After several years of modest increases, American spending on medications is projected to shoot up by 12 percent this year, pushing the nation’s drug bill to between $375 billion and $385 billion, according to a report by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. Read More
It appears that spending on prescription medicines will continue to defy the laws of gravity, according to a new report from IMS Health Institute for Informatics. Read More
The cost to develop a new drug and win FDA marketing approval is now pegged at nearly $2.6 billion, according to a new report from the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. Read More
The revelation of hidden data bolstered a growing movement against what’s referred to within the research community as “publication bias,” in which scientists squirrel away mostly negative or inconclusive findings and broadcast only their positive ones. Read More
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
Safety Net Hospitals for Pharmaceutical Access (SNHPA) has joined the Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP), a broad-based coalition concerned about the skyrocketing cost of prescription medicines. 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