- Pharma relying more on non-GAAP accounting and the SEC is noticing (fiercepharma.com)
Valeant Pharmaceuticals got chastised by the SEC this year for its use of non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) accounting to make its performance look better than it might have actually been, one in a long list of issues that are dogging the company. But Valeant is far from the only pharma company playing a little loose with the rules and the trend is getting worse, even as investors and the SEC are watching more closely...GAAP accounting was developed so investors can get an apples-to-apples comparison of how companies are doing quarter to quarter and year after year. But some companies are not all that crazy that the rules make it harder to make themselves look good to investors. Companies have been using non-GAAP measurements, sometimes on individual line items, and the SEC has been taking note...the SEC updated guidance on the use of non-GAAP reporting, detailing how it should and--more importantly--shouldn’t be used...
- Drugmakers’ Pricing Power Remains Strong (wsj.com)
Pharmaceutical companies’ power to raise prices is firmly intact despite pushback from health insurers, scrutiny by U.S. lawmakers and anxiety about rising prescription drug spending...More than two-thirds of the 20 largestpharmaceutical companies said price increases boosted sales of some or most of their biggest products in the first quarter...Shares of many drugmakers have slumped this year, partly because of investors’ concerns that Congress could implement new price controls, or that public scrutiny would cause companies to voluntarily ease price increases...The upshot is that in a period of low inflation and sluggish economic growth, drugmakers’ power to raise prices still exceeds most other industries. And though it’s long been common for companies to gradually raise prices on drugs after launching them, the magnitude and frequency of the increases have grown in recent years...
- This Week in Managed Care: July 16, 2016 (ajmc.com)
This Week in Managed Care...Cate Douglass with The American Journal of Managed Care.
- One View: School of Medicine’s new name reflects deep ties to community (rgj.com)
The School of Medicine has a new name: We now are the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. The Health Sciences Committee of the Nevada System of Higher Education Board of Regents on June 10 approved a proposal from the school for the new name to be effective July 1, 2016...This name change can be viewed in a range of ways. It is, on one hand, a minor change, a one-word addition of "Reno" to our long-held name of "University of Nevada School of Medicine" that simply reflects our increasing engagement with the University of Nevada, Reno, the Reno/Sparks metropolitan area and Northern Nevada. On the other hand, it signals the stunning and positive changes that are taking place as we build a full clinical and research campus in Reno in collaboration with Renown Health, the Sierra Nevada VA Health System, community physicians and other partners...Our new name marks, more than anything, a rededication to our purpose of serving our community in partnership with the University, hospitals, health care agencies, physicians and many others...
- Missouri Law Protects Patients Against Ineffective Medications (pharmacytimes.com)
Patients in Missouri will no longer have to repeat ineffective medications... Step therapy is a cost-savings measure used by some insurers that requires patients to take different medications from what their health care provider prescribed before agreeing to cover the cost of the original medication... Missouri Governor Jay Nixon recently signed into law the "Step Therapy for Prescription Drugs" bill (HB 2029), which prohibits insurers from requiring patients to take medications they’ve already tried when they switch their coverage or change jobs, or if the medication is reclassified...Importantly, the law doesn’t ban the practice of step therapy altogether. It also doesn’t preclude insurers from having patients try a generic version of a medication. Rather, it prohibits insurers from going through step therapy more than once for a given medication...
- Gilead avoided nearly $10 billion in taxes last year thanks to tax dodges (statnews.com)
Thanks to a pair of pricey hepatitis C treatments, Gilead Sciences has become one of the world’s largest drug makers. Since 2013, revenues have tripled to more than $32 billion and profits grew sixfold, exceeding $18 billion. But beyond successful marketing of lifesaving medicines, the company has excelled in another way — using loopholes to avoid paying billions of dollars in taxes...By transferring certain key assets to Ireland, Gilead was able to take advantage of tax laws that allowed some US sales to be shifted overseas and yield a significantly lower tax rate. Those overseas profits, meanwhile, mushroomed to $28.5 billion, and Gilead was able to escape paying $9.7 billion in US taxes last year, according to a new report...
- Pharmacy Week in Review: July 15, 2016 (pharmacytimes.com)
Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.
- 2016 national health spend to surpass $10K per person, total $2.7 trillion by 2025 (drugstorenews.com)
Between 2015 and 2025, according a new article in Health Affairs, growth in U.S. health spending is projected to increase about 5.8% on average — a number that surpasses growth in the gross domestic product by 1.3 percentage points. And in 2016...the...national health spending per capita will surpass $10,000 for the first time...Despite the cost per capita, aggregate national spending growth, Medicaid spending growth is expected to slow this year, to 5.3% from an average of 10.8% in 2014-2015, with an expected from in prescription spending growth to 4.9% from the 17.7% growth seen in 2015. Private payers will also see steady low spending growth of 4.9%, down from 5.1% in 2015. Medicare, on the other hand, is expected to see its spending growth rise this year to 5.2%, an increase from the 4.6% growth it saw last year...The report expects prescription drugs to have a smaller impact on health spending in the next 10 years than they did in 2014 and 2015, which it attributes to an expected drop in the number of approved new drugs, and the anticipated increase in availability of biosimilars.
- The Future of Connected Devices in Medication Therapy Management (specialtypharmacytimes.com)
Josh Stein, CEO and co-founder of AdhereTech, discusses how technology can enhance the ability of specialty pharmacies to manage their patients' therapy regimen.
- Medication Standardization Effort Aims to Improve Patient Safety (ashp.org)
...the reason a pharmacy prepares a specific concentration of an i.v. or oral liquid medication has little to do with clinical or patient safety considerations...the pharmacy staff follows standard recipes because "they've always done it that way," said Pasko, director of ASHP's Center on Medication Safety and Quality and principal investigator for ASHP's Standardize 4 Safety campaign...Pasko hopes the campaign will change that mindset and result in consistency, at the national level, in how i.v. and oral liquid admixtures are formulated for patient use..."We're really trying to emphasize to everyone that this is a patient safety effort,"..."We're putting patients at risk every day when we dispense a different concentration than what someone else does."...Standardize 4 Safety has put together an interprofessional panel of experts to propose voluntary, evidence-based standardized concentrations for 32 i.v. medications associated with a high risk of patient harm due to dosage errors...ASHP has urged pharmacists to get involved with the Standardize 4 Safety community through its online communication platform on ASHP Connect...