Recently the Massachusetts Senate, spurred by rising drug prices and federal inaction, passed a sweeping bill to reduce prescription drug costs. The vote was 40-0. Among other things, the bill requires the Massachusetts Division of Insurance to license and regulate pha...

Last Friday, November 15th, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced its approval of the merger of the two drug companies Bristol-Myers Squibb and Celgene, on the condition that they sell Celgene's drug Otelza, which is used to treat psoriasis, a chronic skin disea...

This year many state legislatures have enacted laws to regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and require increased transparency and accountability from them. However, the PBMs have fought back in court. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA), the tra...

In a new position paper, the American College of Physicians (a national organization with over 154,000 members) called for sweeping reforms concerning pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and how they impact drug prices.

The paper included three recommendations: 1) increas...

The Kaiser Family Foundation just released their 2019 Employer Health Benefits Survey, and it contains disturbing news. It concludes that new employer benefit designs are increasingly exposing consumers to the list prices of their drugs, and that they are paying much h...

This morning, Axios held a forum in downtown Washington D.C. and prescription drug costs and the latest legislation. During the hour long session, Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), and Health and Human Services Secretary A...

A lot of prescription drug research, development, and innovation is funded by taxpayers through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal programs. But all too often, the federal government does the hard work, and then companies exploit monopolies to ch...

This week, Florida legislators heard that plans are moving forward to import more affordable prescription drugs from Canada, and that both the state government and patients will benefit. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is currently reviewing a proposal from t...

Patents, when properly granted, can be vital to our economy. But in recent years patent abuse has become more common, resulting in many low-quality patents and patents whose only value is to block competition on earlier inventions entering the public domain. Companies...

Earlier this week, the House of Representatives, in an encouraging step for consumers, unanimously passed a bipartisan bill to lower drug prices by regulating pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and bringing more transparency to the PBM market.

The Public Disclosure of Dru...