- Unit of drugmaker Insys pleads guilty to U.S. opioid bribe scheme (reuters.com)
A unit of Insys Therapeutics Inc pleaded guilty...to fraud charges as part of an $225 million deal with the U.S. Justice Department resolving claims that the drugmaker bribed doctors to prescribe an addictive opioid medication...The plea...by the Chandler, Arizona-based Insys’ operating subsidiary, came in one of the few criminal prosecutions to date of a corporation accused of helping fuel the nation’s deadly opioid epidemic...Insys is facing growing financial pressures as a result of the U.S. probe and a decline in sales of its flagship fentanyl pain product, Subsys, which it has said could prompt the company to seek bankruptcy protection...Beyond the plea by subsidiary Insys Pharma Inc, Insys has also entered into a five-year deferred prosecution agreement with the government and agreed to pay $30 million in the criminal case and $195 million to resolve civil claims...READ MORE
- Prescription drug costs steadily soar, yet price transparency is lacking (sciencedaily.com)
After reviewing tens of millions of insurance claims for the country's 49 most popular brand-name prescription drugs, a team from Scripps Research Translational Institute found that net prices rose by a median of 76 percent from January 2012 through December 2017 -- with most products going up once or twice per year...The substantial price increases were not limited to drugs that recently entered the marketplace, as one might expect, or to those lacking generic equivalents. In addition, the increases often were "highly correlated" with price bumps by competitors...READ MORE
- May 31 Pharmacy Week in Review: American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting Coverage Coming, Behaviors and Psychosocial Stressors May Increase Asthma Risk in Adolescents (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.
- Teva Pharm to pay Oklahoma $85 million to settle opioid claims (reuters.com)Teva reaches $85 million settlement on eve of opioid trial in Oklahoma (statnews.com)
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd said...it had agreed to pay an $85 million settlement with the state of Oklahoma days before the company was set to face trial over allegations that it and other drugmakers helped fuel the U.S. opioid epidemic...Claims against Teva focused on the branded opioid products Actiq and Fentora as well as generic painkillers it produced...The trial...was set to begin on Tuesday...Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter has alleged that J&J and Teva, along with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma LP, carried out deceptive marking campaigns that downplayed opioids’ addictive risks while overstating their benefits...READ MORE
- This Week in Managed Care: June 7, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- More states sue opioid maker alleging deceptive marketing (apnews.com)
California, Hawaii, Maine and the District of Columbia filed lawsuits...against the maker of OxyContin (Purdue Pharma) and the company’s former president (Sackler), alleging the firm falsely promoted the drug by downplaying the risk of addiction while it emerged as one of the most widely abused opioids in the U.S...allegations...said the company falsely introduced OxyContin in the 1990s as a safe and effective treatment for chronic pain...However, the California’s lawsuit alleges that Purdue and Sackler knew in 1997 that drugs containing oxycodone...were widely abused. Still, company representatives marketed it as not being addictive and downplayed the potential for abuse, the suit states...READ MORE
- Exclusive: Canada told drugmakers it would limit scope of some new price rules (reuters.com)
The Canadian government has assured the pharmaceutical industry that new features of its plan to cut drug costs would apply only to new medicines, Health Canada said…The new features of the government’s proposed regulations, which would take into account cost-effectiveness of medicines and their likely impact on government budgets, would be limited to new drugs, Health Canada told Innovative Medicines Canada and BIOTECanada, the patented drug industry’s main lobby groups...The original cost-benefit analysis estimated the new regulations would cost drugmakers C$8.6 billion ($6.4 billion) over 10 years. As an alternative to the proposed changes, drugmakers offered to voluntarily give up C$8.6 billion in revenue over the same period...Exactly how much the new rules will reduce prices depends on implementation details that have not yet been decided...READ MORE
- June 7 Pharmacy Week in Review: Early ART May Generate Functional CD8 T-cells in Patients with HIV; ASHP and ADA Meeting Coverage Coming (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.
- This Week in Managed Care: May 31, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- EDITORIAL: Nevada moves to stop innovative medical facilities (reviewjournal.com)Lawmakers hear bill to require tourist-focused microhospital to accept Medicare, Medicaid (thenevadaindependent.com)
In a cut-throat, protectionist sort of way, it makes sense that Nevada’s existing medical providers want to handicap new competitors. But that doesn’t mean elected officials should be doing their bidding...Elite Medical Center provides hospital and emergency room services near the Strip. It’s a small facility trying to fill an overlooked niche in the market — tourists. It treats an average of 30 patients a day. It boasts that patients see a doctor within minutes of arrival...Most Las Vegas residents would likely have never heard of it, except its competitors keep attacking the facility. Other hospitals are upset that Elite Medical Center doesn’t accept Medicaid and Medicare as payment methods...But why would hospitals care if a competitor didn’t accept certain payment methods? That would seem like an opportunity to lure those customers...The medical field needs innovation. Nevada won’t get it by stifling providers who dare to do things differently...READ MORE