Delinking pharmacy benefits managers’ compensation from the prices of drugs received bipartisan rhetorical support at a HELP markup, but the panel only cleared less drastic PBM reforms along with generic and orphan-drug focused policies. Approved amendments tackled step therapy, pharma transparency and PBM gag clauses, among other topics.
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee easily cleared four bills aimed at tackling the cost of pharmaceuticals on 11 May on unanimous or near unanimous votes, marking the start of what Chairman Bernie Sanders hopes will eventually lead to more sweeping reforms during his tenure atop the powerful committee.
One topic that looks likely to come back around is delinking the payments pharmacy benefits managers receive for their work...
Some medicines may be subject to price rises that make them unaffordable if the burden of paying for extra wastewater treatment is not more fairly distributed across different industries, the Danish pharmaceutical industry association has warned.
While titanium dioxide is banned as a food additive in the EU, the European Medicines Agency has convinced the European Commission to allow its continued use in the many thousands of medicines in which it is currently used.
Companies have until early November to respond to a public consultation from the European Commission on its planned Biotech Act, which it hopes will help unleash the potential of small and midsize enterprises in the bloc.
The European Commission has adopted new rules to cut red tape in pharmacovigilance, tighten oversight of outsourced drug safety activities, and ensure a balanced approach to signal detection, boosting both efficiency and patient safety.
The once and current CBER director’s justification for his COVID-19 decision stands as a warning of the uncertainty sponsors, particularly those in the vaccine space, may now face at FDA.
Pink Sheet Drug Review Profile feature listing FDA staff who conducted the reviews of Novavax and Moderna's post-pandemic COVID-19 vaccines
Business Group on Health annual employer survey highlights fast-growing Rx costs, led by the GLP-1 drugs, and payer strategies for controlling them. Policy prescriptions are unclear, though, since employers are loath to leave PBMs and nervous about pending changes to Medicare and Medicaid.
