And so, another working week will soon come to an end. This is, you may recall, our treasured signal to daydream about weekend plans. Our agenda is rather modest. Other than enjoying a symphony, we plan to sharpen our shovels and dig out some sweaters for the frigid few days that have descended on the Pharmalot campus. We do, however, plan another listening party, where the rotation will likely include this, this, this, this and this. And what about you? This may be a fine time to remain indoors, where you could curl up with a good book, stream a few series on the telly, or putter around the kitchen and concoct a few warm meals. Or you could reach out to someone special to make sure they are coping. Well, whatever you do, have a grand time. But be safe. Enjoy, and see you soon. …
Three U.S. senators sent a letter to the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services raising questions about TrumpRx — whose structure has yet to be described in detail — and the direct-to-consumer platforms that patients may be funneled toward in search of the lower costs touted by the website, STAT writes. The Trump administration soon plans to launch TrumpRx, a website it says will allow patients to buy prescription drugs directly from pharmaceutical companies at a discount. Over several months, the administration has made deals with more than a dozen pharmaceutical manufacturers to expand access to their drugs through the platform. The lawmakers reiterated concerns in a report they issued last July that DTC platforms can use “hand-picked telehealth companies to steer patients toward their own specific, high-cost medications.”
Drugmakers are doing something unusual this year: slashing prices for several widely used medicines, The Wall Street Journal explains. The companies made their typical round of price hikes to start the year, and also made big cuts to U.S. list prices for widely used drugs for diabetes, blood clotting, and other conditions. A big factor was federal government policy changes, including lower prices that Medicare negotiated and took effect for the first time this year. All told, 20 brand-name drugs had list-price cuts this month, ranging from 9.8% to 91.7%, according to 46brooklyn Research. Still, price increases outnumbered cuts this year. Some 948 drugs had price hikes between Jan. 1 and Jan. 19, netting out to a median increase of 4% among drugs that had price changes. Yet the medicines that saw price cuts are used so widely that average prices fell by one measure. On a weighted-average basis, reflecting the drugs’ prescription volumes in the Medicaid program, the average list price fell 0.6%, the first such decline since the firm began tracking the data in 2012.Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…