Two important people wrote Medium posts this week. You maybe missed this one.
Welcome to the Week in Review in Prescription Drug Pricing.
1. News from our founder
- Patients For Affordable Drugs Founder David Mitchell shared tough news this week — his cancer has relapsed. Even on his worst days, he is buoyed by the bravery of our community of patients. — (Medium)
2. Exploitation over Innovation
- A young man relying on a drug to walk saw his costs rise from $0 to $375k — and all a drug corporation did was grab the patent, add a preservative, and give the product a new name. — (NBC Nightly News)
3. J&J caves to transparency pressure
- Johnson & Johnson will begin to advertise on television the cost of one of its medications, giving in to pressure from the Trump administration to list drug prices in TV ads. We maintain advertising tax credits should be abolished, or the ads should end all together. — (AP)
4. CREATES is BACK
- Congress needs to pass the bipartisan bill that would increase drug competition and save taxpayers more than $3 billion — (Center for Biosimilars)
5. CEOs to testify
- After a dressing down by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), five Big Pharma CEOs agree to testify at the committee’s drug pricing hearings later this month. — (STAT)