Did you know: You could buy Super Bowl tickets for you and three of your closest friends and still spend less than you would on a month’s supply of the hepatitis C medication Harvoni.
1. States Lead the Way
- The federal government is dragging its feet on drug pricing reforms — but states are moving. Michigan and Nevada are launching initiatives to investigate drug pricing while Illinois just capped out-of-pocket cost for insulin. — (Bridge MI, The Nevada Independent, Chicago Tribune)
2. Paying Twice
- A quarter of new drugs developed during the past decade had key, late-stage contributions from taxpayer-funded research, a new study shows. — (Annals of Internal Medicine)
3. Drugs Don’t Work if People Can’t Afford Them!
- A new poll found that nearly half of adults denied drug coverage didn’t fill the prescription.You know what would solve this problem? LOWER DRUG PRICES! — (NPR)
4. Stunning Stat
- Specialty drugs make up 2.2 percent of prescriptions but account for half of drug costs, a new analysis shows. — (Modern Healthcare)
5. Sickle Cell Drug WAY Too Expensive
- Drug pricing watchdog ICER found that the price of a new sickle cell disease drug, Oxbryta, would have to be cut by 90 percent to represent the true value of the drug. — (FiercePharma)