- Why CVS Won’t Buy Aetna (forbes.com)
Even before reports surfaced...claiming that CVS Health was in talks to buy Aetna, the nation’s third-largest health insurer, the two were known to be discussing forming closer ties...But a full-blown merger of the healthcare giants would be complicated and unlikely given recent antitrust scrutiny in the sector and given that the drugstore chain is already going into business with an Aetna rival, Anthem...Anthem just last week said it was forming its own pharmacy benefit management company, IngenioRx, with CVS, which operates a PBM. That was seen as a way to compete with the nation's largest health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, which owns the PBM OptumRx...But for CVS to operate a PBM with Anthem, the No. 2 health insurer, while owning Aetna, the No. 3 insurer, would be highly unusual coming off a period of intense antitrust scrutiny of the health insurance industry.
- CVS makes more than $66 billion bid for Aetna: sources (reuters.com)
U.S. pharmacy operator CVS Health Corp has made an offer to acquire No. 3 U.S. health insurer Aetna Inc for more than $200 per share, or over $66 billion...A deal would merge one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits managers and pharmacy operators with one of its oldest health insurers, whose far-reaching business ranges from employer healthcare to government plans nationwide...Aetna shares rose more than 11 percent, or $18.48, to $178.60, while CVS shares fell 3 percent, or $2.22, to $73.31...A tie-up with Aetna could give CVS more leverage in its price negotiations with drug makers. But it would also subject it to more antitrust scrutiny...The deal could also help counter pressure on CVS’s stock following speculation that Amazon.com Inc is preparing to enter the drug prescription market, using its vast e-commerce platform to take market share from traditional pharmacies...
- Gilead wins US approval for CAR-T cancer therapy (biopharmadive.com)
Gilead Sciences Inc….secured U.S. approval for its newly acquired CAR-T therapy, giving adult patients with a certain type of lymphoma and few other options a promising new treatment that offers the hope of remission for some...The regulatory OK...puts Gilead at the forefront of cancer cell therapy development and validates the biotech's decision to buy the drug's original developer, Kite Pharma Inc...Gilead will market the therapy under the brand name Yescarta (axicabatagene ciloleucel) at an annual cost of $373,000 — a price that underscores the affordability challenges presented by the personalized nature of CAR-T treatment…Throughout the development of Yescarta, Kite stayed neck and neck with the larger and well-resourced Novartis AG. While Novartis can claim the landmark of winning the first ever approval of a CAR-T therapy, Gilead's near $12 billion takeover of Kite is a worthy second prize.
- Veterans’ lawsuit claims Big Pharma bribes in Iraq helped finance terrorism (fiercepharma.com)
Pharma companies have faced a gamut of allegations over the years, but a new lawsuit ups the ante by alleging several drugmakers paid bribes in Iraq that helped fuel terrorism...the lawsuit alleged that top pharma companies Pfizer, Roche, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca paid bribes to secure healthcare contracts in Iraq. Those payments ultimately supported terrorism that hurt or killed U.S. service members...More than 100 veterans or their family members are suing the drugmakers under the Anti-Terrorism Act...The lawsuit said the "terrorist-finance mechanism was straightforward: the terrorists openly controlled the Iraqi ministry in charge of importing medical goods, and defendants—all of which are large Western medical-supply companies—obtained lucrative contracts from that ministry by making corrupt payments to the terrorists who ran it."
- The Unhealthy Politics of Pork: How It Increases Your Medical Costs (nytimes.com)
No industry in America spends more on lobbying than health care...In 2016, the health care industry spent half a billion dollars on lobbying, with pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and health professionals making the largest contributions...Closely related to industry lobbying is the political maneuvering that congressional leaders use in an effort to pass legislation — specifically, targeted provisions known as earmarks, “sweeteners” or pork barrel spending...In 2010, Democrats hoping to secure votes from reluctant rural state senators added the “Frontier States” provision to the A.C.A., which increased Medicare payments to five states with low population densities...We all know earmarks and lobbying influence policymakers and policy. In health care, this has critical implications: who gets care, how much they get, how we pay for it. But there’s little hard data on exactly who benefits and how large the effects can be. A new study illuminates the ways these political dynamics can change congressional and hospital behavior — and how they can increase health care costs for the rest of us...America’s increasingly burdensome health care spending has many roots: new technologies, high drug prices, fragmented care, administrative expenses and the like. But lobbying and political maneuvering can increase costs, too — without clear benefits for patients, communities or society at large...Often these costs are borne by all of us, while the benefits — if any — go to a favored few. Excess medical spending, then, is driven not only by inefficiencies in our health system, but also by those in our political system. Our solutions, it seems, must confront that uncomfortable reality.
