Arthur Allen - KFF Health News
-
The spread of an avian flu virus in cattle has again brought public health attention to the potential for a global pandemic. Fighting it would depend, for now, on 1940s technology that makes vaccines from hens’ eggs.
-
The FDA told Amgen to test whether a quarter-dose of sotorasib worked as well as the amount on the label. It did, but the biotech is sticking to the higher dose, which earns it an extra $180,000 a year per patient.
-
A restructuring of the Medicare drug benefit has wiped out big drug bills for people who need expensive medicines. But the legal battle over drug negotiations means uncertainty over long-term savings.
-
A rule taking effect Jan. 1 was intended to stop one set of abuses by pharmacy benefit managers, but some pharmacists say it’s enabling these price brokers to simply do new things unfairly.
-
Thousands of patients with autoimmune diseases who rely on Humira, with a list price of $6,600 a month, could get financial relief from new low-cost rivals. So far, the pharmacy benefit managers that control drug prices have not delivered on those savings.
-
Chances are, if you aren’t older, chronically ill, or obese, you don’t need a forthcoming COVID vaccine to stay out of the hospital. But it probably wouldn’t hurt.
-
The Biden administration unveiled the first 10 drugs subject to price negotiations, taking a swipe at the pharmaceutical industry. But what does it mean for patients?
-
The annual cost of lecanemab treatment quadruples if the expense of brain scans to monitor for bleeds and other associated care is factored in. The full financial toll likely puts it beyond reach for low-income seniors.
-
Minorities tend to be diagnosed at later stages of the disease, which would exclude them from use of Leqembi. Few Black people were included in the main trial of the drug.
-
A quality-control crisis at an Indian pharmaceutical factory has left doctors and their patients with impossible choices as cheap, effective, generic cancer drugs go out of stock.