Hello, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing just fine, thank you, especially since the middle of the week is upon us. After all, we have made it this far so we are determined to hang on for another couple of days. And why not? The alternatives — at least those we can identify — are not particularly appealing, as you might imagine. So what better way to make the time fly than to keep busy. So grab that cup of stimulation and get started. Our choice today is salted caramel, a touch of the Jersey shore. And now, the time has come to get cracking. Here are a few items of interest to help you get started. We hope you have a lovely day, and do keep in touch. And we will once again remind you that we changed our settings to accept postcards and telegrams. Back to the future, as they say. …
President Trump unveiled a wide-ranging executive order that aims to lower drug prices, boost transparency into fees charged by pharmacy benefit managers, improve the process for states to apply to import lower-cost drugs from Canada, and streamline approvals for generic drugs and biosimilars, but much of the order would require further rule-making or other actions to have any effect, STAT says. The order directs U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to address an imbalance in the Inflation Reduction Act that gives small-molecule drugs nine years before they are subject to Medicare price negotiations, compared to 13 years for biologics, which some call a pill penalty because companies argue there is less incentive to invest in a pill. The order contains two provisions that affect the 340B Drug Discount Program. The first would require federally qualified health centers to pass along discounts received on insulin and injectable epinephrine to certain low income patients. The second seeks to limit providers’ ability to profit from the program by studying and then crafting rules to align prices they pay for drugs with Medicare rates.
Nearly three dozen global pharmaceutical companies, in a letter to the head of the European Commission, demanded help to maintain operations in the European Union despite threatened U.S. tariffs on imports, including measures to compensate them for the cost of pharmaceutical innovations, Les Echos reported. In the letter sent to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the companies — including Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and AstraZeneca — said they face cost disadvantages in Europe versus the United States, where drugs are sold at prices that on average are twice that of some European countries, such as France. The companies also asked the EU to simplify regulations, noting that companies currently must conduct multi-country clinical trials for drugs. They also took issue with a fee the sector will soon need to pay to treat wastewater from micropollutants.
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