Two lawsuits — one against federal health regulators by a drugmaker and the other against a drugmaker by the Dept. of Justice — represent the latest salvos in the dispute over whether and how drug company-supported charities can help patients pay for expensive medications.

In what one expert calls a “logical” move for a PBM vying for business from cost-conscious payers, Anthem, Inc.’s IngenioRx said on July 6 that it acquired ZipDrug, a company that focuses on improving patients’ medication adherence and affordability.

A new proposed rule (85 Fed. Reg. 37286, June 19, 2020), which CMS touted as a way to tweak Medicaid’s best-price provision to encourage more value-based purchasing (VBP) for expensive drugs, has drawn considerable criticism from stakeholders across the health care system. Experts say the rule is much more complex than it was initially made to seem, and the 30-day comment period is unusually short for such a substantial change.

by Jinghong Chen Among the 69 brand-name drugs that were expected to lose market exclusivity between 2010 and 2015, only 38 products saw the launch of generic versions either before or within one quarter of the expected date, according to a recent study published in Health Affairs. For the 31 drugs whose generic entry was […]