Week in Review

Pharmaceutical companies

  • Top executives from Pfizer Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb Co., Sanofi SA, Merck & Co., AbbVie Inc., AstraZeneca PLC and Johnson & Johnson have all accepted Senate Finance Committee Sen. Chuck Grassley’s request to testify at the committee’s upcoming hearing on drug pricing on Feb. 26.
  • Johnson & Johnson will be the first pharmaceutical company to include the list prices of its drugs in television commercials, starting with Xarelto, its popular blood thinner. By late March, the pill’s list price, typical out-of-pocket costs and information about a website where viewers can calculate cost based on their insurance plan will appear at the end of the advertisement.
  • According to a RAND Corp. study, Purdue Pharma LP‘s reformulation of OxyContin in 2010 to make it more difficult to abuse ended up prompting addicts to switch to heroin injections. As a result, in states with above-average rates of non-medical OxyContin misuse, hepatitis C rates spiked at triple the pace compared to states with below-average misuse.
  • In response to the newly disclosed documents in Massachusetts’ lawsuit against Purdue Pharma that alleges McKinsey & Co. helped the drugmaker strategize tactics to “turbocharge” sales of OxyContin and counter efforts by drug enforcement agents to reduce opioid use, McKinsey said some of the references to it “lack context” and are second- or third-hand. The management consulting firm said it is continuing to review the complaint.

Trump administration

  • In his State of the Union address, President Donald Trump outlined his health goals for the next two years and beyond, calling on Congress to reduce health care costs by passing legislation to deliver consumers price transparency, and to end “global freeloading” contributing to high drug prices. The president also announced a plan to dedicate $500 million over the next decade to research treatments for childhood cancers, eliminate HIV in the United States in the next 10 years and called on Congress to ban abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
  • The Trump administration is neglecting federal rules mandating that states assess how Medicaid work requirements are affecting low-income patients who rely on the federal health care program, according to an analysis. Of the eight states that have approval to implement work requirements, none have a plan to study whether beneficiaries find employment and see improvements in their health outcomes.
  • The Justice Department announced it is suing the nonprofit organization Safehouse aiming to open the nation’s first supervised drug injection site in Philadelphia, where drug users could inject themselves with heroin, fentanyl or other drugs in the presence of medically trained professionals to ensure they do not overdose.
  • The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. for its sale of tobacco products, such as cigars and menthol cigarettes, to minors, with 22 percent of the pharmacies inspected found to be violating the law. After 1,550 warning letters and 240 civil money penalty actions against Walgreens stores, the agency is now attempting to block one location from selling tobacco products for 30 days.
  • Jonathan White, a health official within the Health and Human Services Department, testified during a House Energy and Commerce oversight committee hearing examining the Trump administration’s family separation immigration policy that he warned three HHS officials of the deleterious health effects the “zero-tolerance” policy could have on immigrant children when he first caught wind of it in February 2017. White said he was told the administration would not implement the policy.

Drug pricing

  • At the National Health Policy Conference, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said hospitals could go further to inform patients about the cost of their care by ensuring they can decipher the chargemaster list prices posted online. In response to arguments from providers that list prices are not sufficient indicators of consumer costs, Azar said hospitals could “do something about that.”
  • Eli Lilly and Co. expressed support for HHS’ recently announced proposal to end the system of rebates negotiated between drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers, in an attempt to shift savings directly to patients.
  • House Ways and Means Health subcommittee Chairman Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) introduced a new bill that would require the HHS secretary to negotiate prices for drugs under Medicare Part D directly with drugmakers, and if drugmakers refuse to negotiate, the bill empowers the agency to issue competitive licenses to generic manufacturers whether or not the product in question has patent protection.

Earnings

  • Health insurer Centene Corp. posted revenues of $16.6 billion for its fourth quarter of 2018, up 29 percent from the same quarter of 2017, and raised its outlook for the year ahead. The insurer holds the largest share of the Affordable Care Act exchange, with 1.5 million customers as of September.
  • Eli Lilly and Co. posted revenue of $6.44 billion in its fourth quarter of 2018, up 4.5 percent from the same quarter of 2017, while net income totaled $1.13 billion compared to a net loss of $1.66 billion a year earlier. The drugmaker reduced its forecast for 2019 as a consequence of its costly acquisition of Loxo Oncology, and the trial failure of its cancer drug Lartruvo.

Abortion

  • In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court extended the stay on a Louisiana law which, if implemented, would close almost every abortion provider in the state, with Chief Justice John Roberts voting alongside the more liberal justices. The ruling maintains the status of U.S. abortion rights until at least this fall, which is the earliest the court may arrive at a decision on whether to hear the Louisiana case on the merits.

What’s Ahead

  • The House and Senate are in session this week.
  • HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma will deliver a keynote address on Healthcare interoperability at the 2019 HIMSS Annual Conference in Orlando, Fla.
  • FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb will testify at a House Appropriations subcommittee on the status of operations at the FDA on Tuesday.
  • The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on managing pain during the opioid crisis on Tuesday.
  • Also on Tuesday, the House Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on the rising cost of prescription drugs.
  • Top HHS officials will testify at a House Judiciary Committee hearing examining the Trump administration’s family separation policy on Tuesday.
  • The House Energy and Commerce Health subcommittee will hold a hearing on legislation to ensure pre-existing condition protections on Wednesday.
  • Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. reports earnings on Wednesday, followed by AstraZeneca on Thursday.

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

02/11/2019
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference 2019
AMA National Advocacy Conference
02/12/2019
AMA National Advocacy Conference
FDA Joint Meeting of the Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee and the Drug Safety and Risk Management Advisory Committee
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference 2019
Paying for cures: Ensuring patient access and system sustainability 8:00 am
FDA Obstetrics and Gynecology Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee Meeting 8:00 am
House Committee on Appropriations subcommittee on FDA and related agencies hearing on status of FDA operations 10:00 am
House Ways & Means Committee hearing on the cost of prescription drugs 10:00 am
House Judiciary committee hearing on oversight of Trump administration’s family separation policy 10:00 am
Senate HELP Committee hearing on pain management during the opioid crisis 12:00 pm
02/13/2019
AMA National Advocacy Conference
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference 2019
Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. fourth-quarter earnings call 8:00 am
Austin Regional Opioid Workshop 9:00 am
House Energy and Commerce health subcommittee hearing on legislation to ensure protections for pre-existing conditions 10:30 am
House Committee on Appropriations subcommittee on veterans affairs hearing on long term care 2:00 pm
02/14/2019
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference 2019
AstraZeneca full-year 2018 results presentation 7:00 am
Bipartisan Policy Center webcast from HIMSS19: Advancing Interoperability and Data Access 10:30 am
02/15/2019
Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society Conference 2019
Expert Meeting on Understanding the Effects of Intersectionality on Sexual and Gender Minorities 9:00 am
AEI discussion: If one part of Affordable Care Act is ruled unconstitutional, what is the proper remedy or resolution? 12:30 pm
View full calendar

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