Une découverte biochimique intrigante pourrait permettre d’identifier rapidement les patients à haut risque.

Raising deep concern over the partnership between Swiggy Instamart and PharmEasy for a rapid drug delivery model, the All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) has apprised the Drug Controller

The Federation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs (FOPE) has identified potential opportunities for Indian pharmaceutical companies to expand in Australia. Further, the India─Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade

The Embassy of India in Iraq has extended an invitation to Indian businesses to participate in the "Medico Expo," officially known as the Erbil International Health Exhibition. This prestigious event, set to be the

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has issued a call for proposals for its Centre for Advanced Research (CAR) initiative under the Extramural Research Programme, inviting experienced research teams to

The Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR), under the ministry of commerce and industry, has released a list of registered interested parties regarding the ongoing Second Sunset Review anti─dumping

The recent amendments brought by the Union Ministry of Ayush to the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 are significant, as they introduce new regulatory requirements for the manufacturing and sale of traditional

The Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP) has released the operational guidelines for the newly announced central sector scheme for Strengthening of Medical Device Industry (SMDI), aiming at providing

Oversimplification about integration of traditional and modern treatment systems often creates confusion among the stakeholders, and nobody understands the reality of the integration and what it is meant for, said Dr.

The Indian healthcare industry is looking to invest further in computational infrastructure as data integration frameworks and regulatory compliance are pivotal to ensure intelligent clinical support

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is advocating for enhanced fire safety measures and improved insurance coverage for employees working in pharmaceutical facilities.

Founded in 1924 as J&G Hardie, Hardie Polymers, the Glasgow-based polymer supplier, celebrates its 100th anniversary.

Nvision Biomedical Technologies and Invibio Biomaterial Solutions have announced that the FDA has granted clearance of the first 3D-Printed PEEK Interbody System made from PEEK-OPTIMA.

TekniPlex Healthcare is set to unveil its strongest-ever reinforced paper for medical device packaging applications at Pack Expo 2024, 3-6 November in Chicago.

The Association of British HealthTech Industries (ABHI) is excited to unveil a diverse delegation of UK HealthTech innovators at MEDICA 2024, one of the world's largest and most influential medical trade fairs.

In this episode of The FemTech series Olivia Friett is joined by Jane Kennedy and Dr. MaryAnn Ferreux where we will discuss the inequality in women's health and how we can overcome the obstacles that come with this.

In this episode of The MedTalk Podcast, we're bringing you something a little different. One of our sister publications, European Pharmaceutical Manufacturer, secured an interview with Thermo Fisher Scientific's Urmi Prasad Richardson.

Global temperatures through September point to 2024 besting 2023 as the hottest year on record. How many future years set records depends in part on the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election

The 2024 presidential election will have enormous consequences for the climate, and the health and future of children

When chemist Dora Richardson’s employer decided to terminate the breast cancer research on the drug Tamoxifen in the early 1970s, she and her colleagues continued the work in secret.

Humans and pigs could both serve as mixing vessels for a bird flu–seasonal flu hybrid, posing a risk of wider spread

Torrential rain, made worse by climate change, has lashed Spain, with Valencia bearing the brunt of the floodwaters

The outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election could reshape policies from health care at home to nuclear proliferation abroad

Pesky leaks on the International Space Station aren’t the most serious issue facing U.S. human spaceflight

A heart attack unleashes immune cells that stimulate neurons in the brain, leading to restorative slumber

The discovery of a new prime number highlights the rising price of mathematical gold

Analysis of a strain of the virus circulating in Central Africa shows genetic mutations indicative of sustained human-to-human spread

Thousands of homes in Navajo and other tribal lands don’t have access to electricity. A $200-million federal funding effort aims to fix that problem with solar power and other clean energy

“Going viral” appears to be more than just a catchphrase when it comes to the rampant spread of misinformation

Understanding the psychology of ambiguous loss can help people struggling with grief and depression in the wake of the 2024 election results

This year won’t just be the hottest on record—it could be the first to surpass 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Paris climate accord aims to keep warming below that level when looking over multiple years

The new Trump administration is likely to reduce subsidies for Affordable Care Act insurance plans and roll back Medicaid coverage. Public health authorities worry that antivaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., will be empowered

Focusing on size in health care might be doing more harm than good.

