Hello, everyone, and welcome to the middle of the week. Congratulations on making it this far. It is an accomplishment, after all. The next step is to … keep going. And why not? Just consider the alternatives. On that optimistic note, please join us for a needed cup or three of stimulation. Our choice today is maple bourbon, a pantry favorite. Meanwhile, here is the latest menu of tidbits to get you going. Have a wonderful day, and do drop us a line when you hear something revealing. …
President Trump and top federal health officials have repeatedly claimed that their new website, TrumpRx, offers Americans the world’s lowest prices on prescription drugs, but that is not true, according to a review by The New York Times and the German news organizations Süddeutsche Zeitung, NDR and WDR. The drugs listed on TrumpRx can cost American patients up to hundreds or thousands of dollars, while a patient walking into a German pharmacy pays next to nothing. The German health system foots the bill, and records show that, more often than not, it pays less than what the Trump administration negotiated for Americans. Some well-known drugs on the list are Xeljanz, for autoimmune conditions, and Farxiga, for diabetes and heart and kidney problems. Both are cheaper in Germany, a rare example of a country that makes its negotiated drug prices public.
A U.S. appeals court revived a whistleblower lawsuit accusing four large drugmakers of defrauding the federal and state governments out of hundreds of millions of dollars by overcharging on medications for low-income and uninsured patients, Reuters writes. In a 3-0 decision, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Novartis, and Sanofi must face allegations they violated the federal False Claims Act through their involvement in the Section 340B Drug Discount Program. Adventist Health System/West, a nonprofit with more than 440 hospitals and clinics, said years of overcharges caused Medicare and Medicaid to pay inflated reimbursements for drugs. Circuit Judge Roopali Desai wrote that while Section 340B does not give medical providers a private right to sue drugmakers for overcharges, they can sue under the False Claims Act to recover damages for alleged fraud that causes “financial loss” to the government.Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…