- California Considering Its Own Generic Drug Label (drugtopics.com)
A pharmacy group is taking a wait-and-see approach after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced several drug reforms–including a state generic prescription drug label...If the proposed reforms are approved, California would be the first state to have its own generic drug label...“A major cause of skyrocketing prescription drug prices is bargaining asymmetry, by which the pharmaceutical industry, often wielding monopoly power, is left unchecked, in the absence of a strong counterparty at the bargaining table…” Newsom said in the executive order...Although the California Pharmacists Association applauded the Governor’s “commitment to the healthcare of all Californians and ensuring all patients can continue to have access to affordable, life-saving medications," the organization said in a press release...CPhA declined to say whether it supports a state prescription drug label...READ MORE
- FiercePharmaPolitics—After Jan. hikes, pricing remains the industry’s top concern in 2020: GlobalData (fiercepharma.com)
It might not come as a surprise for many pharma watchers, but a new GlobalData survey found drug pricing and reimbursement remain the industry's top concern for 2020. In the survey, 49% of respondents said pricing and reimbursement is their top worry for the year...Behind drug pricing, 14% of respondents said they're concerned about the U.S. political divide, while other threats included Amazon and biologics patent expirations...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: January 17, 2020 (ajmc.com)
Christina Mattina, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Antibiotics need a special place in the drug pricing debate (statnews.com)
Melinta Therapeutics, one of the few companies to recently bring a new antibiotic to market, filed for bankruptcy at the end of December. This news comes less than a year after another antibiotic developer, Achaogen, did the same thing...`More than 90% of antibiotics in the pipeline today are being developed by small companies like these, not by the pharmaceutical giants that once dominated the field. And with antibiotic prices low and profit margins narrow, many small companies just can’t stay afloat...just when the world needs more novel weapons in the fight against resistant pathogens, there are far too few in the pipeline. And although there are real scientific challenges in finding new antibiotics, the big drug companies have largely abandoned the field due to the low return on investment...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: January 24, 2020 (ajmc.com)
Gianna Melillo, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- How the 8 biggest U.S. pharmas enriched their shareholders in 2019 (fiercepharma.com)
With tens of billions of dollars in sales pumping into their coffers each year, the world's largest publicly traded pharmaceutical companies can be extremely profitable investments for shareholders...But impressive profits––and the welcome return on investment that comes with them––don't always translate into more innovation or long-term value. Megapharmas spend a lot of money each year investing in short-term returns for their shareholders—including executives—instead of investing more of those profits into R&D...How can publicly traded companies best return value for investors?... A premium must be placed on new products and novel launches because if you don’t do that and you invest in buying back your stock instead of buying for your future, then you have satisfied the short term need for some shareholders but you have, in the long term, lost value...READ MORE
- January 17 Week in Review (pharmacytimes.com)
Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.
- January 24 Pharmacy Week in Review (pharmacytimes.com)
Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.
- Pharma execs pitch ideas at #JPM20 to lower drug costs. None of them include dropping their own prices (cnbc.com)
CEOs from the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies pitched ideas for lowering drug prices at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco this week. None, however, offered to cut prices on any of their own drugs...Some of the executives, like Regeneron CEO Leonard Schleifer, suggested making changes to Medicare, the federal government’s health insurance plan for the elderly, by adding an out-of-pocket maximum for beneficiaries. Others, including Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, supported passing rebates paid to pharmacy benefit managers through to consumers, arguing the current system drove up list prices and out-of-pocket costs...They also faulted hospitals and insurers. During a panel on drug pricing reform...Bristol-Myers Squibb CEO Giovanni Caforio and Roche CEO Bill Anderson blasted hospitals for marking up the price of medicines, sometimes by triple-digit percentages...READ MORE
- Surprise! Brand-Name Drug Prices Fell in 2019 (drugchannels.net)
Manufacturers recently announced list price increases for many brand-name drugs. The typical increase was about 5%. Judging by recent history, these moderately higher list prices will translate into another year of falling brand-name drug prices in 2020...This surprising conclusion comes from our analysis of SSR Health data on prices for more than 1,000 drugs...SSR Health data reveal that list prices for brand-name drugs rose by about 5% in 2019. However, net prices (after rebates and discounts) decreased by -3.1%. Drug makers discounted their brand-name drug list prices by an average of 45%…READ MORE