The Martian new year arrives with the Red Planet’s vernal equinox. Explaining why requires a deep dive into celestial mechanics and Earth’s calendrical history

Droughts in 48 of 50 U.S. states, evidence of microplastics mucking up wastewater recycling and the science of a baseball mud bath in this week’s news roundup.

A Biden administration proposal that would require employers to provide cooling measures under extreme heat conditions may be scuttled by the incoming Trump administration

The unexpected discovery of a geometric phase shows how math and physics are tightly intertwined

A fee created to push oil and gas companies to plug methane leaks could be axed by the incoming Trump administration, hampering efforts to curb the potent greenhouse gas

A team at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a technique to enhance chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy in solid tumors. The technique involves engineering E. coli bacteria, that naturally tend to accumulate in the immune privileged core of solid tumors. The bacteria have been engineered to interact with […]

Charco Neurotech, a medtech company based in the United Kingdom, has developed CUE1, a non-invasive wearable that is intended to assist those with Parkinson’s disease to manage their motor symptoms. The device is typically affixed to the sternum, and provides vibratory action in a focused region of the body. The technology is based on the […]

Researchers at the National University of Singapore have developed a magneto-responsive hydrogel wound dressing that also contains two different regenerative cell types. The hydrogel is also embedded with magnetic particles that can be stimulated using an external magnetic field. The action of the magnetic field on the gel-encapsulated particles causes mechanical stresses within the gel […]

A team at the University of Technology Sydney has developed an assistive technology for blind people and those with low vision. The system consists of glasses that can view their surroundings through an on-board camera, appraise the objects nearby using computer vision technology, and then play a sound that provides a cue for the wearer […]

A research team at the University of California San Diego have developed a smartphone attachment that can provide information on changes in pupil size, which can be used to assess neurological phenomena, such as traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer’s disease. Such changes in pupil size have been difficult to characterize in the past in those […]

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while we put the finishing touches on DCI’s new 2024-25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released the redacted version of administrative complaint against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). The FTC rightly calls out how the gross-to-net bubble can raise patients’ out-of-pocket costs, while also acknowledging how rebates can reduce a plan's (but not the patient’s) costs. Apparently, the FTC believes that PBMs’ customers are pretty dumb, because PBMs are able to prevent plans from “appreciating” such healthcare financing dynamics.

Section V.E. of the complaint (starting on page 23) focuses on the PBMs’ alleged unlawful conduct related to preferring high-list/high-rebate insulin products over versions with lower list prices. I thought it would therefore be fun to take the Wayback Machine to November 2021, when I wrote about this specific topic.

Below, you can review my commentary about the warped incentives behind Viatris’ dual-pricing strategy for its interchangeable biosimilar of Lantus. Much of the FTC’s description of the drug channel aligns with my commentary. But before you fist pump too hard for Ms. Khan’s FTC, you should pause to reflect on the agency’s legal theories in light of plans’ revealed preferences.

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The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the first interchangeable biosimilar insulin product: the insulin glargine-yfgn injection from Viatris. Read the FDA’s press release.

Alas, I’m sad to report that the warped incentives baked into the U.S. drug channel will limit the impact of this impressive breakthrough.

Viatris is being forced to launch both a high-priced and a low-priced version of the biosimilar. However, only the high-list/high-rebate, branded version will be available on Express Scripts’ largest commercial formulary. Express Scripts will block both the branded reference product and the lower-priced, unbranded—but also interchangeable—version. Meanwhile, Prime Therapeutics will place both versions on its formularies, leaving the choice up to its plan sponsor clients.

Consequently, many commercial payers will adopt the more expensive product instead of the identical—but cheaper—version. As usual, patients will be the ultimate victims of our current drug pricing system.

