Follow our live coronavirus updates HERE Coronavirus: the symptoms

Follow our live coronavius updates HERE Coronavirus: The symptoms

Entre l’éprouvette et la pharmacie, près de 15 ans peuvent s’écouler pour qu’une molécule d’intérêt thérapeutique devienne un médicament.

Health news and commentary from around the Web gathered by the ALLMedPage Today staff

Biotechnology/Chemical/Pharmaceutical Customer Partnership   Wednesday, June 8, 2011 Meeting  Madison Auditorium   Starting Time of 10:00 AM  United States Patent and Trademark Office Alexandria, Virginia  600 Dulany Street, Alexandria, VA,  Accessing the event: Double click on the link below (or copy it into your internet browser) https://uspto.connectsolutions.com/r80345544/ Click here   for detailed login instructions in MS Word.   […]

Alexion Pharmaceuticals has agreed to buy Portola Pharmaceuticals in a $1.4 billion deal that brings it a first-in-class therapy for treating life-threatening bleeding. According to financial terms announced Tuesday, Boston-based Alexion (NASDAQ: ALXN) will pay $18 for each outstanding share of Portola (NASDAQ: PTLA). That price is a a nearly 132 percent premium to Monday’s […]

PTC Therapeutics has reached an agreement to acquire Censa Pharmaceuticals and its lead asset, an experimental metabolic disorder therapy that is now being prepared for a pivotal study. The deal, announced after the market close Wednesday, will bring South Plainfield, NJ-based PTC (NASDAQ: PTCT) another compound for its pipeline of rare disease drugs. Wellesley, MA-based […]

Learn how digital tech is accelerating medical breakthroughs by registering your team to attend Xcelerating Life Sciences Boston: Biopharma’s Future in Digital Health. While some content focuses on the Boston ecosystem, we’re confident the forum – and virtual networking – will be valuable to a national audience. The May 13, 2020 event will explore the […]

Lilly veteran Christi Shaw has joined Kite Pharma as the company’s new CEO.

Shaw comes to Gilead’s cancer immunotherapy firm, Kite Pharma, from rival US firm Eli Lilly, where she acted as a senior vice president and also as president of Lilly’s immunology, pain and neuroscience unit, Lilly Bio Medicines.

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Troy Robinson has been taken on as the new managing director of Chugai Pharma Europe. Mike Crosher will succeed him in his current role as managing director of Chugai Pharma UK.

Chugai Pharma Europe (CPE) has promoted Troy Robinson and Mike Crosher into the positions of managing director of CPE and managing director of the firm’s UK subsidiary, Chugai Pharma UK (CPU).

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The General Pharmaceutical Council has appointed Laura Fraser, former clinical fellow for the Scottish Chief Pharmaceutical Officer as the new Director for Scotland.

Fraser has held leadership roles in community pharmacy across Scotland including board member of Community Pharmacy Scotland. She has also worked for the Scottish Government as Clinical Leadership Fellow. Prior to her position as board member she was area and regional manager for nearly nine years.

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Destiny Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel antimicrobial drugs to address the global crisis caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR), has announced that after 18 years on the board, Joe Eagle is to step down with immediate effect.

Eagle has been instrumental in the financing and strategic direction of Destiny as a private company and brought his expertise for its lead candidate, XF-73 for the prevention of post-surgical infections. A search for a replacement is underway.

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Lumos Pharma, Inc. has promoted Dr John McKew to the position of Chief Operating Officer effective 1 April 2020.

McKew is already Chief Scientific Officer and he will do both roles simultaneously. With his new role, he will lead Lumos’s clinical development plan as the company looks toward adding additional assets to its pipeline.

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Topics include off-label and compassionate drug use for COVID-19 and utilization and cost of naloxone for patients at high risk of opioid overdose.

The post Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy appeared first on Bill of Health.

Miami’s Phillip Frost, who built a $2.8 billion fortune in the generic drug business, was allegedly involved in a tawdry stock promotion scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission says.

The company has incorporated electronic trial master file document storage capabilities to its Engility clinical trial management platform.

I am pleased to announce our new 2020 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers, available for purchase and immediate download.

• Click here to download a free report overview (including the Table of Contents and a List of Exhibits)

• Pharmacy Industry Revenues Hit Record High—Amid Profit Pressures and Amazon Threat, Says New Drug Channels Institute Study (press release)

We’re offering special discounted pricing if you order before March 22, 2020.

The 2020 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers is a truly unique resource. With 203 proprietary charts, exhibits, and data tables, this 11th edition provides a comprehensive, fact-based, and non-partisan tool for understanding the entire U.S. drug pricing, reimbursement, and dispensing system.

