12
May
2021
Aducanumab & the Alzheimer’s Moonshot: What Would It Be Worth to Keep Your Mind?
Have you ever met someone with Alzheimer’s disease? Odds are you probably have. Odds are that question calls to mind the face of a beloved grandparent, neighbor, or family friend whom you’ve stopped by to visit, nervously clenching a bouquet of flowers. You greet them hopefully and wonder if they’ll remember you this time. America’s population is aging. About 6.2... Read More
24
Aug
2020
Insurance Reform, Not Executive Orders, Is the Best Tool to Protect U.S. Patients and U.S. Pharmaceutical Innovation
With today’s Aug. 24 deadline looming, it’s important to explain how President Trump’s “most favored nations” executive order to purportedly lower drug prices would actually backfire, and hurt patients both at home and abroad. The order, which ties prices for certain drugs paid for by Medicare to the lowest prices paid in other countries, including Canada and much of Europe,... Read More
23
Jul
2020
When Raising Drug Prices Helps Patients
Sometimes there are good, patient-friendly reasons to raise drug prices. Proposed legislation that aims to eliminate price hikes on prescription drugs will have unintended consequences. San Francisco-based Jaguar Health, for two years in a row, lost more than $30 million a year. Revenue from its only product, a diarrhea treatment for HIV patients, was only $5.8 million in 2019. The... Read More
10
Jul
2020
The Remdesivir Pricing Letter Gilead Should Have Written
Dear America, We’ve decided to grossly underprice remdesivir. Hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 patients in America, and even more around the world, need our drug. But the US insurance system is corrupt and heartless. It has demonstrated that it will go to great lengths to prevent patients from getting appropriate, physician-prescribed treatments. You know their tricks: high deductibles, high copays,... Read More
13
May
2020
If Trikafta Isn’t Good Enough for ICER, What Drug Is?
Last week ICER released a report concluding that Vertex’s groundbreaking triple-combination cystic fibrosis (CF) drug, Trikafta, is too expensive for the value it provides to patients. By all scientific and clinical standards—including ICER’s own—Trikafta, a novel combination of a CFTR potentiator and two correctors, is a transformative drug. It compensates for a mutation present in 90% of all CF patients, turning a disease... Read More
29
Mar
2020
COVID-19 Teaches Us the Real Definition of a ‘Novel’ Drug
Will the world care how we beat COVID-19 – whether with a drug we make from scratch or an older one that turns out to get the job done? As people concerned for our families, we all know the answer. Just get it done! But as drug developers, let’s be honest that it doesn’t feel quite as heroic unless it’s... Read More
17
Feb
2020
As Scientists, It’s Our Duty to Speak Up as the 2020 Election Nears
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22
Jan
2020
False Heroes: Pharmacy Benefit Managers and the Patients They Prey On
[Editor’s Note: this is an excerpt from “The Great American Drug Deal.” The book is now available on Amazon.] By Peter Kolchinsky It’s hard to know when actual prices for a particular drug really do go up, because there is so little transparency in pricing. A lot of the public discourse on pricing is based on “list prices,” which no... Read More