Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Drugmakers To Soon Hike Prices On More Than 500 Medications: Report
Drugmakers including Pfizer, Sanofi and Takeda Pharmaceutical plan to raise prices in the United States on more than 500 drugs in early January, according to data analyzed by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors. Excluding different doses and formulations, more than 140 brands of drugs will have their prices raised next month, the data showed. The expected price hikes come as the pharmaceutical industry gears up for the Biden Administration to publish significantly discounted prices for 10 high-cost drugs in September, and continues to contend with higher inflation and manufacturing costs. (Erman and Wingrove, 12/29)
The Biden administration seemed to be giving pharmacies a win when they forced pharmacy benefit managers to be more up-front about the behind-the-scenes fees they charge. But now pharmacies are afraid the transition to the new system on Jan. 1 will lead to a cash flow crunch. (Cohrs, 1/2)
For all the flack they get, the country’s four biggest pharmacy benefit managers reported a surprisingly tame average profit margin in the first three quarters of 2023: 4.5%, less than a third of their drugmaker peers. But don’t take their numbers as gospel, experts warned. (Bannow and Trang, 1/2)
When Americans think of drug prices, they usually think that they're too high. And for name brand drugs, that's often the case compared with the rest of the world. But when it comes to generic sterile injectables, medicines that are workhorses in hospitals, the opposite problem is true. ... Companies compete with each other to offer hospital purchasers the lowest price, driving the prices to rock bottom. Over time, prices can get so low that it doesn't always make good business sense for the companies to keep making some drugs. So they stop. (Lupkin, 12/28)
Consumer activist Dr. Sidney Wolfe has died —
Sidney M. Wolfe, a doctor turned consumer activist who battled drug companies, lobbyists and regulators during a nearly five-decade crusade against ineffective, risky and overpriced medications that made him a hero to patient advocacy groups and an implacable foe to anyone who opposed him, died Jan. 1 at his home in Washington. He was 86.The cause was a brain tumor, said his wife, Suzanne Goldberg. Dr. Wolfe did not practice medicine for long and instead spent most of his career with the Health Research Group, part of the Washington-based Public Citizen organization founded by consumer activist Ralph Nader. (Rosenwald, 1/1)
