Senate Aging Committee Hearing on Drug Prices: Faster Generics Approval Could Cut Drug Costs
Conclusion
As Senator Tom Tillis reminded his colleagues, it is important to not "cast all pharmaceutical companies in the same light," but instead focus on the few pharmaceutical companies acting as "hedge funds."
There were many senators in attendance at the hearing, and many who went over their five-minute time allotment in asking questions of the witnesses. This committee in particular seems to have a laser-focus on the high cost of prescription drugs, and it is likely we will see some bills or other action from senators on the committee in the coming months.
The good news is, the senators all seem to be interested ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 11, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Major Drug Pricing Ballot Initiatives Face 2016 Voters
Conclusion
What some don't realize is that pushing drug prices too low can also create problems. Antibiotics, for example, have been on the market for decades and are no longer profitable enough for the companies that own them to justify high research and development costs for most companies.
We will be sure to keep an eye on any developments in California, Ohio, or any other state where petitioners make an attempt to stifle the free market of pharmaceuticals.
Related StoriesHealth and Human Services Drug Pricing ForumSenators McCain and Grassley Request HHS for Approval of Importati...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 10, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Tackling Rising Pharmaceutical Prices: 50 Shades of Gray
By SUSAN DENTZER
Global New Active Substances (NAS) Available Since 1996
Here’s the problem with high and rising pharmaceutical prices: It’s not just one problem, but many. Addressing them will require a range of solutions – many of them difficult to execute, and possibly tough medicine to swallow.
These were key takeaways from the recent U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Pharmaceutical Forum,which I moderated. A broad group of stakeholders participated, including patients, consumer groups, pharmaceutical companies, pharmacy benefits managers, insurers and others. The key issues: Obtaining th...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 9, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Simon Nath Tags: THCB Susan Dentzer Source Type: blogs
The Impact Of New Hepatitis C Drugs On National Health Spending
Those who follow Altarum Institute’s monthly health sector briefs and trend reports are well aware that the five-year run of record low growth rates in national health spending (from 2009 through 2013) has come to an end, or at least been interrupted. According to data just released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), health spending grew by 5.3 percent in 2014, compared to 2.9 percent in 2013 and roughly 4 percent from 2009 through 2012. Our estimates for the first eight months of 2015 show growth of 6.2 percent, though on a downward path, indicating that the year could finish at around 6 percent ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - December 7, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Charles Roehrig Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Medicare Quality Harvoni hepatitis C Prescription Drugs Sovaldi spending growth Source Type: blogs
Health and Human Services Drug Pricing Forum
Conclusion
Overall, the administration seems to believe that the current system, where drugs are priced depending on who is paying for them, winds up "obscuring" the true cost of the drug. Therefore, we can expect to hear many more calls for increased transparency of information available about drug pricing and value.
While the issue of drug pricing is quite the newsmaker, the industry continues to emphasize that drug spending makes up just ten percent of health spending overall and the continued growth is expected to rise in line with other health spending. By continuing to point out the same "bad actors" without lookin...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 7, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Senators McCain and Grassley Request HHS for Approval of Importation of Certain Drugs
As the controversy over drug pricing continues to heat up, Senators Chuck Grassley and John McCain have started to place pressure on the current administration to expand the importation of drugs from Canada. In a letter sent on November 20, 2015, Senators Grassley and McCain asked Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Sylvia Burwell to permit pharmacists, wholesale retailers, and individuals to import cheaper Canadian versions of select drugs under certain circumstances.
Those certain circumstances include:
The drug if off patent or no longer marketed in the United States by the innovator company that ...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 3, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Health Affairs Web First: National Health Spending Growth Accelerates In 2014
This study will also appear in the January 2016 issue of Health Affairs. (Source: Health Affairs Blog)
Source: Health Affairs Blog - December 2, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Lucy Larner Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Featured Hospitals Insurance and Coverage Medicaid and CHIP Medicare ACA national health spending Web First Source Type: blogs
Senate Finance Committee Releases Results of Investigation Into Gilead’s Pricing Strategy for Hepatitis-C Drugs
Discussion
The Gilead example does not represent the life science community well, and highlights the need to put extra thought into the way drugs are priced. Gilead clearly was allowing marketing to drive the pricing ship and displayed what could be considered an almost reckless disregard for availability and affordability. Pharmaceutical companies can, and should, attempt to maximize their profit, but should consider doing so in a way that ensures availability and affordability for patients and payers alike.
While there is no clear answer to the drug pricing dilemma we currently face, perhaps more thought and research s...
Source: Policy and Medicine - December 2, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Pharmaceutical Pricing – A Reminder of the Value Equation
We previously wrote about the actions Congress is taking to "combat rising prescription drug prices," and the rhetoric politicians of all stripes are using in an attempt to force public opinion on their side. HHS has announced a pharmaceutical pricing forum set for November 20, Congress has committees on both sides working toward a "solution," and Hillary Clinton has said that if she is elected president, she would "demand a stop to excessive profiteering and marketing" by the drug industry.
