Drug Price Policy: New Transparency Bill Would Require Drug Companies To Report Costs For High Cost Drugs; Will Annuities Be The Future Payment Model For Expensive Medicine?
An interesting claim against the pharmaceutical industry (though usually made by only industry's most hardened critics) is that companies don’t want to find a cure—they’d prefer lifelong patients. Recently, Gilead Sciences indeed found a cure for hepatitis C--one that both gets rid of the hepatitis C virus in a patient’s body and does so without many of the terrible side effects that plagued previous therapies. Rather than embracing the medical breakthrough, however, many articles focused on the $84,000 price tag for the full round of treatment. Few mentioned the long-term cost savings now that newly cured pa...
Source: Policy and Medicine - February 26, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
In The Debate About Cost And Efficacy, PCSK9 Inhibitors May Be The Biggest Challenge Yet
The American health care system is far and away the most costly in the world. Health care reform is intended to lower costs, but they are still rising, albeit less steeply than in the past. Moderation is not however the case in the area of specialty pharmacy. The medications to treat Hepatitis C are the most cited examples of a general inflationary trend, but the pipeline of expensive medications is extensive.
Yet, policymakers and payers appear unwilling to undertake significant cost controls on medication pricing. Indeed the controversy over the $84,000 price tag for Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) has largely faded, suggesting a c...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 17, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: William Shrank, Alan Lotvin, Surya Singh, and Troyen Brennan Tags: All Categories Consumers Cost Health Care Costs Health Care Delivery Pharma Spending Source Type: blogs
Hepatitis C screening
Is this a good idea?Related items from OnMedicaNewborns screened for four additional genetic conditionsGovernment launches new measures to prevent FGMScreening drop-out rate higher after abnormal FOB testDrive to boost knowledge of heart healthCancer Drugs Fund axes 25 treatments from list (Source: OnMedica Blogs)
Source: OnMedica Blogs - February 17, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Source Type: blogs
TWiV 324: Viruses in the miR may appear more numerous
On episode #324 of the science show This Week in Virology, Lee joins the TWiV team to discuss the value of post-doctoral training, and how a cellular microRNA assists in the replication of hepatitis C virus.
You can find TWiV #324 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - February 15, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology 5'-untranslated region argonaute flavivirus HCV hepatitis C virus microrna mIR-122 PCBP2 poly(C) binding protein replication translation viral Source Type: blogs
Advances in hepatitis C treatment. Why aren’t they being used?
The really incredible advances in the treatment of hepatitis C bring to life several relevant questions as we move forward into 2015. First, who should be treating hepatitis C patients (primary care providers, gastroenterologists, infectious disease specialists)? Second, can we really afford to use these new treatments? I recently discussed this topic with my GI and hepatology colleagues in AGA Perspectives, the bi-monthly opinion magazine of the American Gastroenterological Association, but it’s time we extend this conversation outside of our community.
Continue reading ...
Your patients are rating you online: How to r...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - February 7, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Nezam H. Afdhal, MD Tags: Conditions GI Medications Source Type: blogs
FDA seeks $4.9 billion for FY 2016; Commissioner Hamburg Reflects on FDA's Accomplishments Over the Past Year
Dr. Margaret Hamburg will step down from her post as Commissioner of the FDA next month. Hamburg and the FDA were busy in the few days before the announcement of her resignation, however. The Agency released a budget request for FY 2016, and Hamburg wrote a recap of the FDA's past year. Below is a summary of both.
FDA's Budget for FY 2016
In FDA's budget request, Hamburg stated that the agency is requesting a total of $4.9 billion, including a $148 million budget authority to: increase focus on improved oversight of imported foods, combat the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, promote the dev...
Source: Policy and Medicine - February 6, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Thomas Sullivan Source Type: blogs
The Puzzle Of Antibiotic Innovation
Editor’s note: This post is part of a series stemming from the Third Annual Health Law Year in P/Review event held at Harvard Law School on Friday, January 30, 2015. The conference brought together leading experts to review major developments in health law over the previous year, and preview what is to come. A full agenda and links to video recordings of the panels are here.
Dame Sally Davies, the Chief Medical Officer of England, warns that we are approaching an antibiotic apocalypse. A former chief economist at Goldman Sachs estimates that unless dramatic action is taken now, antimicrobial resistance could kill 5...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 3, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Kevin Outterson Tags: Access All Categories Global Health Health Care Costs Innovation Pharma Policy Research Science and Health Source Type: blogs
How Hepatitis C Is Shining A Light On Critical Gaps In Payment Reform
Since December 2013, regulatory approval of new treatments for hepatitis C have brought long simmering debates on drug pricing and value to full boil. The drugs—Gilead’s Sovaldi and successor combination treatment Harvoni, AbbVie’s Viekira Pak—represent significant steps forward for treatment in hepatitis C, demonstrating cure rates well above 90 percent in the clinical trial setting as well as greater tolerability for patients.
