SAN FRANCISCO—In 2019, Alexion is looking to pivot from an ultrarare-disease company to a rare-disease company—and it knows its pricing strategy has to change. With its top-selling therapy, Soliris, the company is moving into new diseases that aren’t nearly as rare as its previous targets. The drug recently nabbed an approval in generalized myasthenia gravis and is looking… Read More »
A federal court has sided with the American Hospital Association and others in ruling that the Department of Health and Human Services unlawfully cut payment rates for certain outpatient drugs. HHS Secretary Alex Azar exceeded his legal authority in setting new reimbursement rates in the outpatient prospective payment system rule for 2018, United States District… Read More »
The efficacy of first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) continues to improve, according to an analysis of outcomes in 78,000 people in 181 studies, published in AIDS by Professor Andrew Carr of St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney and colleagues. Over three-quarters of people who started treatment between 2011 and 2015 were still on their first regimen and… Read More »
Health workers walk with a boy suspected as having the Ebola virus at an Ebola treatment centre in Beni, Eastern Congo. (AP Photo/Al-hadji Kudra Maliro, FILE) GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Monday it can fight the deadly Ebola outbreak in Congo despite the withdrawal of the U.S. Centers for… Read More »
Surescripts is touting the benefits of its real-time prescription benefit tool to help clinicians quickly find a more affordable drug, saving patients money and tying them closer to the provider organization. For example, clinicians can have benefit information automatically pulled from pharmacy benefit manager firms and inserted into the electronic health record, then select an… Read More »