Rise and shine, everyone, and welcome to the middle of the week. This marks a small milestone of sorts, and you deserve congratulations for making it this far. So why not continues, yes? Then again, consider the alternatives. With that in mind, here are a few tidbits to keep you going, since the middle of the week is such a busy time. Hope you conquer the world today and keep us in mind if you hear something fascinating …
Spending on prescription drugs will account for 16.7 percent of all US health care spending in 2015, up from a recent low of 15.3 percent in 2013, writes STAT, citing new government data. In the 1990s, retail medications were about 7 percent of health care spending. Spending on prescription drugs is forecast to rise to $457 billion in 2015, up from $424 billion in 2014, and will continue to outpace growth in overall health care spending through 2018.
The Obama administration proposed a pilot program to see whether lower reimbursements for drugs administered by some Medicare doctors would prompt them to choose lower-cost, but equally effective, medicines, The Wall Street Journal reports. Drug makers and doctors are opposed because of the lower reimbursement proposed. Critics say the current system gives doctors incentives to select pricier drugs when cheaper and equally effective alternatives exist.
Global drug makers are hitting a slowdown in China thanks to a government campaign to lower drug prices, Bloomberg News writes. A key issue is that government-run health insurance funds, which face an aging population and higher disease rates, have tighter budgets and a slowing economy. As a result, reimbursements to patients are being capped and local authorities are being pushed to negotiate with companies to reduce drug costs.
Nearly a year after a study of the Contrave diet pill was prematurely ended because interim results were leaked, results indicate initial promising findings were unlikely to be confirmed if the trial had been completed, MedPage Today says. The study was designed to assess the cardiovascular risk of the Orexigen Therapeutics pill. The disclosure of the data briefly boosted Orexigen stock, but angered the Food and Drug Administration.
Sarepta Therapeutics is consolidating facilities, but still has not heard from the FDA about a rescheduled meeting to review its Duchenne muscular dystrophy treatment.
Omeros launched a Phase 3 trial to treat aHUS, a rare disease that causes kidney failure, and investors are excited because the only currently approved medicine is a blockbuster seller from Alexion Pharmaceuticals.
Perrigo paid its executives handsome bonuses for fending off the unwanted takeover bid from Mylan Laboratories, according to Bloomberg News.
A backlog is holding up plans to revamp the FDA’s Inactive Ingredients Database, according to InPharma Technologist.
The man who recently died in a drug trial in France had an “astonishing and unprecedented” reaction in the brain, The Guardian reports.
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