- This Week in Managed Care: September 20, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Jaime Rosenberg, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Pharma megamergers need to go under a microscope, Senators tell FTC (fiercepharma.com)
Big M&A has returned to pharma smack in the middle of a fierce drug pricing debate—and a group of senators is urging the Federal Trade Commission to weigh those deals accordingly...Of particular interest? AbbVie's proposed $63 billion Allergan buyout and Bristol-Myers Squibb's Celgene merger...M&A has been picking up across the economy...pharma included. And specifically in the drug industry, “consolidation is occurring against a backdrop of ever-rising prescription drug spending and reports that one in four people taking prescription drugs have difficulty affording their medication,” ...READ MORE
- Physicians increasingly too busy to see pharma sales reps, report finds (fiercehealthcare.com)
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
- Some Zantac Tainted With Low Levels of Carcinogen (ptcommunity.com)Novartis halts distribution of its Zantac versions amid probe into impurities (reuters.com)
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
- U.S. tells cannabis companies not to advertise disease treatments without science (reuters.com)
The top U.S. consumer and trade regulator said...it had warned three companies selling products infused with cannabidiol that it was illegal to advertise that such products could fight disease without providing credible scientific evidence...CBD, has been touted as alleviating countless physical ailments...The Federal Trade Commission said the three unidentified companies claimed, without providing substantiation, that CBD can treat more than two dozen conditions including cancer, Alzheimer’s, multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, epilepsy, diabetes, psoriasis, and AIDS...READ MORE
- Walgreens to test drone delivery service with Alphabet’s Wing (cnbc.com)
Walgreens is testing a new on-demand delivery service with Alphabet’s drone delivery service Wing, beginning next month...The pilot program will deliver food and beverage, over-the-counter medications and other items within minutes...Prescription deliveries will not be available...Walgreens will be the first retailer in the U.S. to test an on-demand drone delivery service...READ MORE
- The top 10 best-paying places to work in biopharma (fiercepharma.com)BioPharma Dive report on CEO, employee compensation in biotech and pharma (docs.google.com)
Paying well is one way to lure job seekers in and keep existing talent happy, in biopharma and beyond. And while CEOs often catch the limelight for their multimillion-dollar paychecks…Here, we rank the top 10 most generous biopharma companies, ranked by median employee pay in 2018. You’ll notice that most of them have just one or a few products and number their employees in the hundreds or one or two thousand...Big Pharma companies may win in terms of size and revenues, but their median compensation is no match for that of these R&D-heavy biotechs. Take AbbVie, with a 30,000-strong team that looks like a traditional Big Pharma. Its median salary was $148,823 in 2018. That number was the highest among large multinationals including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck & Co., Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb and AbbVie's buyout target Allergan, but came nowhere near the median salary of $216,797 at Jazz—No. 10 on our list...READ MORE
- September 20 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.
- U.S. charges 58 in Texas with healthcare fraud, illegal opioid distribution (reuters.com)
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
- Opioid latest: Judge under attack; Ohio counties demand $8B; ‘negotiating class’ wins OK (fiercepharma.com)
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