MedPAC Recommends Cutting Admin Fees Paid to Docs Under Part B Program
Drug payments under Medicare Part B could be cut by reducing the administrative fees doctors get for dispensing medications in their office, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) said Thursday in its June report to Congress. “Our work on Medicare spending for Part B drugs is driven largely by the growth in spending between 2009 […]
Lawmakers, Experts on PBMs: ‘Gangsters’ or Scapegoats in the Drug Price Wars?
Expert witnesses and lawmakers tussled over who is really to blame for high drug costs during a hearing focused on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) held by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Tuesday. While PBMs are meant to lower costs by negotiating rebates on a drug’s list price, multiple experts have noted that […]
Rare Skin Blistering Condition Gets First Drug Approved
The FDA granted the first drug approval for dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (DEB), a topical gene therapy that treats the blistering wounds it causes, the agency announced Friday. The herpes-simplex virus type 1 vector-based gene therapy, Vyjuvek, was approved for patients ages 6 months and older with mutation in the COL7A1 (collagen type VII alpha 1 […]
FDA OKs Hormone-Free Pill for Hot Flashes
The FDA approved the first-in-class drug fezolinetant (Veozah) for the treatment of moderate to severe hot flashes caused by menopause, the agency announced Friday. The oral neurokinin 3 (NK3) receptor antagonist is a non-hormonal treatment that works to block the activities of the NK3 receptor, which plays a role in the brain’s regulation of body […]
Multiple Solutions Needed to Fix Drug Supply Chain Problems, Lawmakers Told
WASHINGTON — Drug shortages continue to plague the U.S., and a variety of solutions must be employed to solve the problem, witnesses said here Thursday at a hearing held by the House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. “According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, we currently have over 247 active drug […]
FDA Panel Backs Over-The-Counter Birth Control Pill
FILE – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration building behind FDA logos at a bus stop on the agency’s campus in Silver Spring, Md., on Aug. 2, 2018. via Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health advisers said Wednesday that a decades-old birth control pill should be sold without a prescription, paving the way for […]
Daytime Sleepiness Drugs of Varying Performance in Obstructive Sleep Apnea
One drug stood out for reducing excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in a meta-analysis, researchers reported. Compared with placebo, users of solriamfetol (Sunosi) showed improvement on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS; mean difference -3.8, 95% CI -5.24 to -2.50) after 4 weeks, as did groups taking armodafinil/modafinil (mean difference […]
GLP-1 Agonists Come Out on Top in Cardiovascular Comparison of Newer Diabetes Meds
Diabetes patients adding a newcomer drug to their medications may derive cardiovascular benefits to varying degrees depending on their choice between GLP-1 agonists and SGLT-2 inhibitors, a large observational dataset suggested. Among U.S. veterans already on metformin, sulfonylurea, or insulin treatment and without cardiovascular disease (CVD), the addition of a GLP-1 agonist, instead of a […]
CDC: Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Increased 279% Over Recent Years
Drug overdose death rates involving fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine increased from 2016 through 2021, CDC researchers said. The age-adjusted overdose death rate involving fentanyl rose by 279%, from 5.7 per 100,000 standard population in 2016 to 21.6 per 100,000 in 2021, reported Merianne Rose Spencer, MPH, an epidemiologist in the Division of Analysis and Epidemiology […]
Perioperative Toripalimab Prolongs EFS in Stage III Lung Cancer
Adding an investigational anti-PD-1 drug to perioperative chemotherapy improved event-free survival (EFS) in patients with resectable, stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), an interim analysis of a phase III study found. Among 404 patients receiving perioperative chemotherapy in the so-called Neotorch trial, the median investigator-assessed EFS was not reached in patients assigned to toripalimab, […]