We finally know what a black hole looks like. Next black hole to face the cameras: justification for drug company price hikes.
1. Patients win
There were two drug lobbyists for every Maryland state senator this session — and patients still won. A first-in-the-nation prescription drug affordability board with the authority to evaluate high-cost prescription drugs and set reasonable rates now awaits the governor’s signature. — (STAT)
2. Counts for nothing
In its latest bid to deflect mounting criticism of price gouging, drug giant Sanofi cut insulin prices only for the uninsured and patients paying cash hours before a Congressional hearing on rising insulin prices. Give them no credit. — (CBS)
3. Do you like apples?
Patient voices took center stage during testimony at a Massachusetts Statehouse hearing for sweeping drug pricing reforms in the commonwealth. How do you like them apples? — (Mass Live)
4. What a week in Washington
Over the last week, Washington took meaningful steps on legislation that would curb drug company price gouging, end abuse of citizen petitions, stop drug companies from abusing the patent system, demand more transparency from pharmacy benefit managers, and protect people who are insulin dependent.— (KTXS)
5. Walmart-ism
Walmart insulin has been pitched by drug executives as a solution for patients struggling to afford insulin. Find out why it’s not the answer. — (Vox)
We won’t spoil Game of Thrones, but we will spoil Big Pharma’s ongoing attempt to rob us all.
Welcome to the Week in Review in Prescription Drug Pricing!
1. Drowning in debt
A recent survey revealed the stunning amount of debt Americans are facing as a result of rising health care and prescription drug costs. — (NYT)
2. Pharma on the run
The House Energy and Commerce Committee passed two bills to close loopholes used by drug companies to keep prices high. — (AARP)
3. Call us
Scott Gottlieb’s last day of work as the FDA commish was Friday. He is going to Disney World before tackling drug prices in his next role at a conservative think tank. — (Washington Post)
4. Influence peddling in the commonwealth
As Massachusetts prepares to review a package of bills aimed at reducing drug costs, a river of Big Pharma money flows to maintain the status quo. — (FiercePharma)
If Alanis Morissette released her iconic album today, would it be called Jagged Little Overpriced Pill?
Welcome to the Week in Review in Prescription Drug Pricing.
1. Fear the Turtle
Maryland could be the first state in the nation to set up a Prescription Drug Affordability Board, an independent body with the authority to evaluate high-cost prescription drugs and set rates for state and local governments to pay. With a push from patients, the bill passed the House of Delegates 98-40. On to the Senate! — (The Baltimore Sun)
2. Taxpayers pay twice
Americans spent millions to invent a new use for an HIV drug. Gilead got the rights and is making billions on research *we* paid for. Somebody write a law to fix that. — (The Washington Post)
3. Highway Robbery
The Kentucky AG launched an inquiry into pharmacy benefit managers that are almost certainly overcharging state taxpayers for prescription drugs. Kentucky joins Arkansas, Ohio, Connecticut, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania, states that have launched investigations, issued scathing reports, or passed an array of reforms aimed at this shadowy drug pricing player. — (Courier Journal)
4. Sticker shock won’t lower drug prices
Johnson & Johnson decided to put prices in its (tax free) TV ads. It can’t hurt and may stoke public outrage, but these companies are immune to shame. We need transparency, and to lower list prices. — (NYT)
5. Does not compute
Pharma’s main talking point — that the industry needs extreme prices to fund new drugs — is the con of the century. Here’s why. — (The Atlantic)
Will PhRMA partner with Lori Loughlin in an attempt to improve its reputation?
1. Bonuses for bad behavior
High drug prices mean multitudes of millions for CEOs like David Ricks of Eli Lilly and Richard Gonzalez of AbbVie. — (FiercePharma, FiercePharma)
2. She sold everything — twice
A patient living with Type 1 diabetes explained how she sold all of her belongings — twice — to stay alive and afford insulin. — (BBC)
3. Isn’t sepsis frightening enough?
The price of a longtime ICU staple to treat sepsis has spiked in price from $200 to $4,000. Now greedy pharma is suing to stop compounded alternatives that seek to ease hospital budget woes. — (STAT)
4. Everyone gets a piece of the pie
Pharma, PBMs, and insurers all dine at the table of high drug prices.— (Pew)
5. We’re not gonna take it
AARP launched a landmark campaign against high drug prices and corporate greed. The nationwide campaign calls on its 37 million members to tell Congress to cut drug prices now. — (Forbes)
The bargain that wasn’t. A fight with BIO. And who will replace the commish?
