rebate, which would fluctuate based on hospitalizations and savings to the plan...

The pharmaceuticals market in India, valued at $20 billion in 2015, is set to soar to $55 billion by 2020, representing an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate of 22.4 percent...India’s rapidly growing generics market is the primary driver of the nation’s pharmaceutical sector, with sales expected to soar by nearly 84percent to $26.1 billion in 2016. Generic drugs, with their low costs and easy accessibility, now dominate India’s pharmaceutical space, accounting for around 70 percent of the market...India supplies 20 percent of global generic medicines in terms of export volume, making the country the largest provider of generic medicines globally...Another driver of India’s pharmaceutical sector is the potentially lucrative biosimilars market, which is expected to increase to $40 billion globally by 2020, as biologic treatments are introduced for diseases such as diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis...

If you’re a football fan, you’re probably used to seeing ads for erectile dysfunction drugs. And arthritis drugs. And psoriasis drugs. Televised NFL games are magnets for prescription drug ads...So it’s curious that pharma companies tend not to play on the biggest stage of all — the Super Bowl...There was just one pharma ad in last year’s Super Bowl, and so far, none have been announced for this year. Here are three reasons why:

• The glare of the spotlight can be harsh
• It’s expensive
• The audience is too diluted