- FDA approves new, cheaper rival to EpiPen allergy shot (ktvn.com)
U.S. regulators have approved new competition for EpiPen, the emergency allergy medicine that made Mylan a poster child for pharmaceutical company greed...The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved Adamis Pharmaceuticals Corp.'s product, which should go on sale later this year...Symjepi is a syringe prefilled with the hormone epinephrine…Adamis says its product is easier to use than Mylan's EpiPen, a spring-loaded syringe filled with a set dose that comes with a training device...Symjepi also is smaller than EpiPen, so it's easier to fit in a pocket or purse. Most children and adults with severe food or insect allergies carry a device wherever they go and leave a spare at home, school or work...Just three years ago, EpiPens accounted for nearly 90 percent of both revenue and prescriptions filled in the U.S. for epinephrine injectors and syringes...In the first quarter of this year, brand-name EpiPens only drew about 60 percent of epinephrine device prescriptions, while generic EpiPens - mostly Mylan's - had captured 38 percent of prescriptions...
- Nevada forces drugmakers to reveal insulin pricing, profits (ktvn.com)Nevada just passed one of the strictest drug pricing transparency laws in the country (businessinsider.com)
Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval signed into law...the nation's strictest requirements for pharmaceutical companies to reveal how they set certain prescription drug prices...The bipartisan legislation focuses on insulin - one of many life-sustaining prescription treatments sold in the U.S. at prices that have skyrocketed over the last decade...The law requires drugmakers to annually disclose the list prices they set, profits they make and discounts they give market middlemen on insulin...They must also give state officials written explanations of any insulin price hikes that surpass the previous year's inflation rate...The bulk of the legislation takes effect in October, but the first disclosures will be due on April 1, 2018...insulin manufacturers will face fines of $5,000 daily if they fail to provide the data without explaining why...pharmacy benefit managers, suggested that the law's "costly fiduciary mandate" resembles legislation that federal courts have previously rejected based on violations of federal benefits laws...In addition to the insulin-specific requirements, Nevada's law will outlaw "gag rules" that bar pharmacists from suggesting alternate or less-expensive prescription options...All drugmakers will also have to register sales representatives who market prescription drugs in Nevada...
- Nevada looking to end wait for Medicaid for some immigrant children (kolotv.com)
Nevada is attempting to join 31 other states in expediting health care for immigrant children from low-income families...Implementing speedier coverage will hinge on whether President Donald Trump's administration grants the state permission...If so, an estimated 5,000 minors with green cards, refugee youth and certain other young immigrants will become eligible for Medicaid sooner than previously expected...Gov. Brian Sandoval signed Senate Bill 325...It ends the current five-year wait period for children with residency paperwork to get on government-subsidized health insurance.
- Pfizer, Roche cancer drug pricing under investigation in South Africa (fiercepharma.com)
Two of the world’s top drug companies and a local pharma are in the hot seat in South Africa as competition officials launched a probe into "excessive pricing" on lifesaving cancer meds...South Africa’s competition commissioner Tembinkosi Bonakele announced...that his agency would probe pricing on cancer drugs from Roche, Pfizer and Aspen Pharmacare, according to the Competition Commission of South Africa’s official Twitter account...Roche is under investigation for breast cancer drug pricing, according to the commission, while Pfizer’s lung cancer drug pricing is included in the inquiry...Aspen said the probe is for "suspected abuse of dominance" in the cancer drug market...In announcing the probe, the South African commissioner pointed to patents as a driver of high drug prices…Under South African law, the Department of Health "establishes a universal fixed price" for pharma products...Commissioner Bonakele said the probe will "look at patents and how they get abused,"..."A perpetual monopoly aided by patents is unlawful,"…
- This Week in Managed Care: June 16, 2017 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, assistant managing editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- 23andMe partners with ‘Despicable Me 3’ for first movie partnership (mmm-online.com)
The stars of the blockbuster "Despicable Me" movie franchise, the popular pill-shaped yellow Minions, have pitched everything from Amazon to Twinkies. This week, their evil overlord Gru is taking a starring role in an advertising campaign for 23andMe...Borrowing from the main plot point of the upcoming release of "Despicable Me 3," a 60-second commercial titled "Genetically Me" features the supervillain finding family through the results of his DNA analysis. In the film, Gru...discovers that he has a brother...through a stranger...23andMe teamed up with the $1 billion franchise for its first movie partnership in order to raise awareness about the brand and DNA testing...Personal genetics is a new and growing category. As a brand, we're tasked with not only building our brand and selling our product, but also building the category and explaining to people what it is, what they can get from it…
- Centene to Offer Insurance in Exchanges in 3 More States Including Nevada (ktvn.com)
Centene Corp. says it will begin offering coverage under the Affordable Care Act for insurance exchanges in Missouri, Kansas and Nevada next year at a time other insurers are pulling out of such marketplaces...Centene announced the expansion Tuesday. It didn't specify whether its foray into Missouri and Kansas will fill a 32-county void that will result from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City's decision to leave that individual insurance marketplace next year...That Blue Cross decision affects about 67,000 people, and 25 Missouri counties will be left with no insurance provider under the exchanges unless another company steps in to sell coverage...Centene also plans to expand in Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Texas and Washington...It says 90% of its exchange customers are eligible for subsidies.
- Pharmacy Week in Review: June 16, 2017 (pharmacytimes.com)
Brian Bobby, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.
- Google bets on European biotech drugs, backs new fund (reuters.com)
Google is betting on the potential of European biotech companies to deliver life-changing drugs by investing alongside Swiss company Novartis in a new $300 million fund run by leading life sciences investment firm Medicxi...The move shows Google casting an increasingly wide net as it pumps cash into global medical research, seeding what it believes will become a core long-term healthcare business...The new fund will back both private and public firms with products that have already reached mid-stage Phase II clinical development, providing them with a new source of growth capital...There is a funding gap because there is a maturing class of biotechnology companies now in Europe...Europe boasts world-class universities and scientists, but its biotechnology sector has long been a poor relation to the bigger U.S. industry, where emerging life sciences firms are able to access a much deeper pool of capital...By providing funds for late-stage drug development, the hope is that more firms will be able to stay independent and continue to build up the value of their experimental medicines, rather than selling out prematurely to larger players...
- It’s time to make it legal for Americans to order prescription drugs from abroad (statnews.com)
Every day, countless people across America order prescription drugs from pharmacies in other countries as they hunt for something increasingly elusive — affordable medications...Under most circumstances, importing medicines is illegal...And it is time to scrap this prohibition, unless Congress finds another way to drive down drug costs...Sixty percent of Americans say lower drug costs should be a top priority, and a whopping 72 percent support the idea of importing medicines from Canada, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll...8 percent of adults surveyed reported that they or someone in their household have already bought prescription drugs from outside the U.S...Meanwhile, the cost of 20 widely used drugs is three times cheaper in Canadian than in New York pharmacies...