- This Week in Managed Care: November 2, 2018 (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
- Political donations from opioid-related pharma companies slow down in 2018 (thenevadaindependent.com)
Campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies named in lawsuits filed by the state and several local governments have largely dried up this year...The pharmaceutical industry — long one of the biggest political players in the country, donating tens of millions of dollars to candidates and politicians at all levels of government — has contributed less to state-level candidates this election cycle despite contributing nearly $1 million to various candidates and PACs over the past decade...Seven of the 14 pharmaceutical companies implicated in a Clark County opioid lawsuit that had donated more than $934,000 to state level candidates or party committees have been easing off, and only two named companies — Johnson & Johnson and Purdue Pharma — continued to donate any money after those lawsuits were filed...
- FDA’s Gottlieb ‘extremely worried’ on CAR-T reimbursement (biopharmadive.com)
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb stressed the need for reform on the reimbursement side of medicine, calling it an "ossified paradigm" that could weigh on cutting-edge therapies like CAR-T cancer therapy..."There are places where I am extremely worried that if we don't adapt the approach to reimbursement soon, we may foreclose therapeutic opportunities,"...The FDA head referenced how radiopharmaceuticals were treated in reimbursement, "underpaying hospitals and forcing them to lose money." Gottlieb warned the same thing is happening now with CAR-T.
- October 26 Pharmacy Week in Review: FDA Addressing Accessibility of Naloxone, Therapy Shows Potential for Treating Pancreatic Cancer (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.
- November 2 Pharmacy Week in Review: Narcolepsy Treatment Approved for Pediatric Patients, Study Finds Possible Link Between Thyroid Disease and RA (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.
- In Unprecedented Move, Amgen Cuts Price Of Cholesterol Drug Repatha By 60% (forbes.com)
Amgen is cutting the list price of its cholesterol drug Repatha by 60% to $5,850 in an unprecedented move to make the drug available to senior citizens...“We’ve got to make sure those who need [Repatha] can get it,” says Robert Bradway, Amgen’s chairman and chief executive. “The losers are the patients who have gone to the pharmacy counter and have not been able to get the medicine they need, and that’s what we need to address as a company, as an industry, and as a society.”...Cardiologists have complained that it has been tremendously difficult to get insurance plans to pay for the drugs, which lower...low-density lipoprotein...This decision will open up access to the most effective LDL-lowering therapy to a much larger group of patients and that has major positive public health implications.”
- Jeff Sessions announces more prosecutors for crackdown on opioid providers (fiercehealthcare.com)
A day after President Trump signed a massive piece of legislation responding to the opioid crisis into law, the Department of Justice announced it's pouring even more resources into its crackdown on prescribers...Attorney General Jeff Sessions said his agency was creating a new Appalachian Regional Prescription Opioid Strike Force to focus on communities "hit especially hard by addiction and opioid fraud."...a dozen prosecutors and data analysts will operate out of hubs in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky and Nashville, Tennessee, monitoring the Appalachian region for fraudulent opioid prescriptions by physicians...
- CVS is testing a membership program as Amazon pushes into prescription drugs (cnbc.com)
CVS is piloting a program in Boston that includes free delivery on most prescriptions and online purchases, access to a pharmacist helpline, a 20 percent discount on all CVS-branded products and a monthly $10 coupon. Called CarePass, a membership costs $48 annually or $5 monthly, less than half the price of a Prime membership...CarePass is a bold attempt to fight Amazon — and may even put the retailer ahead. CarePass bundles prescription drug delivery with everyday items — something Amazon doesn't yet do.
- Trump administration unveils plan to lower Medicare Part B prices by basing costs on other countries’ pricing (fiercehealthcare.com)Trump administration faces uphill battle in convincing provider skeptics to back new drug pricing plan (fiercehealthcare.com)
President...Trump...announced a new payment model that would more closely align the cost of Medicare Part B drugs with the prices paid for the same drugs in other countries...As they unveiled the "International Pricing Index" model, federal health officials projected the proposal could save Medicare more than $17 billion over the course of a five-year pilot. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services currently pays the average sales price plus 6% for Part B drugs, and in the new proposal would instead pay a target price based on international prices and look to alternatives for the add-on fee...Medicare currently pays about 180% more than other countries for drugs in Part B, which includes pharmaceuticals that are administered in a clinical setting, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said. Through the IPI model, HHS is looking to bring that figure down to 126%.
- This Week in Managed Care: October 26, 2018 (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...