On April 30, Rebecca Shepherd, MD, MBA, and Amanda Myers, MD, represented rheumatology in a live town hall on the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program, describing the benefits of apremilast and nintedanib for patients with rheumatic disease.
Executive Order Targets Prescription Drugs & Health Insurance to Promote Competition
On July 9, U.S. President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order designed to promote competition in the U.S. economy. The order includes 72 initiatives related to various aspects of the economy, including prescription drugs and health insurance.1 For prescription drugs, Americans pay more than 2.5 times as much for the same prescription drugs as patients…
Humira, Rituxan Top List of U.S. Drugs with Biggest Price Increases
NEW YORK (Reuters)—AbbVie Inc.’s rheumatoid arthritis drug Humira (adalimumab) and Roche Holding AG’s cancer drug Rituxan (rituximab) topped a list of seven treatments whose combined 2017 and 2018 price hikes accounted for a $5.1 billion increase in U.S. spending, a report released on Tuesday showed.1 The price hikes were more than twice the rate of…
Trump Administration to Appeal Ruling Blocking Price Disclosure for Drug Ads
(Reuters)—The Trump administration is appealing a court ruling that struck down its plan to compel pharmaceutical companies to disclose wholesale prices of their drugs in televisions advertisements. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) filed a notice of appeal on Wednesday, as it prepares to challenge the July federal court ruling. “If the…
Pfizer Plans to Increase U.S. Drug Prices in January
NEW YORK (Reuters)—Pfizer Inc. said on Friday that it plans to hike U.S. prices on 41 of its medicines in January, after walking back its previous price increases this summer under pressure from President Donald Trump. The company said in a statement that the increases would be on around 10% of its drugs. Pfizer said…
ACR/ARHP Visits the Hill; Drug Pricing ‘Blueprint’ Revealed
Greetings, Advocates! In my last update, I described the great news from February’s budget agreement that fixed Medicare’s payment adjustments so MIPS penalties would not include Part B drug costs, ensuring stabilization of the Medicare Part B drug system, among other successes. (Read the ACR’s press release on this topic.) I also described the Trump administration’s…