Below, I explain the weird economics behind this decision, highlight the negative impact on patients, and speculate on what this all could mean for biosimilars’ future. Until plan sponsors break their addiction to rebates, today’s U.S. drug channel problems will remain.
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This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while we put the finishing touches on DCI’s new 2024-25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors.

The article below highlights an underappreciated consequence of the Inflation Reduction Act’s inflation rebates for Medicare Part B drugs. Last night, I posted an updated analysis showing that the volatility in seniors' coinsurance rates continues. For the fourther quarter of 2024, coinsurance rates for 51 drugs increased, while rates for only 19 drugs decreased. What's more, rates for 17 drugs returned to their original 20% level. Click here to see our original post from May 2024.

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Contrary to what you may have heard, the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) inflation rebates for Medicare Part B drugs do not always save money for seniors.

As we document below, a growing share of Part B drugs have inflation-adjusted coinsurance rates that have been increasing, not declining. In many cases, the coinsurance rate declines only briefly before rebounding back to the standard 20% rate. What’s more, these fluctuations have triggered huge jumps in patients’ out-of-pocket obligations for some drugs—even when a drug’s costs were falling.

Chalk off these coinsurance surprises to yet another unintended consequence of the IRA. Seniors who are expecting to see costs drop may find they are instead being taken for a rollercoaster ride.
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Today’s guest post comes from Greg Skalicky, President, EVERSANA and Faruk Abdullah, President, Professional Services & Chief Business Officer, EVERSANA

Greg and Faruk walk through the marketplace pressures driving Direct-to-Patient commercialization models. They argue that a technology-enabled infrastructure,  combined with clinical and reimbursement support specialists, can improve  patients' access to new therapies, shorten the time to therapy, and enable better overall clinical outcomes.

Click here to learn more about EVERSANA’s Direct-to-Patient care model.

Read on for Greg and Faruk’s insights.
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Reality has again failed to support the spin surrounding the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

For 2023, discounted purchases under the 340B program reached a record $66.3 billion—an astounding $12.6 billion (+23.4%) higher than its 2022 counterpart. The gross-to-net difference between list prices and discounted 340B purchases also grew, to $57.8 billion (+$5.5 billion). 340B purchases are now almost 40% larger than Medicaid’s prescription drug purchases.

Hospitals again accounted for 87% of 340B purchases for 2023. Purchases at every 340B covered entity type grew, despite drug prices that grew more slowly than overall inflation.

Lobbyists claim that manufacturers’ 340B contract pharmacy changes are “stripping billions of dollars from the healthcare safety net.” But every year, the data tell a very different story. Only in the U.S. healthcare system can billions more in payments and spreads be considered a cut.

Read on for full details and our analysis, along with fresh details of troubling behavior by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
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Here on Drug Channels, we have long highlighted the boom in provider-administered biosimilars. In contrast to the pharmacy market, adoption of these biosimilars is growing, prices are dropping, and formulary barriers continue to fall.

Novel transparency information reveals that this good news doesn’t always translate into savings. Below, we rely on a unique data set from Turquoise Health to examine how much four national commercial health plans—Aetna, Anthem, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare—paid hospitals for Avastin and its two most significant biosimilar competitors.

As we demonstrate, health plans pay hospitals far above acquisition costs for biosimilars. What’s more, plans can pay hospitals more for a biosimilar than for the higher-cost reference product. The U.S. drug channel system is warping hospitals’ incentives to adopt biosimilars, while simultaneously raising costs for commercial plans.

The namesake of my alma mater once said: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” What would happen if we disinfected the entire channel?
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The proposed American Privacy Rights Act (APRA) has taken its first step U.S. House legislative process with several issue disagreements becoming more evident. On May 23, the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Data, Innovation and Commerce approved the updated APRA, advancing the bill to full committee consideration. Just prior to the […]

Agencies with healthcare clients in pharmaceuticals, healthcare services, digital health apps, or health-related connected devices such as wearables should take note that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) final rule updating its Health Breach Notification Rule (HBNR) that took effect on July 29, 2024. The FTC considers a breach to include a covered entity’s unauthorized disclosure […]