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On Aug. 30, the Food and Drug Administration approved a radical new cancer treatment that harnesses a patient’s immune system to attack tumor cells. The drug, known as Kymriah, grew out of research conducted and supported by the National Institutes of Health. Seven weeks later the F.D.A. approved a second cancer therapy that uses similar technology. This treatment, Yescarta, “got its start right here at N.I.H.,” said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the health institutes. It was developed by Kite Pharma using technology licensed from the N.I.H. Kymriah costs $475,000 for a one-time treatment, and Yescarta goes for $373,000. (Pear, 5/28)

President Trump’s Rose Garden speech on drug prices is over. The media blitz that initially animated his top health lieutenants is fading. Now the administration has to take action. Overwhelmingly, the bulk of the Trump administration plan to bring down drug prices — to force companies to include a medication’s price in their TV commercials or expand the way pharmacy benefit managers negotiate prices for costly cancer treatments, for example — falls under the authority of Health and Human Services Department and two of its most prominent agencies, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. (Mershon, 5/29)

The White House official who will shape a large part of the administration's drug price plan worked on many of the same issues as an industry lobbyist, raising questions about whether he violated President Donald Trump's ethics rules. Joe Grogan — who has sweeping authority over drug pricing, entitlement programs and other aspects of federal health policy at the Office of Management and Budget — didn't obtain a waiver from a directive Trump issued during his first week in office that imposed a two-year cooling-off period between lobbying and regulating on the same "specific issue area." (Pittman, 5/27)

Kaiser Health News: To Lower Medicare Drug Costs And Get Around Gag Orders At Pharmacy, Just Ask For The Cash Price

As part of President Donald Trump’s blueprint to bring down prescription costs, Medicare officials have warned insurers that “gag orders” keeping pharmacists from alerting seniors that they could save money by paying cash — rather than using their insurance — are “unacceptable and contrary” to the government’s effort to promote price transparency. But the agency stopped short of requiring insurers to lift such restrictions on pharmacists. (Jaffe, 5/30)

President Donald Trump’s top health official is testing a new tactic in his bid to lower drug costs: Sound more like the boss. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has slammed drugmakers for their “runaway price increases,” accused insurers of keeping customers in the dark and warned that drug industry middlemen are gaming the system, in what those close to Azar refer to as his “bully pulpit” strategy. It’s reminiscent of Trump’s frequent accusations that pharmaceutical companies are “getting away with murder.” (Cancryn, 5/27)

As Celgene struggles to recover from several setbacks that have battered its stock, one Wall Street analyst issued a sobering assessment of its pipeline performance that suggests the lack of investor confidence is well deserved. In explaining his rationale, Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges started out by pointing to a cataclysmic event last fall. The biotech discontinued development of a drug for combating Crohn’s disease, a treatment that had been expected to provide an important new revenue stream. (Silverman, 5/25)

The European Commission on Monday proposed to change intellectual property rules to let pharmaceutical companies produce generic drugs for export to countries and regions where they are not under extended patent protection. Supplementary protection certificates (SPCs) were introduced to expand patents on certain pharmaceuticals to compensate for the long time it takes such products to come to the market. (Bartunek, 5/28)

Kaiser Health News: Benefit Change Could Raise Costs For Patients Getting Drug Copay Assistance

Since Kristen Catton started taking the drug Gilenya two years ago, she’s had only one minor relapse of her multiple sclerosis, following a bout of the flu. She can walk comfortably, see clearly and work part time as a nurse case manager at a hospital near her home in Columbus, Ohio. This is a big step forward; two drugs she previously tried failed to control her physical symptoms or prevent repeated flare-ups. (Andrews, 5/29)

Drugmakers, whose industry pricing faced renewed scorn this month from President Donald Trump, have been taking advantage of the U.S. tax overhaul he signed last year to buy back shares of their own underperforming stocks. Large-cap biopharmaceutical companies took advantage of repatriation of overseas profits and lower corporate tax rates to push share repurchases to the highest level in at least 10 years. Companies led by Amgen Inc. and Pfizer Inc. bought back a combined $16.7 billion in the most recent quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. And they’re not done. Celgene Corp., whose market value has been cut in half over the course of about seven months, on Thursday boosted its repurchase capacity by $3 billion and planned a $2 billion accelerated buyback. (Lipschultz, 5/25)

German pharmaceutical giant Bayer AG has agreed to the U.S. government's demand that it sell about $9 billion in agriculture businesses as the condition for acquiring Monsanto Co., a U.S. seed and weed-killer maker. Antitrust regulators at the Justice Department say it's the biggest divestiture ever required for a merger. The regulators say they directed Bayer to divest assets such as vegetable oils, seeds and seed treatments to ensure fair competition and prevent price spikes after the massive agriculture business deal goes through. The assets will be sold to BASF, a German chemical company. (Gordon, 5/29)

Chief executives at the biggest public companies got an 8.5 percent raise last year, bringing the median pay package for CEOs to $11.7 million. Across the S&P 500, compensation for CEOs is often hundreds of times higher than typical workers. The pay increase matches the bump that CEOs received in 2016, according to salary, stock and other compensation data analyzed by Equilar for The Associated Press. (Choe, 5/26)

When Laboratory Corp. of America LH -1.11% disclosed pay for its chief executive in March, the company said he made $1.5 million in 2016. A week later the diagnostic-lab chain filed a new document listing his pay at $10.9 million. Chief Executive David King didn’t get a retroactive raise. His employer just proofread its work. (Francis, 5/30)