Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Top Public Health Care Concern: Drug Costs
Medicare spending on breakthrough medications for hepatitis C will nearly double this year, passing $9 billion, according to new government figures. That’s raising insurance costs for all beneficiaries, whether or not they have the liver-wasting viral disease. The price of drugs is the public’s top health-care concern in opinion polls, and the 2016 presidential candidates are increasingly paying attention. The federal Department of Health and Human Services will hold a public forum next week to examine the high cost of new drugs for difficult diseases. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/13)
Cardiovascular disease drugs are often unavailable or unaffordable in many communities around the world, particularly in poorer countries, a recent study suggests. Four types of medicines are recommended to help prevent deaths from cardiovascular disease: aspirin, beta blockers to control heart rhythm and lower high blood pressure (like atenolol or metoprolol, for example), drugs such as ACE inhibitors to relax blood vessels and improve blood flow (like captopril or enalapril, for instance) and statins to lower cholesterol (such as simvastatin or atorvastatin, or others). (Rapaport, 11/13)
Give Pfizer, the giant drug maker, points for boldness and persistence: The company has bravely put “tax inversions” back in the headlines. Pfizer, which already holds roughly $140 billion overseas and is quite skillful at minimizing its taxes, is considering a deal that could move its legal tax headquarters from New York to Dublin, where it could save bundles more. (Sommer, 11/14)
After battling each other to a standstill on patent reform, some tech giants and drug companies are joining together for another intellectual property priority: getting Congress to pass trade secrets legislation. (Tummarello, 11/16)
AstraZeneca PLC on Friday said it won approval in the U.S. for a potential lung-cancer treatment, after an unusually quick development process that took just 2½ years. The drug, called Tagrisso, which the company had labeled as AZD9291 during development, is the first drug for a subset of lung-cancer patients whose tumors have spread and developed a treatment-resistant mutation, called T790M. (Roland, 11/13)