- Walgreens to shutter 600 stores (bizjournals.com)Walgreens pulls off solid quarter, at time when pharmacy and retail are suffering (secure.marketwatch.com)
Walgreens said Wednesday that it will shutter 600 stores early next year following its $4.4 billion Rite Aid deal...The closures will be mostly Rite Aid stores, but may include some Walgreens locations...The company plans to shut down stores within a mile of another Walgreens or Rite Aid location. The closings will start next spring and will continue over an 18-month period...The move is expected to cost Walgreens $450 million, but should save the Deerfield, Illinois-based company $300 million yearly by 2020...In September, the Walgreens Boots Alliance received regulatory approval to buy 1,900 Rite Aid stores from the Pennsylvania-based drugstore chain. The deal will make Walgreens the country's largest retail pharmacy by store locations. Walgreens now has more than 13,200 stores worldwide...The company said it expects to complete integration of the acquired stores within three years at an estimated cost of approximately $750 million.
- Imprimis Pharma to take on Allergan’s Restasis with cheaper product (reuters.com)
Shares of Imprimis Pharmaceuticals Inc sky-rocketed as much as 91 percent on Thursday, after the company said it would launch a cheaper alternative to Allergan Plc’s controversial dry eye drug, Restasis, by next month...Imprimis’ therapy will cost 99 cents for a month’s supply, with refills starting at $79 a month and the company will start selling prescriptions on Nov. 1, Imprimis’ Chief Executive Mark Baum told Reuters...a U.S. judge on Monday invalidated the patents on Allergan’s Restasis on grounds that they cover ideas that are obvious and analysts now expect generic competition for the drug as soon as next year...Imprimis, which makes compounded medications for costly prescription drugs, on Thursday said it would offer a customizable topical formulation of cyclosporine — an off-patent chemical used in Restasis...If successful in bringing forward a product, Imprimis’ compounded cyclosporine-based formulation will have not been tested in controlled trials, FDA reviewed or approved...
- Amazon gains wholesale pharmacy licenses in multiple states (stltoday.com)
Throughout the past year, and without much fanfare, Amazon.com Inc. has gained approval to become a wholesale distributor from a number of state pharmaceutical boards...It’s unclear, though, whether the regulatory filings support speculation that the e-commerce giant is planning a move into the prescription drug delivery business, territory currently dominated by a handful of companies...Industry analysts in recent weeks have raised the possibility that Amazon was eyeing this lucrative new business, posing a potential threat to such companies as north St. Louis County-based Express Scripts Holding Co...According to a review of records by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Amazon has received approval for wholesale pharmacy licenses in at least 12 states, including Nevada, Arizona, North Dakota, Louisiana, Alabama, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, Idaho, New Hampshire, Oregon and Tennessee....
- The U.S. Opioid Crisis Hits Tasmania’s Poppy Farmers (bloomberg.com)
Australia provides half of the world’s legal supply of raw opiate, but demand and prices are tumbling...With the U.S. imposing stricter rules on the use of painkillers, demand for the raw material has tumbled. Poppy growers in Tasmania have responded by scaling back or giving up on the crop altogether. The state is the source of about half of global supply, thanks to a 1971 agreement with the Commonwealth of Australia that granted it a decades-long monopoly on poppy cultivation...Tasmanian farmers...are reeling from the impact of government and corporate efforts to stem the abuse of prescription painkillers and their illegal knockoffs. The volume of opioid-based medicines prescribed in the U.S. has dropped 28 percent since 2012 following moves by the Drug Enforcement Agency to tighten access...The prescription branded-opioid market is at its lowest point in almost a decade...Tasmania is facing more competition: Three states on the Australian mainland have eased restrictions on poppy growing in recent years...As they wait for a rebound in demand, Tasmania’s poppy farmers need to focus on becoming more efficient...Some growers have managed to boost their yields to an average of about 40 kilograms of active raw material per hectare, up from 25 kilograms five years ago...It is a really, really tough marketplace out there, and it doesn’t look like it’s improving...The only thing at the present time to make it viable is increasing productivity...
- Federal judge refuses to halt diabetes drug transparency law (reviewjournal.com)
A federal judge...denied a request by pharmaceutical companies to immediately block a Nevada law requiring them to detail diabetes drug prices and disclose manufacturing costs and research investments come July...The reason, he said: July is more than nine months away...“I don’t see immediate and irreparable harm here,” U.S. District Judge James Mahan said after hearing arguments for and against the request in Las Vegas. Mahan said he might reconsider if the request were made in March or April, but he facetiously added, “My crystal ball is broken.”...At Tuesday’s hearing, Robert Weiner, who represented the pharmaceutical groups, argued that acts as a penalty for companies wanting to raise prices after Nov. 1 and before the July disclosure date...“This is a competitive disadvantage, and it chills us now,” Weiner said...Arguing against the injunction, Las Vegas Chief Deputy Attorney General Linda Anderson said the law is intended to protect diabetes patients in Nevada.