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According to the Association for Accessible Medicines 2019 report with data from IQVIA, generic drug savings totaled $293 billion in 2018, which resulted in a 10-year savings of almost $2 trillion. Other key findings include that 4 billion generic prescriptions were filled across the U.S. in 2018, which is 90% of all dispensed prescriptions. Additionally, 95% of generic prescriptions were filled at $20 or less with an average copay of $5.63 whereas the average brand copay is $40.65. In 2017, patients who were prescribed more expensive brand products were 2-3 times more likely to leave the pharmacy without their prescriptions...There were 68,353 pharmacy stores that provided cash prices for the study; results revealed that independent pharmacies and small chains had the highest cash prices for generic drugs, while big box pharmacies had the lowest prices compared with large chains...READ MORE

The state is imposing $17.4 million in fines on 21 diabetes drug manufacturers that have either failed to comply with or were many months late in complying with a drug pricing transparency law passed two years ago...The fines, which the state is allowed to assess at $5,000 a day, range from $735,000 for one company that submitted the required drug pricing data the same day it received a final notice from the state — but 147 days after the reporting deadline — to $910,000 for eight companies that still have yet to report the required information. The Department of Health and Human Services told the companies in letters sent this week that they have 30 days to either pay the fines in full or 10 days to request an informal dispute resolution meeting with the state...READ MORE

Fifty-eight people have been charged with engaging in healthcare fraud schemes that centered on the illegal distribution of more than 6 million opioid pills across Texas...Some 16 medical professionals, including six doctors and seven pharmacists, were charged in the schemes, which featured one pharmacy in Houston that illegally dispensed more than 760,000 pills from March 2018 to September 2019…The schemes in Texas entailed Medicare fraud that resulted in more than $66 million in losses...They also included $158 million in fraudulent claims for compound creams and $23 million in tax evasion...Federal authorities have frozen $60 million in assets of the people accused...READ MORE

Certain ranitidine medications used to treat heartburn—including some products sold under the brand-name Zantac—contain low levels of a nitrosamine impurity linked with cancer…The contaminant, N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA), is classified as a probable human carcinogen...The FDA has been investigating NDMA and other nitrosamine impurities in blood pressure and heart failure medicines (angiotensin II receptor blockers)...The FDA has recommended numerous ARB recalls as it discovered unacceptable levels of nitrosamines...NDMA, a known environmental contaminant, is found in water, meats, dairy products, and vegetables...The FDA is investigating the source of the ranitidine impurity. The agency pledged to “take appropriate measures based on the results of the ongoing investigation.”...READ MORE

Pharmaceutical companies often preach value. Yet, for seven top-selling drugs, prices went up in 2017 and 2018 despite limited new evidence showing patients receiving treatment experienced greater benefit, according to a new report...Taken together, the price hikes added more than $5 billion to U.S. spending on those drugs over the two-year period, a study published...by the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) said...The finding is the latest challenge from a group known for criticizing the drug industry's approach to pricing, and is likely to stir debate at a time when Congress is considering legislation to curb rising drug costs...READ MORE

While insurer and hospital groups cheered House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s new drug prices plan, other experts and groups are skeptical of the bill’s chances of ever reaching President Donald Trump...The ambitious plan...drew plaudits from hospital and pharmacy benefit manager groups and fierce opposition from pharma. But major opposition from Republican members of the GOP-controlled Senate could doom the proposal, some experts and groups said...Republicans have blasted the proposal that calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to identify up to 250 brand-name drugs that do not have a lot of competition and aren’t driving up spending...HHS would then negotiate with the makers of those drugs to determine a fair price that Medicare and commercial payers would pay. The price would be linked to an average paid by several developed countries such as Germany and France...READ MORE

It’s bad news for pharmaceutical company sales reps. U.S. physicians are increasingly too busy to see them…Given the common complaint that they don’t have enough time to spend with patients, busy doctors are making less time to meet with pharma representatives…As physicians increasingly struggle to balance their time with patient loads, electronic health records and time spent on administrative tasks, almost half of doctors don’t have time to meet in-person with pharma sales reps...seeing reps in-person dropped from 67% last year to 54% in this year’s survey...READ MORE

...Civica Rx has delivered on its promise to supply hospitals with generic medications...Intermountain Health and other nonprofit systems joined forces in hopes of providing more predictable pricing and access to drugs...The company pledges that every hospital, regardless of size, will have the same access to products, and says it will only set one market price. Larger systems will not receive discounts on larger volume purchases and every hospital will have the same contracting terms...READ MORE

The bootleg medications were smuggled across the border and sold to mostly Latino immigrants in public spaces throughout Los Angeles — at swap meets, parks, beauty salons and makeshift stands outside mom-and-pop grocery stores...The drugs were cheap, and the customers — mostly from Mexico and Central America — did not need prescriptions to buy them. Some of the products featured brand names and colorful packaging that immigrants knew well from their home countries…Many were sheer counterfeits. Others, though legal south of the border, were not approved for sale in the United States. Some had expired. Still others would have been legal if sold by people licensed to do so — but none of the sellers held pharmacist licenses or any other medical credential...READ MORE

With Purdue Pharma agreeing to settle with dozens of cities and states for a record-setting $12 billion, more opioid settlements could be on the way. But Purdue's agreement doesn't mean all the defendants are willing to go to the negotiating table quietly…Defendants in a Cleveland multidistrict litigation have gone so far as to attack the judge in charge of the case. In a...motion, retailers and distributors—but no drugmakers—demanded the removal of Judge Dan Polster for pushing a settlement. The absence of a pharma company there could show opioid makers are looking for deals rather than continuing to spar it out...READ MORE