Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) introduced a bill this week that aims to protect and promote ‘scientific integrity’. The legislation builds on policies from former President Barack Obama’s 2009 executive order, which required federal agencies to define how they planned to safeguard scientific integrity. The bill, which has 27 co-signers and has been referred to the Committee […]
Policy
Senate confirms Price as HHS chief
The Senate confirmed Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to head the Health & Humans Services Dept. in a 52-47 vote early this morning. No Democratic senator voted to support the new administration’s nominee, but he was passed through in the Republican-majority Senate. Democrats spent hours last night protesting his confirmation, pushing the vote until 2 A.M. […]
Trump presses pharma execs on pricing, U.S. production
Executives from pharmaceutical companies including Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), Amgen (NSDQ:AMGN), Merck (NYSE:MRK) and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) met with President Donald Trump today to discuss issues ranging from drug pricing to regulatory approval for pharmaceuticals. The president called on the company execs to increase U.S. production and lower “astronomical” drug prices. Although Trump doubled down on his […]
Price collusion: Insulin makers face class-action lawsuit
A class-action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts alleges that insulin makers Sanofi (NYSE:SNY), Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) and Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) conspired to raise their list prices to get access to pharmacy benefit managers’ preferred lists, instead of competing with each other based on real market prices. In the last 5 years, the 3 companies […]
Merck becomes latest to offer insight into drug pricing practices
Last week, Merck (NYSE:MRK) released figures about its U.S. pricing practices, joining a growing list of companies that are revealing their pricing strategies amid criticism of the industry’s price hikes. The company didn’t release price increases of specific products, citing competition concerns. Merck said it would update the list annually at the beginning of each calendar year. […]
Does your medical device and IVD sales need an import license in India?
By Stewart Eisenhart, Emergo Group India’s medical device registration system is still transitioning to a more formalized and predictable framework, which has raised questions from foreign manufacturers about what regulators do and do not currently require for market authorization in the country. In many cases, one requirement foreign firms can be sure of is the […]
Healthcare industry braces for change on Trump’s executive order
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that could scale back enforcement of some provisions of the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, and analysts warned that shares of hospitals and Medicaid providers could face new pressure as fears over losing coverage grow. President Trump wrote that government departments should “waive, defer, grant […]
Study finds financial ties between researchers, industry associated with positive trial results
A study conducted by a team of U.S. researchers found that financial ties between researchers and the companies that make the drugs they are studying are independently associated with positive trial results. The team’s work was published in The BMJ this week. The study was observational, so the results can’t be used to draw concrete conclusions. But the […]
J&J to publish list of average drug price increases
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is reportedly issuing a report next month that will detail how much it has raised the list prices for its prescription drugs. The report will describe average increases in list prices and the average prices after discounts. The move comes after some pharmaceutical companies, including Allergan (NYSE:AGN) and Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO), have pledged […]
Teva coughs up $519m to settle overseas bribery charges
Teva Pharmaceuticals (NYSE:TEVA) will pay $519 million to settle allegations that the company bribed overseas officials in Mexico, Russia and Ukraine to promote its products, according to the U.S. Justice Dept. The department reported that the millions of dollars in bribes occurred for more than a decade. The pharmaceutical giant agreed to $238 million to […]
