Pharmalot, Pharmalittle: Glaxo CEO looks for drug prices to fall no matter who is president

And so, election day is finally here. Who will win? To what extent will the outcome really mean added pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to redo its pricing calculus? Will enough California voters express anger over drug prices and approve a flawed ballot measure anyway? Stay tuned for all this and more. Meanwhile, have a cup of stimulation on us and peruse the tidbits below. Things are about to get even more interesting …

GlaxoSmithKline chief executive officer Andrew Witty expects prescription drug prices to drop no matter who wins the presidential election, according to Bloomberg News. Witty expects to see more efforts in the US to force prices down, such as the move to lower Medicare Part B costs. “They’re going to be key features in the future,” he said. “It’s going to become even more important for companies to demonstrate that they have innovation.”

Valeant Pharmaceuticals returned to slashing its annual financial outlook, indicating the drug maker is still hemorrhaging from missteps over the past year despite efforts to remake its business, the Wall Street Journal writes. The move to cut guidance, a $1.22 billion loss, and writing down the value of the Salix business that is up for sale amounts to an about-face after Valeant affirmed its guidance in August following a string of cuts.

Meanwhile, Valeant, which owns eye care products maker Bausch + Lomb, has agreed to sell Paragon Holdings to settle allegations that its acquisition of the smaller company violated antitrust law, the US Federal Trade Commission said on Monday. The agency analysis noted that Bausch + Lomb and Paragon together made more than 70 percent of three kinds of polymer discs used to make gas-permeable contact lenses.

Concordia International, another drug maker that used debt for acquisitions and and a strategy of boosting prices, is also in trouble, Bloomberg News tells us. The value of its junk-rated bonds fell $184 million Monday after posting disappointing earnings. Concordia increased its debt load by more than 10 times to $3.2 billion in the last three years, and the drug maker now faces slow growth and an investigation of its pricing policies.

Medtronic committed to share individual de-identified patient-level data from its monitoring and diagnostic devices, the Minneapolis-St. Paul Star-Tribune tells us. The agreement to share data with researchers, manufacturers, providers, and others comes after Medtronic chief executive officer Omar Ishrak agreed to join the board of the Patient Safety Movement Foundation.

The Swiss Agency for Therapeutic Products has agreed to review a Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug from Santhera Pharmaceuticals for patients not taking steroids and experiencing declining respiratory function.

Biogen and Ionis Pharmaceuticals’s Spinraza could be on the US market within weeks after a Phase 3 trial in the rare neuromuscular disorder, spinal muscular atrophy, met its goal, Pharmaphorum says.