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing!
1. No deal
After raising the price of Humalog more than 1000 percent in two decades, Eli Lilly will begin selling an authorized generic or $137.35 per vial. Don’t be fooled. Insulin was invented almost a century ago and is still too expensive. — (The New York Times)
2. Patients take center stage
A panel of patients went to Capitol Hill this week to share their stories with the Senate Special Committee on Aging. P4AD Patient Advocate Sheldon Armus shared his experience with rising prescription drugs. — (Bay News 9)
3. The gloves are off
The lobbying group BIO refused to denounce its member company, Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, after the price-gouger hiked the cost of an old drug from 0 to $375,000. — (STAT)
4. Big shoes to fill
We’re sad to see the FDA chief go. Who will replace him? Inquiring minds want to know! — (NPR)
5. Maryland leads the way
Maryland’s proposed Prescription Drug Affordability Board would be the first of its kind and could set the tone for other states to follow. — (The Washington Post)
A week of high drama. Pharma CEOs v. Congress. Jordyn v. Kardashians. Green Book v. Everyone.
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing!
1. How Pharma lost its edge in Washington
David Mitchell talks to Bloomberg to discuss the sea change in Washington. — (Bloomberg Businessweek)
2. Big Pharma hurts one in four Americans
One in four Americans can’t afford their prescription drugs. Just about everyone says that’s unreasonable and that Congress needs to act now. — (Kaiser Family Foundation)
3. Firdapse Flops
Catalyst Pharmaceuticals priced an old drug for Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome at $375,000 a year. Now the FDA is under pressure to make old versions of the drug available for patients. — (STAT)
4. Everybody’s wrong but me
Tuesday’s Senate Finance Committee hearing centered around the complexity of drug pricing. Pharma executives cited everyone from pharmacy benefit managers to the federal government as the cause of high prices. — (The New York Times)
5. Part B fix picking up steam?
Big Pharma and its allies are ramping up a campaign to defeat reforms to Medicare Part B. But the Trump administration proposal is gaining allies on Capitol Hill— (The Washington Post)
The Miracle on Ice turned 39. Patients For Affordable Drugs turned 2. Can we orchestrate the upset of this century?
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing!
Crohn’s Patient Claps Back
A Crohn’s patient who takes Humira, the world’s best-selling drug from one of the world’s most corrupt pharmaceutical corporations, tells it like it is on NBC Nightly News. — (NBC Nightly News)
Pharma CEOs in the Hot Seat
On Tuesday, seven pharmaceutical company executives will testify before the Senate on rising prescription drug prices. Get to know the price-hiking characters who will make up the Senate Finance Committee panel. — (STAT)
Utah Gets Salty with Big Pharma
Utahns are fed up with federal inaction on drug prices, so lawmakers in Salt Lake City are weighing a bill to import drugs from Canada. — (Deseret News)
Is Pharma planning the next Fyre Fest?
Big Pharma is linking up with prominent Instagram influencers to target millennial likes and their dollars. — (Vox)
Be Wary of the Expert
The drug industry and its hired gun “experts” are targeting and twisting the narrative on drug importation from Canada. — (Tarbell)
Welcome to the week in review in prescription drug pricing.
1. Pharma’s GOP force field dissolving
Republicans are eyeing patent reform to lower drug prices. — (Axios)
2. Coast to coast
In California, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to leverage California’s buying power to negotiate drug prices in the state’s massive Medicaid program. Massachusetts Republican governor Charlie Baker wants drug corporations to come to the bargaining table, too. — (KHN & The Boston Globe )
3. Too Much Is Never Enough
Vertex and England have been locked in a battle for three years over the price of the company’s charity-funded cystic fibrosis medicines. As patients suffer, Vertex says it just can’t offer a deal — even after reporting that Q4 profit doubled. — (The Guardian)
4. Our heroes
P4AD named two more drug pricing heroes this week — read more about Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ohio resident and cancer patient Bob Fowler — (P4AD)
5. Required reading
Settle in over the weekend for a deep dive into why drugs are so expensive. — (NY Review of Books)