This unprecedented effectiveness, however, has come at a high cost, with treatment ranging from $63,000 for an eight-week course of Harvoni on the low end to above $150,000 for Sova...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - February 3, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Kavita Patel, Morgan Romine, and Gregory Daniel Tags: All Categories Business of Health Care Chronic Care Health Care Costs Health Reform Insurance Long-Term Care Payment Pharma Policy Spending Source Type: blogs
TWiV 322: Postcards from the edge of the membrane
On episode #322 of the science show This Week in Virology, the TWiVodes answer listener email about hantaviruses, antivirals, H1N1 vaccine and narcolepsy, credibility of peer review, Bourbon virus, influenza vaccine, careers in virology, and much more.
You can find TWiV #322 at www.twiv.tv. (Source: virology blog)
Source: virology blog - February 1, 2015 Category: Virology Authors: Vincent Racaniello Tags: This Week in Virology antiviral Bourbon virus careers in virology crispr Dengue H1N1 hantavirus hepatitis C virus herpes simplex virus influenza vaccine influenza virus measles mumps narcolepsy NHL opossum patent peer r Source Type: blogs
The Hepatitis C Epidemic in One Picture
Hepatitis C has been in the news lately, because of amazing (and amazingly expensive) new treatments that promise to cure their life-threatening illness. While we ought to debate the expense of these treatments, we should also remind ourselves of how … Continue reading → (Source: blog.bioethics.net)
Source: blog.bioethics.net - January 27, 2015 Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Peter Ubel Tags: Health Care healthcare costs Peter Ubel Pharma syndicated Uncategorized Source Type: blogs
Beyond Law Enforcement: The FTC’s Role In Promoting Health Care Competition And Innovation
By now, the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) law enforcement efforts in the health care area are well known. We have successfully challenged several hospital and physician practice mergers in the last few years. We also continue to pursue anticompetitive pharmaceutical patent settlements, following a victory at the Supreme Court in the Actavis case. Speaking of the Court, it is currently reviewing a case we brought against the North Carolina Board of Dental Examiners, alleging that its members conspired to exclude non-dentists from providing teeth whitening services in North Carolina.
Perhaps less publicized are the FTCâ...
Source: Health Affairs Blog - January 26, 2015 Category: Health Management Authors: Maureen Ohlhausen Tags: All Categories Competition Connected Health Consumers Health Care Costs Health Law Innovation Policy States Technology Workforce Source Type: blogs
Logical Fallacies in Defense of Aggresive Screening for and Treatment of Hepatitis C
And the hepatitis C follies continue... As we have frequently written, most recently last week, the hepatitis C screening and treatment bandwagon keeps rolling along. There is constant public argument about the prices of treatment regimens, which approach $100,000 per patient in the US. However, nearly all the public chatter, which seems mostly to come from corporate public relations people and marketers, investors and investment advisers, physicians with financial conflicts of interest, and pundits with little background in clinical epidemiology, seems never to question the assumption that the new drugs...
Source: Health Care Renewal - January 21, 2015 Category: Health Management Tags: anechoic effect evidence-based medicine hepatitis C logical fallacies Sovaldi Source Type: blogs
The Fashion Challenges of the Emperor of Hepatitis C Treatment - Now in the BMJ, but Who Will Notice?
As we wrote, most recently last week, the hepatitis C screening and treatment bandwagon keeps rolling along. There is constant public argument whether about the prices of treatment regimens, which approach $100,000 per patient in the US. However, nearly all the public chatter, which seems mostly to come from corporate public relations people and marketers, investors and investment advisers, physicians with financial conflicts of interest, and pundits with little background in clinical epidemiology, seems never to question the assumption that the new drugs for hepatitis C are miraculous cures, which, of course, ...
Source: Health Care Renewal - January 15, 2015 Category: Health Management Tags: clinical trials evidence-based medicine health care prices hepatitis C Sovaldi Source Type: blogs
Hepatitis C drug battle. What’s going on?
Just give me the cheapest one
Makers and buyers of new Hepatitis C drugs have been slugging it out in public lately. What’s going on and what are the broader implications?
Pharmacy benefit managers, health plans and drug makers have been gearing up for this fight for a while. Many baby boomers contracted Hepatitis C from IV drug use and other excesses back when they were flower children. But available treatments have been difficult to tolerate and not always that successful, so as a result there is a huge pent up demand for an easy-to-tolerate, curtive treatment. Enter Gilead with its Sovaldi (sofosbuvir).
The ro...
Source: Health Business Blog - January 13, 2015 Category: Health Managers Authors: dewe67 Tags: Health plans Pharma Source Type: blogs
Hepatitis C drug battle: I’m quoted
The chess game among Gilead, AbbVie, pharmaceutical benefit managers and health plans on expensive but effective Hepatitis C treatments is well underway. I’ve been following the story for quite a while –and asked all of the candidates for Massachusetts Governor about it a year ago.
Now I’m being interviewed about it, most recently for AIS’s Health Plan Week (Health Plans Join in Action as PBMs Make Exclusive Deals for Competing Hep C drugs). The publication is behind a firewall but includes my skepticism that Express Scripts will accomplish very much with its tough stance.
I’m expecting to be...
Source: Health Business Blog - January 12, 2015 Category: Health Managers Authors: dewe67 Tags: Announcements Pharma Policy and politics health plans hepatitis C Source Type: blogs
