Category:

Few factors have played as significant a role in helping curb health care costs over the past decade as generic drugs…since 2005, generics have saved patients $1.68 trillion. In 2014 alone, the report notes, generic drugs trimmed more than $254 billion from health care spending. Slightly more than a third of those savings were from generics taken by people over 65…“This new report reinforces that generic drugs are a critical part of any solution to rising costs for patients, payers and for the entire health care system,”

Pfizer has partnered with South Africa's Biovac Institute to produce a potentially life-saving pneumonia vaccine for infants…The five-year partnership…will see technology transfer and skills upgraded for the production of 'Prevenar 13' vaccine on a sustainable basis…There is more that we can do to cut the costs of the vaccine, and that is to manufacture the vaccine here in Cape Town…vaccine prices have sky-rocketed over the last decade...

A number of stories published in the midst of the Disneyland measles outbreak last winter looked at the trend of doctors, particularly pediatricians, “firing” families that refused vaccines for their children. The practice remains controversial among pediatricians but relevant enough that a recent session at the American Academy of Pediatrics Annual Conference addressed how pediatricians can legally protect themselves when parents refuse vaccines and the most appropriate way to dismiss a family from the practice, even though the AAP discourages such dismissals.

Todd Semla, MS, PharmD, BCPS, FCCP, AGSF, of the Department of Veterans Affairs explains how the AGS 2015 Beers Criteria will affect pharmacists' practice. (video)

Late last week, Walgreens Boots Alliance filed an 8-K with the full text of its merger agreement with Rite Aid….The document containing the Agreement and Plan of Merger weighs in at a hefty 137 pages. Below, I highlight four fun facts about the deal’s timing, its termination fees, and what the companies will do to achieve antitrust approval.

1. The deal must be completed before Halloween 2016.
2. If Rite Aid backs out of the deal, then it owes as much as $370 million to Walgreens Boots Alliance.
3. WBA could owe Rite Aid a termination fee as large as $650 million.
4. To get the deal approved, WBA is willing to dump as many as 1,000 stores.

Prescription drug users rose from 51 percent of U.S. adults in 1999 to 59 percent of adults in 2011, according to a new study…It’s hard to say why prescription drug use would be on the rise…we know that older adults tend to take more medications than younger adults, and so we’d expect prescription drug use to increase as the U.S. population ages…something beyond the aging…appears to be driving the increase in prescription drug use…New drugs enter the market and old drugs lose patent protection and become less costly...patterns of prescription drug use evolve with scientific advances and with changes in clinical guidelines and policies regarding drug marketing and promotion.

When I wrote Healthcare’s Trillion Dollar Disruption, I recounted how a collection of senior executives assembled by Oliver Wyman representing every sector of healthcare foresaw a radical reshaping of the industry. They predicted that over the course of ten years major winners and losers would be created as one-third of the annual revenues of the industry shifted from one set of players to another…More important than the revenue shift is who would be the catalysts for a much higher performing system as measured by the Quadruple Aim. In this list, I highlight the game-changers. Some may also be big revenue winners but that isn’t the point of this list. After all, there are plenty of organizations profiting from today’s wasteful system, so revenue is only one metric of success. Rather, the actions of the organization are putting the wheels in motion for a massive transformation of the industry.

1. MassMutual will slow healthcare’s heist of retirement accounts
2. Collective Health will turn employers fully into the insurance companies they already are
3. Rosen Hotels will show how employers can transform the lives of their employees and their community with a great benefits plan
4. Iora Health will prove primary care is the linchpin to a consumer-centric health future and achieving the Quadruple Aim
5. Surgery Center of Oklahoma will be replicated to overcome severe price failure of healthcare services ranging from surgeries to chronic disease management
6. Oscar will demonstrate that their data science expertise will deliver a superior health plan package that is about more than just consumer-friendly packaging
7. Geisinger Health System will raise awareness of the massive over-investment in hospital infrastructure at the expense of community health

Texas Medical Association wants Congress to intervene and make changes to the federal electronic health-record incentive payment program it's calling "meaningless abuse."…The group says Stage 3 of the program meant to get physicians using EHRs could jeopardize Medicare doc payment rules… wants Congress to lift what it's describing as the $31.6 billion program's “convoluted and tedious” meaningful-use requirements…TMA President Dr. Tom Garcia asked legislators to co-sponsor two bills to alter the meaningful-use landscape…One is the Flex-IT 2 Act...which would delay Stage 3 meaningful-use rules until at least Jan. 1, 2017. The other is the Transparent Ratings on Usability and Security to Transform Information Technology, or TRUST IT Act which is aimed at ensuring health IT systems perform better in the field.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc sought to reassure doctors…that the company's decision to cut ties to a controversial specialty pharmacy would not disrupt doctors' ability to prescribe the company's drugs to patients…In a letter to healthcare professionals…Valeant would pay for the cost of its products through Nov. 8 and make sure patients could fill their prescriptions with no out-of-pocket expenses, wherever possible. Patients on government-run health plans such as Medicare are not eligible…Philidor Rx Services, will file no further insurance claims.

…lawyers for AndroGel maker AbbVie will present their selection of 16 plaintiffs they’d like to represent the growing class of men who are suing the company over allegations that its product, a topical form of testosterone, caused blood clots, heart attacks and other adverse events. Lawyers representing the men will do the same in a process that will culminate in the selection of 12 “bellwether” cases to be tried starting late next year…men suing over testosterone has soared…to 2,744…Claims have been filed against seven makers of testosterone products…The court chose AbbVie as the subject of the first trials, with the first six bellwethers to involve men alleging “thromboembolic” injuries…and the second six alleging heart attacks or strokes...