Drug Pricing: Page 2

Price for Gilead's COVID-19 drug should shrink if cheap steroid widely used, ICER says

The drug pricing watchdog calculated a lower cost-effective price for remdesivir if dexamethasone, newly shown to help the sickest COVID-19 patients live, becomes standard of care.

By Jonathan Gardner • June 24, 2020

With new proposal, Trump administration tries to encourage 'value-based' drug deals

With an eye toward a coming wave of pricey gene therapies, CMS is seeking to make it easier for drugmakers and insurers to enter into contracts linking payment with patient outcomes.

By Ned Pagliarulo , Jonathan Gardner • UPDATED: June 18, 2020 at 2:35 p.m.

Pressure on generic drugmakers increases with new price fixing lawsuit

The case claims that companies, including Pfizer, Mylan and Novartis, divided the market up into a "fair share" arrangement that allowed them all to raise prices without fearing competition.

By Jonathan Gardner • June 10, 2020

After donation to the U.S., Gilead outlines plans to distribute COVID-19 drug worldwide

Gilead is negotiating licenses for remdesivir with overseas manufacturers and charities, which parallels past efforts with its hepatitis C and HIV drugs.

By Jonathan Gardner • May 06, 2020

With new estimate, ICER sets terms of debate on pricing Gilead's COVID-19 drug

The influential watchdog group judged Gilead's remdesivir would be cost effective at $4,500 per treatment course, setting the stage for what's likely to be a controversial decision by the company. 

By Ned Pagliarulo • May 04, 2020

Gilead may have a drug for COVID-19. Wall Street asks whether it will profit

The biotech is donating its current supply of remdesivir. Afterwards, will it make money on the drug, or continue to take losses for the greater good? 

By Ned Pagliarulo • May 01, 2020

Merck, Samsung join newly crowded market for Herceptin biosimilars

Ontruzant, which will be sold by Merck, is the fifth copycat version of Roche's top-selling breast cancer drug to launch in the U.S.

By Kristin Jensen • April 15, 2020

New sickle cell drugs priced too high, ICER says

At more than $80,000 a year, therapies from Novartis and Global Blood aren't cost-effective, the group says in its first assessment using a new real-world evidence platform.

By Jonathan Gardner • March 13, 2020

FDA, FTC put drugmakers on notice about tactics to block biosimilars

A joint agency meeting called out deceptive advertising and anti-competitive practices that may have kept the U.S. from catching up to Europe in establishing a market for lower-priced biologics.

By Jonathan Gardner • March 09, 2020

Pfizer, Amgen, Lilly spent most to lobby Congress, study finds

Spending by the industry ramped up at key times, including around the 2016 presidential election and just before the passage of the Affordable Care Act.

By Kristin Jensen • March 04, 2020

High prices fuel pharma profits. New research provides more context

Drugmakers often enjoy significantly wider net income margins than large companies in other industries, and those profits have come amid steady list — and net — price hikes for hundreds of medicines.

By Ned Pagliarulo • March 03, 2020

New estimate puts cost to develop a new drug at $1B, adding to long-running debate

Pharma companies spend $300 million to $400 million bringing a new medicine to market, but per-product R&D costs are much higher after accounting for the many drugs that fail in testing.

By Jonathan Gardner • March 03, 2020

Patient group pushes Trump-backed drug pricing bill

A new national TV ad campaign from Patients For Affordable Drugs urges Congress to pass a bipartisan bill from the Senate Finance Committee. 

By Kristin Jensen • Feb. 26, 2020

Amid coronavirus fears, a generics giant pledges price stability

For the roughly two dozen drugs Sandoz deemed essential, it will refrain from list price increases, rebate decreases or other actions that would increase commercial drug costs for healthcare systems.

By Jacob Bell • Feb. 26, 2020

In a nod toward pharma, ICER makes deal to access real-world evidence

A partnership with Aetion will give ICER more information to include in its drug reviews, but could renew debate on the usefulness of evidence collected outside of clinical study.

By Jonathan Gardner • Feb. 24, 2020

Biotech executives, having pledged fair pricing, criticize drugmaker for steep hike

Belcher Pharmaceuticals priced its new injectable drug at nearly $10,000, spurring pushback from a group of leading biotech executives behind a recently published "industry commitment."

By Ned Pagliarulo • Feb. 19, 2020

January price increases confirm slowing drug inflation

Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Allergan were the most active, collectively raising list prices on some 450 drugs, according to one Wall Street analyst.

By Jonathan Gardner • Feb. 04, 2020

Amgen, Pfizer biosimilar sales pressure top drugs

Competition is heating up for copycats to Roche's top-selling cancer drugs, as the U.S. biosimilar market shows some modest signs of shifting.

By Jonathan Gardner • Jan. 31, 2020

A biotech startup launches with unusual goal: invent new drugs, and sell them for less

Founded by venture capitalist Alexis Borisy, EQRx will launch with $200 million in funding to prove out a vision as daunting as it is ambitious.

By Ned Pagliarulo • Jan. 13, 2020

Pfizer, AbbVie and Gilead among drugmakers boosting prices to start 2020

List prices rose on some of the top-selling medicines in the U.S., including Humira, Opdivo, Prevnar 13 and Biktarvy.

By Andrew Dunn • Jan. 02, 2020

Trump administration lays out plans to import drugs from abroad

But it's not clear how effective importation would be at achieving the administration's goal of reducing drug prices. High-cost drugs like biologics, for example, are excluded from one of the two proposed pathways. 

By Ned Pagliarulo • Dec. 18, 2019

House passes drug pricing bill that pharma warned would bring 'nuclear winter'

While unlikely to be taken up by the Senate, the bill is the most substantive threat to drugmakers to emerge in a year in which pricing remained a political and legislative focus.

By Jonathan Gardner • Dec. 12, 2019

Value-based pricing for gene therapy? Maybe not ready for hemophilia

A small patient population plus large potential savings could make blood-clotting gene therapies an easier sell to payers, biotech executives say.

By Jonathan Gardner • Dec. 11, 2019

Deep Dive

Will sky-high drug prices spur the US to use an obscure power over patents?

New cell therapies as well as gene-based treatments like Zolgensma benefited from NIH funding of early-stage research. Advocates say the time is now for the government to invoke its "march-in" rights. 

By Jonathan Gardner • Dec. 04, 2019

Global Blood's sickle cell drug wins FDA approval, joining Novartis' Adakveo

A list price of roughly $10,000 a month puts Global Blood's Oxbryta slightly higher than what Novartis' Adakveo will cost.

By Jonathan Gardner • UPDATED: Nov. 26, 2019 at 10:04 a.m.