Rise and shine, everyone, another busy day is on the way. And this will be a particularly busy one for us, since we are visiting the home office for a round of meetings. This may sound familiar to many of you, yes? To cope, we are chugging a few extra cups of stimulation this morning. Feel free to join us. We understand that you have your own challenges. Meanwhile, here are some tidbits. Hope you have a productive day and, as always, do keep in touch …
The American Action Network is launching a $4.8 million ad campaign to defeat a plan by the Obama administration to overhaul the way Medicare Part B pays for medicines, The Hill reports. The campaign is targeting 61 congressional districts and focuses on Republican lawmakers. The overhaul is designed to discourage use of higher-cost medicines and would change reimbursement for doctors, but drug makers worry the plan will harm revenue.
More than 10,000 pregnant women in France took Sanofi’s Depakine epilepsy drug between 2007 and 2014, even though a risk of birth defects was known, according to a study quoted by Le Canard Enchaine, Reuters reports. The weekly wrote that the French health ministry delayed publishing the study, although the ministry denied this. In October, the Paris prosecutor launched a preliminary investigation into the authorization and marketing of the drug.
About the Author Reprints
A refreshing change is afoot if our scribe summarizes The Hill piece correctly. None of the usual blather about physician independence or patient care, ” drug makers worry the plan will harm revenue.” That’s putting it honestly! …. Did they really say that?