Ready your chicken wings, chili bowls, and Tony Romo prediction bets.
But first, it’s the week in review in prescription drug pricing!
1. Storms are a-brewing
- What’s colder? This wind chill or Pharma’s ice-cold refusal to testify before the Senate Finance Committee? — (The Hill)
2. Middlemen called out
- The Trump administration took a step in the right direction by increasing transparency and ending rebates to drug middlemen in government programs. The hope is savings would reach patients instead. — (The Washington Post)
3. Touchdown!!! ??
- The Super Bowl may be the most-watched event this week, but we’re also excited about a Congressional kickoff — a probe into insulin costs — (FiercePharma)
4. Strong armed no more?
- There’s been a surprise twist in a three-year drug pricing standoff between the UK and Vertex — the maker of groundbreaking-but-pricey cystic fibrosis therapies. A British politician is pushing parliament to issue a license that would allow a generic drug maker to make copies of a Vertex medicine. — (STAT)
5. California Love
- The governor of the country’s most populous state signed an executive order directing the state’s massive Medicaid program to negotiate prescription drug prices for 13 million recipients. — (Reuters)