The full document clocks in at 374 pages. I can safely say there is nothing else available that comes close to this report.

The chart below illustrates the depth and breadth of the 2020 edition. The numbers indicate the report chapter that corresponds to, explains, and analyzes each channel flow.


Below, you can read more info and some behind-the-scenes tidbits.

P.S. If you would like to pay by corporate purchase order or check, please email Tamra Feldman. If you preordered the report, you should have already received an email with download instructions. Please contact us if you did not receive the email.
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I hope you are staying healthy and are managing to navigate your work-at-home mandates.

Last week, I tapped the collective insights of the Drug Channels’ audience. Nearly 700 readers shared their perspectives and projections for how the coronavirus pandemic could ultimately affect behavior, policy, and industry structure. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond.

I will share the results over three articles this week:

• Today, in Part 1, I will review the responses relating to patient behavior, pharmacies, and wholesalers. 
• In Part 2 (tomorrow), I’ll focus on expectations for pharmaceutical manufacturers and third-party payment. 
• In Part 3 (Thursday), I’ll examine how the coronavirus may affect the public perception of the industry’s participants.

P.S. A special shout out to the respondent who hoped that the coronavirus would not impact the quality of Drug Channels memes. Never fear, dear readers: Drug Channels will remain the internet’s top destination for pharmaceutical-related humor!
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The U.S. economy is in a medically-induced coma. Unemployment is soaring. Companies are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. It is unclear when our lives will return to their pre-pandemic state.

One thing seems apparent: As people lose jobs and health insurance, Medicaid enrollment will jump, perhaps by as much as 20% to 30%. This will have profound implications for the drug channel.

Today, I focus on how this increase will affect retail pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). Below, I review Medicaid enrollment trends, how states manage prescriptions, and the factors driving the coming boom in Medicaid enrollment.

As I explain, many (but not all) retail pharmacies will benefit from Medicaid growth. PBMs, however, will not fare as well. Read on and see if you agree.

In early May, Drug Channels Institute will host two live video webinars: Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: Retail & Specialty Pharmacies (May 1) and Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: PBMs & Payers (May 8). CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND SIGN UP. DCI will donate 20% of all profits from these events to The Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

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In Drug Channels Institute's list of the top 15 pharmacies of 2019, we show that many of the largest U.S. pharmacies are now central-fill mail and specialty pharmacies operated by PBMs and insurers.

To complement that broader ranking, we present below our exclusive list of the top 15 pharmacies based on specialty drug dispensing revenues. Consistent with our previous analyses, PBMs and insurers have retained their dominance over specialty drug channels, while smaller pharmacies are facing increased competition and profit pressures.

I see upside for specialty pharmacies in the aftermath of the pandemic. This growth will come at the expense of provider-administered drug channels. I expect the top companies’ share will increase in 2020, due to mergers and business transitions among the largest PBMs. However, the increasing role of government payers may create opportunities for smaller pharmacies.

This Friday, I’ll discuss how COVID-19 will affect the specialty pharmacy market during the first of my two live video webinars.

Over the next two weeks, Drug Channels Institute will host two live video webinars: Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: Retail & Specialty Pharmacies (May 1) and Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: PBMs & Payers (May 8). CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND SIGN UP. Contact Paula Fein (paula@drugchannelsinstitute.com) for our special promo codes for multiple viewing sites. DCI will donate 20% of all profits from these events to The Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

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This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while I prepare for this Friday’s video webinar: Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: PBMs & Payers.

Life was very different when I originally published today’s article. 2020 is not turning out to be quite what any of us expected. However, the pandemic has exposed some intriguing pros and cons of vertical consolidation. Click here to see the original post and comments from December 2019.

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The largest insurers, PBMs, and specialty pharmacies have now combined into vertically-integrated organizations. As I explain below, these companies have also been rapidly integrating with healthcare providers.

I also provide an updated look at these companies and highlight strategies that they are using—or could use—to control the channel. I believe that these insurer / PBM / specialty pharmacy / provider organizations are poised to restructure U.S. drug channels by exerting greater control over patient access, sites of care/dispensing, and pricing.

If they can effectively coordinate their sprawling business operations, they will pose a substantial threat of disruption to the existing commercial strategies of pharma companies.

Will they succeed by better managing care and costs, or merely by extracting higher profits from our convoluted system?
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COVID-19 continues to dominate the news cycle as we all try to maintain business as usual under the shadow of the pandemic. Just about every area of society and business has been hit and Life Sciences is no exception; the impact of the virus has been felt in every corner of the industry and our monthly issues aim to cut through the confusion to shed a light on that impact.

