- Fake doctors, misleading claims drive OxyContin China sales (finance.yahoo.com)
OxyContin is a dying business in the United States. Purdue Pharma, owned by the billionaire Sackler family, is collapsing under an avalanche of lawsuits that accuse the company of using false claims to push its blockbuster painkiller in the U.S., profiting as an unsuspecting nation slipped into a devastating drug crisis...Meanwhile, another company owned by the family in China has been promoting OxyContin with the same tactics Purdue was forced to abandon...the Sacklers’ Chinese affiliate, Mundipharma, tell doctors that time-release painkillers like OxyContin are less addictive than other opioids...Mundipharma has pushed ever larger doses of opioids…In China, Mundipharma managers tried to boost profits by requiring sales representatives to copy patients’ private medical records without consent, in apparent violation of Chinese law...As in the U.S., marketing materials in China made claims about OxyContin’s safety and effectiveness based on company-funded studies and outdated data that has been debunked...READ MORE
- Medicines pose global environmental risk, experts warn (news.yahoo.com)CDC Report on Antibiotic Resistance Threats Shows Higher Death Toll (pharmacytimes.com)
Residues from billions of doses of antibiotics, painkillers and antidepressants pose a significant risk to freshwater ecosystems and the global food chain, a new analysis said Thursday...There are growing fears that the unchecked use of antibiotics in both medicine and agriculture will have adverse effects on the environment and on human health...The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development compared data on concentrations of pharmaceutical residue in water samples worldwide as well as prescribing trends and water purification regulations in various countries..."Unless adequate measures are taken to manage the risks, pharmaceutical residues will increasingly be released into the environment as ageing populations, advances in healthcare, and intensification of meat and fish production spur the demand for pharmaceuticals worldwide,"...READ MORE
- Wide variance in safety indicator drug monitoring by GP practices in England and Wales revealed in new data (healthcareitnews.com)
Disparity found in analysis of practice data from CCGs (clinical commissioning groups) using First Databank’s prescribing decision tool...Drug and medical device knowledge company First Databank is urging GP practices to standardise their approaches to routine testing and monitoring of drugs, after its data revealed variance in compliance across key safety indicators for drug prescriptions...figures from analysis of...usage in 2018/2019 “suggest the need for prescribers to increase essential routine testing of clinical markers for patient harm from medications, and for more robust recording of test results into the primary care clinical system.”...READ MORE
- A Tale of Two Chains: Walgreens Exits Pharmacy Clinics While CVS Reinvents In-Store Care (drugchannels.net)
Walgreens retail clinic business has been floundering. Last week, Walgreens announced that it would shut the last of its in-house retail clinics and in favor of outsourcing clinic operations to hospitals and health systems...Other retailers are investing in more expansive healthcare services to realize the promise of store-based healthcare. That’s one reason why CVS Health is rolling out its HealthHUBs, while Walmart is phasing out its traditional retail clinics in favor of a more comprehensive Walmart Health offering...Many large retail chains operate clinics, but their strategies and growth rates differ. I expect the traditional retail clinic model to fade in favor of locations with broader healthcare services. This new direction will put pharmacies in more direct competition with urgent care clinics and primary care providers...READ MORE
- 31 biopharmas at high risk of bankruptcy in 2020 (biopharmadive.com)
Business struggles, significant debt and legal liabilities put some industry players at particularly high risk of declaring bankruptcy in the near future, including large drugmakers like Teva Pharmaceutical and Bausch Health as well as small biotechs including Clovis Oncology and Puma Biotechnology...A BioPharma Dive analysis identified 31 troubled biopharma companies that are at highest risk of going bankrupt in the next 12 months...While rare in the drug industry, bankruptcy filings have ticked up in 2019, driven by growing legal, political and market pressures that could bring more companies to zero...READ MORE
- J&J kicks back at Oklahoma politicians’ move to squeeze out more opioid payments: report (fiercepharma.com)
Johnson & Johnson was on the losing end of the nation’s first opioid trial...even though it's appealing, the company is already fighting to limit its future liability as politicians put on a squeeze for more payments down the line...After the August verdict against the company for $572 million, Gov. Kevin Stitt and two prominent Republican lawmakers filed a brief arguing that future costs beyond the first year shouldn’t go to taxpayers...J&J should pay billions in addition to the $572 million verdict over many years to fund crisis abatement...READ MORE
- FDA’s Woodcock details national security risks of global supply chains (in-pharmatechnologist.com)
FDA’s Janet Woodcock testifies to Congress about the potential risks to US national security of the pharmaceutical industry’s reliance on Chinese imports...Democrats and Republicans alike have become increasingly concerned in recent years about the potential downsides of the tight integration of US and Chinese supply chains in multiple industries...in a recent Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce hearing, titled ‘Safeguarding Pharmaceutical Supply Chains in a Global Economy’...Janet Woodcock...was unable provide information to quell concerns about the negative implications of the reliance of the US pharmaceutical industry on Chinese manufacturing facilities...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: November 15, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Christina Mattina, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- November 15 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.
- IP Explained: By the Numbers: How reliable IP protections promote a strong U.S. economy (catalyst.phrma.org)
The U.S. biopharmaceutical industry depends on predictable and reliable intellectual property protections, including patents, to maintain its role as the global leader in biopharmaceutical innovation. While these strong IP protections promote innovation and pave the way for the research and development of new medicines for patients, they also have a tremendous impact on the U.S. economy...Here is a snapshot of the industry’s significant economic footprint in the United States, by the numbers:...READ MORE