The National Association of Medicaid Directors (NAMD) issued a letter to Congress last month that included a variety of interesting proposals but also raised the specter of direct or indirect price controls for the very high-priced Hepatitis drugs that are devastating state Medicaid budgets. Read More
The defeat of more than a half dozen sitting Democratic senators last Tuesday marks the first time since 1980 that the GOP has been able to unseat more than two incumbents in a single night. Read More
Imagine an industry that generates higher profit margins than any other and is no stranger to multi-billion dollar fines for malpractice. Read More
Medicaid chiefs from red and blue states are urging Congress to stem the cost of revolutionary new drugs for hepatitis C, cancer, and other diseases. Read More
Some of the nation’s hospitals are seriously ticked off at Genentech, the San Francisco biotech firm, for implementing a stealth price hike for three critical cancer drugs. Read More
What the study should have asked is whether or not the price Gilead set for the therapy is appropriate for all patients–even asymptomatic patients–and whether or not such a large portion of potential societal value should accrue to one company. Read More
A great deal of analysis has been published on the causes of the health care spending slowdown system-wide — including in the pages of Health Affairs. Read More
Some patients are paying sky-high prices for ‘specialty medications’ when cheaper options exist, a team of researchers has found. Read More
Pricey new hepatitis C drugs, such as Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Sovaldi, may make financial sense to give to give to prisoners, one of the main groups infected with the liver-damaging virus, according to a team of Stanford University researchers. Read More
Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH priced its new treatment for a deadly lung-scarring disease at $96,000 a year, just higher than Roche Holding AG’s (ROG) competing product. Read More
On the day that Gilead introduced its new $94,500 hepatitis C drug, Harvoni, Gilead Vice President of Investor Relations Patrick O'Brien went into full spin mode, telling Politico (subscription required) that Harvoni is a bargain compared to Gilead's other hep C drug, the $84,000 Sovaldi. Read More
According to a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation, almost every state Medicaid plan is concerned about the rising cost of specialty drugs -- specifically Sovaldi. Sovaldi is a hepatitis c drug from Gilead Sciences which costs $1,000 a pill, or $84,000 for a 12-week treatment—prices which the plans have balked at. Read More