Orange you glad? Florida got approval from the Food and Drug Administration to import drugs from Canada. Ho-hum. The “how” still has to be figured out and approved and that isn’t easy. Canada has about the population of California. It doesn’t want to supply the United States with drugs. It’s one of those ideas that sounds good but isn’t realistically a solution to drug prices.
Getting the 101. Speaking of drug prices, JMCP just released a primer on brand name drug reimbursement. Perfect if you sort of get the topic but want to know more.
Wonky like me. A top 10 list or an in/out speaks to the start of the new year. One focused on health policy issues? YES. Dr. Leana Wen brings a clinical policy perspective to the issues that will be front and center for the year. I’m particularly interested in gene therapy and what will happen with psychedelics. Feels like we’re at the tipping point for policy action?
Knocked down a peg. Starting in April CVS will move on from Humira to biosimilars. I assume Humira locked up some pretty great contracts with the pharmacy benefit managers as the biosimilars hit the market. The party can’t last forever, the field is just too damn competitive.
DTC. Eli Lilly announced that they going to offer home delivery for their weight loss product. I love this and have wondered why this wasn’t thing for a while. It bypasses the weird economics of the whole supply chain (see next article). Weight loss is a great trial balloon for direct to consumer distribution; curious how it will go.
What is price? If it is the first of the year, there are stories about drug price increases. Just as ubiquitous as the in/out lists. Reuters wrote that over 500 drugs have price increases. My favorite line from the article – In 2023, drugmakers raised prices on 1,425 drugs, down from 2022, when they raised prices on 1,460 drugs. Sure? Prices go up. My Oreos cost more this year than last (and the double stuff are the new regular as far as I am concerned.) But demands for rebates go up too. Net prices are down. It feels like a rinse and repeat article that riles up people who don’t understand the behind the scenes.
Memo to self. In case you missed it, the White House took a step forward on the Defense Product Act production of essential medicines and put out a memo to the Department of Health and Human Services on the action in late December.
Behind the Scenes. Late December release on how CBO is thinking about the Inflation Reduction Act and innovation/investment.
Courting the win. Also in late December, the Courts reiterated that copay accumulators count towards out-of-pocket spending and a congressional letter supported accumulators.