Top of the morning to you. Gray skies are once again hovering over the soggy Pharmalot campus right now, but our spirits remain sunny, nonetheless. Why? We will trot out a bit of insight from the Morning Mayor, who would say “Every new day should be unwrapped like a precious gift.” To celebrate the notion, we are brewing still more cups of stimulation and invite you to join us. Remember, a prescription is not required, so rebates do not have to be negotiated. And you can use cash. Anyway, our choice today is strawberry creme. A lovely choice for those of you feeling adventurous. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest. Hope you have a smashing day and, of course, do stay in touch. As always, feedback, criticism, and suggestions are welcome. …
U.S. prices for newly launched pharmaceuticals more than doubled last year compared to 2021, as companies leveraged scientific advances to develop more therapies for rare diseases, which typically command high prices, a Reuters analysis found. The median annual list price for a new drug was over $370,000 in 2024, according to the Reuters survey of 45 medicines. In 2021, the median price was $180,000 for the 30 drugs first marketed through mid-July, according to a study published in JAMA. The median launch price was $300,000 in 2023 and $222,000 in 2022. The percentage of drugs launched for orphan diseases, meaning they affect fewer than 200,000 Americans, rose to 72% in 2024 from 51% in 2019, according to the Iqvia Institute for Human Data Science. Over 40% of the orphan launches were for oncology.
Five years after launching, a unique nonprofit drug company has published data showing that consumers and health plans saved considerable money on a generic cancer medicine thanks to its “transparent” pricing model. And it maintains that the findings validate plans to distribute and — eventually — manufacture still more copycat medicines for the U.S. market, STAT explains. The company — CivicaScript — was created as a vehicle to combat stubbornly high drug prices even after dominant brand-name medicines lost patent protection and generic competitors entered the market. Backed mostly by 18 Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, the nonprofit made its first drug available — a generic version of the Zytiga prostate cancer treatment — in August 2022. The initial wholesale price was $160, plus an $11 dispensing fee paid to pharmacies, but uptake was slow until it was accepted by pharmacy benefit managers and other health plans. Eventually, the gambit worked: Between September and December 2023, patients saved 64% and payers saved 92% by purchasing the generic distributed by CivicaScript.
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