Drug Innovation
Commentary
Don’t Import British Methods For Rationing Access To Drugs
Earlier this year, European authorities recommended approval of tofersen, a new drug that treats a rare genetic form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. That decision came nearly a year after American regulators granted the drug accelerated approval. Patients with that rare form of ALS in England aren’t so lucky. The National Institute for ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 28, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on drug pricing
Inflation Reduction Act Will Destroy Drug Access
Last month at a White House event, President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took a victory lap for supposedly having “beat Big Pharma” through drug-pricing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. Beaming with pride, they hailed new powers for Medicare to “negotiate” drug prices as a historic achievement. But their self-congratulation rests ...
Sally C. Pipes
May 20, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on pharmaceutical benefit managers
Biosimilars could save the healthcare system billions
Cost Plus Drug Company CEO Mark Cuban recently pointed out that self-insured businesses could save over $70,000 per employee annually by getting their workers to switch from AbbVie’s blockbuster anti-inflammatory treatment Humira to a lower-cost biosimilar called Yusimry. Humira has a list price of roughly $7,000 per month. Since it lost market exclusivity last year, nine nearly identical copycats have hit ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 23, 2024
Commentary
Congress Has A Big Chance To Investigate A Financial Threat To Patients
Following an enormous cyberattack on a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, the Senate Finance Committee has called the company’s CEO, Andrew Witty, to testify on April 30th. The hackers stole millions of medical records, which reflects badly on the company’s ability to protect patients. But while members of Congress are grilling Witty about the ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 22, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on prescription drug pricing
Biden, Sanders Took on ‘Big Pharma’ and Patients Lost
Speaking at a White House event with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., very recently, President Biden crowed about his rapidly progressing scheme to impose price controls on prescription drugs. “Finally — finally we beat Big Pharma,” he said to Sanders. Unfortunately for Americans — and indeed, patients everywhere — the Democrats’ assault on the drug industry ...
Sally C. Pipes
April 16, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on drug pricing
Cost-Based Pricing For Innovative Medicines Is Unviable And Harmful
Barber et al. just published a fundamentally flawed study on diabetes medicines in JAMA Network Open (JNO). This study wrongly suggests that cost-based pricing accurately values innovative on-patent medicines, distracts from serious policymaking, and fuels political grandstanding by politicians such as Senator Bernie Sanders. Cost-based pricing could be an economically viable pricing ...
Wayne Winegarden
April 12, 2024
Commentary
Read the latest on US drug pricing
Global Collaboration on Reference Models Will Further Depersonalize Healthcare
By Sally Pipes & Wayne Winegarden Question: What’s worse than government bureaucrats in Washington declaring the value of your medicine? Answer: Bureaucrats from Boston, London, Ottawa and Diemen establishing that value. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. It is the direction that the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review is ...
Pacific Research Institute
March 28, 2024
Commentary
Lawsuit Against Drug Company Could Quash Future Cures
Like most pharmaceutical companies, Gilead Sciences Inc. devotes a huge amount of time and money to making sure its products are safe for patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its drugs to fight HIV, and these medications have worked remarkably well. It then developed the next generation of ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 19, 2024
Commentary
Read about the latest drug rationing proposals
Let UK Keep Drug Rationing
Any list of the world’s most inhumane healthcare bureaucracies has to include Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence at the top. For over two decades, the agency has employed ruthless cost-benefit analyses to effectively deny British patients access to the latest medicines. Now NICE is looking to export its expertise rationing ...
Sally C. Pipes
March 11, 2024
Coronavirus
NEW BRIEF: Regulatory Roadblocks Hinder Development of New COVID-19 Treatments for the Immunocompromised
The current federal regulatory process to develop monoclonal antibodies to treat mutating strains of COVID-19 imposes unnecessary hurdles that hinder the creation and approval of effective treatments for the immunocompromised, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. ...
Wayne H Winegarden
March 6, 2024
Don’t Import British Methods For Rationing Access To Drugs
Earlier this year, European authorities recommended approval of tofersen, a new drug that treats a rare genetic form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS. That decision came nearly a year after American regulators granted the drug accelerated approval. Patients with that rare form of ALS in England aren’t so lucky. The National Institute for ...
Read the latest on drug pricing
Inflation Reduction Act Will Destroy Drug Access
Last month at a White House event, President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., took a victory lap for supposedly having “beat Big Pharma” through drug-pricing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. Beaming with pride, they hailed new powers for Medicare to “negotiate” drug prices as a historic achievement. But their self-congratulation rests ...
Read the latest on pharmaceutical benefit managers
Biosimilars could save the healthcare system billions
Cost Plus Drug Company CEO Mark Cuban recently pointed out that self-insured businesses could save over $70,000 per employee annually by getting their workers to switch from AbbVie’s blockbuster anti-inflammatory treatment Humira to a lower-cost biosimilar called Yusimry. Humira has a list price of roughly $7,000 per month. Since it lost market exclusivity last year, nine nearly identical copycats have hit ...
Congress Has A Big Chance To Investigate A Financial Threat To Patients
Following an enormous cyberattack on a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, the Senate Finance Committee has called the company’s CEO, Andrew Witty, to testify on April 30th. The hackers stole millions of medical records, which reflects badly on the company’s ability to protect patients. But while members of Congress are grilling Witty about the ...
Read the latest on prescription drug pricing
Biden, Sanders Took on ‘Big Pharma’ and Patients Lost
Speaking at a White House event with Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., very recently, President Biden crowed about his rapidly progressing scheme to impose price controls on prescription drugs. “Finally — finally we beat Big Pharma,” he said to Sanders. Unfortunately for Americans — and indeed, patients everywhere — the Democrats’ assault on the drug industry ...
Read the latest on drug pricing
Cost-Based Pricing For Innovative Medicines Is Unviable And Harmful
Barber et al. just published a fundamentally flawed study on diabetes medicines in JAMA Network Open (JNO). This study wrongly suggests that cost-based pricing accurately values innovative on-patent medicines, distracts from serious policymaking, and fuels political grandstanding by politicians such as Senator Bernie Sanders. Cost-based pricing could be an economically viable pricing ...
Read the latest on US drug pricing
Global Collaboration on Reference Models Will Further Depersonalize Healthcare
By Sally Pipes & Wayne Winegarden Question: What’s worse than government bureaucrats in Washington declaring the value of your medicine? Answer: Bureaucrats from Boston, London, Ottawa and Diemen establishing that value. Unfortunately, this is not a joke. It is the direction that the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review is ...
Lawsuit Against Drug Company Could Quash Future Cures
Like most pharmaceutical companies, Gilead Sciences Inc. devotes a huge amount of time and money to making sure its products are safe for patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved its drugs to fight HIV, and these medications have worked remarkably well. It then developed the next generation of ...
Read about the latest drug rationing proposals
Let UK Keep Drug Rationing
Any list of the world’s most inhumane healthcare bureaucracies has to include Britain’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence at the top. For over two decades, the agency has employed ruthless cost-benefit analyses to effectively deny British patients access to the latest medicines. Now NICE is looking to export its expertise rationing ...
NEW BRIEF: Regulatory Roadblocks Hinder Development of New COVID-19 Treatments for the Immunocompromised
The current federal regulatory process to develop monoclonal antibodies to treat mutating strains of COVID-19 imposes unnecessary hurdles that hinder the creation and approval of effective treatments for the immunocompromised, finds a new brief released today by the Center for Medical Economics and Innovation at the nonpartisan Pacific Research Institute. ...