Hydroxychloroquine continues to feature in coronavirus news. Rick Bright, the Director of BARDA, alleges he was pushed out of his position due to his pushback to the administration focusing on the use of hydroxychloroquine in COVID-19 patients. This came after the National Institutes of Health said coronavirus patients should not take the drug due to potential “toxicities.”

The search for a COVID-19 treatment has ramped up this week, with two new studies detailing the efficacy of Gilead’s antiviral therapy remdesivir in the treatment of patients hospitalised with coronavirus, while researchers in America have been studying famotidine, the active ingredient in Pepcid, as a potential drug to help alleviate symptoms of the virus.

A new online reporting site has been launched by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s (MHRA) to track potential side-effects arising from the use of any therapies used to treat COVID-19, in a bid to build a knowledge base around safe treatment of the pandemic disease.

Vaccines and treatments for COVID-19 continue to dominate the news, as two studies reveal "positive" data for Gilead's remdesivir in hospitalised coronavirus patients while Lonza and Moderna have entered an agreement to mass produce a vaccine.

Alexion has announced it is to acquire Boston-based blood disorder specialist Portola Pharmaceuticals in a transaction to the value of $1.41 billion in cash.

Danish drugmaker Acesion Pharma, which is focused on novel treatments for atrial fibrillation (AF), has…

Mark Brewer, who heads up the life sciences team at UK broker and M&A advisory company, finnCap, gives…

In another strategic M&A deal announced so far this month, PTC Therapeutics has entered into an agreement…

Canada-based BetterLife Pharma, previously known as Pivot Pharmaceuticals, has entered into an agreement…

Gilead Sciences' remdesivir, now called Veklury, has won a fast Japanese nod in SARS-CoV-2. The Big Biotech's scouting licensing partners to ramp up supply around the world. Eli Lilly has signed on China's Junshi Biosciences to develop neutralizing antibodies against the novel coronavirus. And more.

The owner and operator of HME Solutions Inc., dba Lifecare Medical (Lifecare Medical), a licensed pharmaceutical wholesale company in Miami, pleaded guilty today to defrauding the Medicare program in connection with a $5.3 million HIV-infusion fraud scheme.

The United States has filed a lawsuit to block KV Pharmaceutical Company, its subsidiaries, ETHEX Corp. and Ther-Rx Corp., and its principal officers from making and distributing adulterated and unapproved drugs. At the same time, KV agreed to the injunction in a consent decree.

The United States and 16 states have joined in two whistleblower suits filed in the District of Massachusetts against the drug manufacturer, Wyeth, alleging that the company knowingly failed to give the government the same discounts it provided to private purchasers of its drugs, as required by laws governing the Medicaid program.

Aventis Pharmaceutical Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of sanofi-aventis U.S. LLC, has agreed to pay the United States $95.5 million to settle allegations that it violated the False Claims Act by misreporting drug prices in order to reduce its Medicaid Drug Rebate obligations. The settlement resolves allegations that between 1995 and 2000, Aventis and its corporate predecessors knowingly misreported best prices for the steroid-based anti-inflammatory nasal sprays Azmacort, Nasacort and Nasacort AQ.

Mylan Pharmaceuticals, UDL Laboratories, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical have entered into settlement agreements for a total of $124 million to resolve claims that they violated the False Claims Act by failing to pay appropriate rebates to state Medicaid programs for drugs paid for by those programs.

The nation’s largest nursing home pharmacy, Omnicare Inc. of Covington, Kentucky, will pay $98 million, and drug manufacturer, IVAX Pharmaceuticals of Weston, Florida, will pay $14 million to resolve allegations that Omnicare engaged in kickback schemes with several parties, including IVAX.

The United States has filed a civil False Claims Act complaint against drug manufacturer Johnson & Johnson (J&J) of New Brunswick, N.J., and two of its subsidiaries, Ortho-McNeil-Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Johnson & Johnson Health Care Systems Inc.

Ethex Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of St. Louis-based drug manufacturer, KV Pharmaceutical Company, pleaded guilty to two felonies and was sentenced today in connection with the manufacturing of oversized prescription drug tablets.

American pharmaceutical manufacturer Alpharma Inc. has agreed to pay $42.5 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations in connection with the marketing of the morphine-based drug, Kadian.

AstraZeneca LP and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP will pay $520 million to resolve allegations that AstraZeneca illegally marketed the anti-psychotic drug Seroquel for uses not approved as safe and effective by the Food and Drug Administration.

Schwarz Pharma Inc. will pay $22 million to resolve False Claims Act allegations that the company failed to advise the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) that two unapproved products did not qualify for coverage under federal health care programs.