It appeared as though the controversy over the level of efficacy and benefit from the prostate cancer immunotherapy Provenge ended when the drug was approved by FDA at the end of April. The FDA approval may have just been the halfway point in the product's route through government agencies to the commercial market. Now Medicare is questioning whether the government should pay for the new therapy. The CMS decision is just as important to the biopharmaceutical industry as it is to Dendreon.
By Ramsey Baghdadi
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The biotech CEO said the Trump Administration’s treatment of FDA employees, including the HHS secretary’s comments about industry capture, are insulting to agency staff, but he is encouraged by FDA Commissioner Martin Makary’s talk of a new conditional approval pathway.
Manufacturers are engaging the European Commission and individual countries to allocate more health care spending to innovative medicines and align prices more closely to those in the US.
Blood cancer therapies were most proportionately impacted by the failure of pharmaceutical companies to submit evidence on their cancer therapies to England’s health technology appraisal body, shows analysis by the Pink Sheet.
Employers and other health plan sponsors may need to push for better targeted reforms that lower cost sharing for patients.
Swiss authorities have introduced temporary measures that will make it easier for health care professionals to import medicines that are either not authorized or not available in Switzerland, which will particularly benefit pediatric drugs, in light of ongoing shortages.
Both the EU Clinical Trials Regulation and the European Health Data Space Regulation have the potential to improve harmonization and be highly valuable for industry – but the importance of protecting company data will be paramount, a life sciences consultant says.
With review and development uncertainly increasing, "it’s going to take longer for certain targets … to progress to a place where they’ve been derisked enough that big pharma is ready to write a big check," said Andrew Goodman of Paul Hastings.
