Tag: PhRMA

US pharmaceutical companies sue to halt cuts in drug prices

Volume 402, Issue 10399
29 July 2023 

 

WORLD REPORT  Medicare will soon be able to negotiate some drug prices to reduce costs for patients and taxpayers. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.

The first set of ten drugs subject to price negotiations by the US Medicare programme will be unveiled on Sept 1, 2023, but some pharmaceutical companies and their allies are not waiting to find out which products will be on the list. So far, four manufacturers and two trade associations are suing to stop the process before it begins. [Continued here.] 

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Drug developers caution against US mifepristone ban

Volume 401, Issue 10385
22 April 2023 

 

WORLD REPORT     A lawsuit against the FDA embroils pharmaceutical companies in debates over access to
abortion. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.

Less than 1 year after the US Supreme Court ended its 1973 constitutional guarantee to an abortion and told state lawmakers that they could decide whether a person ends their pregnancy, abortion is now back before the court. But this fresh legal challenge has dragged the nation’s entire drug approval system along with it, rousing a powerful lobbying group and economic force that has mostly managed to avoid the fray—the pharmaceutical industry. [Continued here.]…

US Congress lets Medicare negotiate lower drug prices

Volume 400, Issue 10352
20 August 2022 

 

WORLD REPORT  A new law also targets climate change in a major victory for Democrats and President Joe Biden. Susan Jaffe reports from Washington, DC.

Shattering decades of opposition from the pharmaceutical industry and its allies, slim Democratic majorities in the US House of Representatives and Senate have passed landmark legislation to begin to control runaway drug prices for almost 50 million older Americans with Medicare’s pharmaceutical benefit. The bill also provides the largest federal investment in US history—US$370 billion—to slash greenhouse gases by 40% below 2005 emissions and respond to the devastating effects of climate change…. The legislation also ensures that no Medicare beneficiary pays more than $2000 a year for drugs. “That means you will have more money in your pocket”, said Tatiana Fassieux, education and training specialist at California Health Advocates. [Continued here.]
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US drug importation plan hits snag

Volume 397, Issue 10291
12 June 2021

WORLD REPORT The Biden administration says it has “no timeline” for deciding if states can import cheap drugs from Canada. 

President Joe Biden’s administration said last week that it won’t decide whether to allow states to import drugs from Canada anytime soon, if ever. Biden supported drug importation during the presidential campaign, as did his opponent, Donald Trump, to mitigate sky-rocketing drug costs in the USA. Americans pay more per capita for prescription drugs than any other country…. [Continued here.]

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USA grapples with high drugs costs

 lancet cover 2Volume 386, Number  10009 
28 November 2015
WORLD REPORT   More Americans are getting health insurance, including coverage for prescription drugs, but high prices may make them inaccessible. Susan Jaffe, The Lancet’s Washington correspondent, reports.
 Patients in the USA pay more for prescription drugs than almost anywhere else in the world, forcing as many as one in four who can’t afford the high prices to go without their medicine last year, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. So even though more Americans have health insurance, the new therapies and cures that can prevent more expensive health complications might be out of reach.
After several well-publicised, huge spikes in drug prices—including Turing Pharmaceutical’s increase for pyrimethamine (marketed as Daraprim) from US$13·50 to $750 a pill—the problem is drawing unprecedented attention from nearly every quarter: the Obama Administration, Congress, state officials, health insurance companies, drug makers, as well as the physicians and their patients who have clamoured for help for years. It also surfaced during this month’s Democratic presidential debate.
Heather Block, a patient advocate from Delaware who spoke at a day-long pharmaceutical forum hosted by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) earlier this month, pays $9800 a month for the drugs she takes to treat breast cancer that has spread to her liver and lungs. Although she has Medicare coverage, she is still responsible for a share of her medical expenses. “Innovation is meaningless if nobody can afford it”, she said. “I still face financial insecurity and eventually bankruptcy—if I live that long.”     [Continued here ]
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