Often left out those discussions includes the value of medications, PhRMA has recently released a forty-deck slideshow that addresse...
Source: Policy and Medicine - November 25, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
From The Archives: Pharmaceutical Pricing
Welcome to “From the Archives,” a Health Affairs Blog series, where we take a timely topic and delve into the literature and history, from a Health Affairs angle, of course.
Harvoni, Sovaldi, Repatha, Daraprim. Four drugs that have made news for how much they cost patients and insurers. But in the scheme of pharmaceutical pricing—a nearly $400 billion dollar industry in the US that comprises 10 percent of health spending—they are just the tip of the iceberg.
This topic is so prominent that at Health Affairs we have devoted two issues to it over the past year: Specialty Pharmaceuticals and Biomedical Innovat...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 24, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Rachel Dolan Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Elsewhere@ Health Affairs Featured Insurance and Coverage Payment Policy biosimilars biotechnology From the Archives Pharma Research and Development small molecule drugs specialty dru Source Type: blogs
‘Growth Clouds’ On The Horizon For Health Spending?
I was honored to work with the National Health Expenditures (NHE) Team in the CMS Office of the Actuary throughout 1995-2012, and I am honored again to have the opportunity to provide some thoughts on long-range spending trends in the U.S. Many health policy experts have referred to these accounts as the “gold standard” for comprehensive and authoritative information about the cost of health care in the United States, and the NHE Team’s articles on both the historical and projected NHE accounts routinely appear at the top of Health Affairs’ “most frequently read” list.
The current focus on the long history of t...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 23, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Richard Foster Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Health Professionals Hospitals Medicaid and CHIP Medicare Payment Policy Aging Cadillac tax Nurses PCORI physician assistants Physicians States Source Type: blogs
The Payment Reform Landscape: Specialty Pharmacy — Can Payment Reform Offer Relief?
The number of specialty pharmaceuticals available has increased from 10 to more than 900 over the last 20 years. This is good news for the patients who sorely need these drugs to improve, or even reverse, their medical conditions. However, specialty pharmacy is also the fastest growing sector of pharmacy spending today. Although approximately 1 percent of the U.S. population uses specialty drugs, these drugs account for more than 25 percent of total pharmacy spending.
Great Cost And Great Promise
Many specialty products cost over $10,000 per month, some as much as $1 million or more in annual treatment costs. For example, ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - November 19, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Suzanne Delbanco and Andréa Elizabeth Caballero Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Featured Payment Policy Catalyst for Payment Reform Daraprim retail health clinics Sovaldi Turing Pharmaceuticals Source Type: blogs
The Politics of Drug Pricing
Conclusion
While the industry is not shy, or afraid, of a conversation about drug affordability and access, it wants the focus to be on "spending across the health care system to find solutions that ensure access to high quality, patient-centered care and continue to encourage development of innovative, life-changing medicines."
Related StoriesBoth Houses of Congress Investigating Prescription Drug PricesHide No Harm Act of 2015: includes Criminal Penalties for Failure to Report Potential Danger or HarmMore Trouble for Valeant Pharmaceuticals (Source: Policy and Medicine)
Source: Policy and Medicine - November 18, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan - Policy & Medicine Writing Staff Source Type: blogs
Paying For Value In Cancer Care
Everyone wants to pay for value (and certainly not just for volume) and the value imperative is nowhere greater than in cancer care. Cancer care cost the US health care system $125 billion in 2010, accounting for 5 percent of total health care spending. Before Sovaldi hit the front pages for offering a breakthrough treatment for Hepatitis C at a cost of $84,000, and Turing Pharmaceuticals pushed Sovaldi out of the headlines for increasing the price of an HIV drug 50 fold, most of the attention to drug pricing was focused on cancer.
With average yearly treatment costs exceeding $100,000, cancer drugs in the US cost nearly t...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - October 29, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Alan Weil Tags: Costs and Spending Drugs and Medical Technology Long-term Services and Supports Medicare Once in a Weil Payment Policy Quality Bundled Payments Cancer ECRI performance payments Primary Care Source Type: blogs
A Possible Way to Target Exhausted T-Cells For Destruction
In this study, we demonstrate that, in contrast to CD8+ T cells from healthy donors, antigen-specific CD8+ T cells responding to chronic viral infection in humans and a mouse model express high levels of biochemically active CD39. CD39+ CD8+ T cells co-express PD-1 and are enriched for a gene signature of T cell exhaustion. In the mouse model of chronic LCMV infection, high levels of CD39 expression demarcate terminally differentiated virus-specific CD8+ T cells within the pool of exhausted CD8+ T cells. Thus, CD39 provides a specific, pathological marker of exhausted CD8+ T cells in chronic viral infection in humans and m...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 29, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
