It’s no secret that big pharma is big business. Americans spend hundreds of billions on prescription medications every year, with that figure projected to keep growing. And now a new report shows that the top-selling brand-name prescription drugs in the U.S. earn more than $60 billion a year for their manufacturers, with the biggest money-maker topping $13 billion per year in sales on its own. [More]
drug prices
HHS: Taxpayers May Have Overpaid $1.27 Billion For EpiPens
By 5.31.17 — Updated: 6.1.17
Even though drug company Mylan agreed to pay $465 million to quickly settle a Justice Department investigation into allegations that it deliberately overcharged Medicaid for its EpiPen emergency allergy injector, a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services indicates that taxpayers may have overpaid more than twice that amount over ten years. [More]
4 Ways A Drug Company Makes Billions Off Patients With The Rarest Diseases
By 5.24.17
It’s no secret that there’s big money to be had in drugs. The cost of many pharmaceuticals has increased dramatically. But the real money makers for the drug industry aren’t necessarily the commonplace prescriptions for antibiotics of painkillers that most of us know by name; it’s the drugs that are used by very few people, who often need them to survive. [More]
Lawsuit: EpiPen Price Hikes Were Intended To Keep Competitor Out Of Pharmacies
By 4.26.17 — Updated: 5.9.17
Competition is supposed to keep prices down, so why did the cost of emergency allergy treatment EpiPen continue to soar after the introduction of a competing product? Because, according to a new lawsuit, most of that added money was going to intermediaries who could make sure that EpiPen remained the preferred (and sometimes only) drug of its kind on insurance plans. [More]
Senators Want To Know Why Price Of Lifesaving Drug Went From $690 To $4,500
By 2.8.17 — Updated: 2.17.17
As you’re probably all too aware, the U.S. is in the midst of an opioid epidemic, meaning that some life-saving overdose treatments have become crucial tools for hospitals, law enforcement, first responders, and families of addicts. At the same time, the makers of one such vital drug have raised the price by more than 600% since 2014, drawing the attention of lawmakers who want to know why. [More]
Feds: Drug Company Delayed Cheaper Generics By Flooding The FDA With Paperwork
By 2.7.17 — Updated: 2.12.17
Given that a brand-name prescription drug stands to lose a significant chunk of its market share once a lower-price generic becomes available, you can understand why a drug company would want to do anything it can to delay the cheaper alternative, even if you disagree with their intentions. We’ve seen companies accused of paying millions to stave off competition through alleged “pay for delay” deals, and we’ve also seen examples of “product hopping” to prevent competitors from entering the field. Now here’s another method for keeping generics off the market: allegedly flooding the Food and Drug Administration with pointless paperwork. [More]
20 States Accuse Teva, Mylan & Other Pharma Companies Of Price-Fixing
By 12.15.16
When the Justice Department announced it was bringing criminal charges against two former executives of a pharmaceuticals company, alleging a conspiracy to fix prices on generic drugs, we said that this was likely just the tip of the legal iceberg. Today, the industry ran smack into that iceberg — in the form of a lawsuit filed by twenty states against six different drug companies, including notables like Teva and Mylan. [More]
Generic Drug Companies Could Soon Face Criminal Price-Collusion Charges
By 11.4.16
The pharmaceuticals industry has come under heavy scrutiny in recent years for soaring prices, though much of the attention has focused on name-brand drugs with no or minimal competition. However, multiple news reports now claim that some generic drug companies could soon face federal criminal charges over allegations that they colluded on price. [More]
Report: Defense Department Overpaid $54 Million For EpiPens
By 10.28.16
It looks like taxpayers didn’t just overpay for EpiPens purchased through Medicaid. According to a new report, the Department of Defense has been paying almost full retail price for the expensive emergency allergy treatment. [More]
Pharmaceutical Companies Accused Of Colluding To Delay Generic Version Of Popular Cholesterol Drug
By 10.10.16
If you’ve got a patent-protected drug that’s bringing in more than $1 billion a year in sales, you stand to lose a significant chunk of that revenue when the patent expires and lower-cost generic versions come on the market. A California prosecutor alleges that a number of drug companies illegally colluded in a nearly decade-long “pay-for-delay” deal intended to prevent the release of a cheaper competitor to a popular cholesterol drug. [More]
Administrator: Mylan Has Overcharged Medicaid For EpiPen By At Least 10%
By 10.6.16
Though the EpiPen emergency allergy treatment has been around for decades, the increased demand for the drug and its soaring price tag have caused Medicaid spending on EpiPen to go from around $66 million in 2011 to $365 million in 2015. All this time, claims Andrew Slavitt, Acting Administrator for the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Mylan’s parent company has been shortchanging Medicaid on rebates. [More]
Senators Ask DOJ To Investigate Mylan Over Possible EpiPen Medicaid Fraud
By 9.28.16
EpiPen maker Mylan might have thought that dealing with the public shaming of a congressional hearing would be the low point of its ongoing price-hike scandal, but lawmakers continue to scrutinize the drug company and are now calling for a federal investigation into the possibility that Mylan was deliberately mis-categorizing the emergency allergy medication in order to reap bigger payments from Medicaid. [More]
Cost Of Prescription Skin Gel Goes From $226 To $9,561 In Under Two Years
By 9.26.16
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: there’s a drug out there that does a very specific thing, and has no generic alternative. For years, it sold for a predictable three-figure price point. Then one day, if gets acquired by a new company and in just a few months, the price increases by more than 4000%. It is, unfortunately, such a common tale of late that we all know the general outline by heart. And now it seems to be happening again. [More]
Here’s Why You Shouldn’t Order Your EpiPens From Canada
By 9.1.16
One solution that some families have used in response to the soaring cost of Mylan’s EpiPen, an essential product for people with life-threatening allergies, is to order the product from a cheaper pharmacy in Canada instead. While this might appear to be a solid plan, the problem is that “Canadian” pharmacies aren’t always necessarily what they claim to be online. [More]
Diabetes Patients Are Losing Limbs And Sight Because They Can’t Afford Insulin
By 8.23.16
Earlier this week, we shared the concerns of patients who are struggling with the rising cost of EpiPens, injection devices that can save lives in the case of a severe allergic reaction to foods or other substances. The important thing about EpiPens, though, is that patients hope to never actually need to use them. Another drug with significant recent price increases, insulin, has to be taken every day… when patients can afford it. [More]
5 Reasons Prescription Drug Prices Are Going Up For Many Americans
By 6.21.16
If you feel like you’re paying more for medication, you’re not alone. A new investigation from our colleagues at Consumer Reports finds that one-third of Americans are seeing higher prices for prescriptions, and one-in-six people chose to avoid getting a prescription filled because of the cost. So what’s behind the increased cost of staying well? [More]
Feds Say Drug Company Illegally Blocked Lower-Cost Generics From Entering Market
By 3.31.16
When a drug patent nears its end, drug companies sometimes do really stupid, potentially illegal things to delay or prevent their bottom line being dinged by a lower-cost generic version. One drug company is accused of not just paying off a generic drug maker to delay the release of its version of two medications, but further hurting consumers by agreeing to not compete with the generic. [More]
Dem Gains Make Big Pharma Queasy
By 11.9.06
In other news, Democratic control of Congress cured our dyspepsia. — BEN POPKEN
