Danny Boyle credits Irrfan Khan with propelling Slumdog Millionaire to Oscar glory.

Stars from around the world have been paying tribute to actor Irrfan Khan who has died at the age of 53.

The elusive artist's latest work, Game Changer, is on display at Southampton General Hospital.

Daymond John hates to be the bearer of bad news, but he thinks all signs point to our economic recovery being kinda like watching paint dry -- slow and painful. The "Shark Tank" star was on "TMZ Live" Friday to talk about the unique economic…

By: Daniel Logan and Justine Johnson The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, or “CARES” Act (Pub. L. No. 116–136) makes numerous changes to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA).  The CARES Act made substantial changes related to the regulation of over-the-counter (OTC) drugs (see KKB’s alert here dedicated to summarizing these

The post Changes Made to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by the CARES Act appeared first on Kleinfeld Kaplan & Becker LLP.

Business chief Jonathan Symonds has joined British multinational GlaxoSmithKline as the company’s new non-executive chairman.

The hire ends GSK’s six month search, as it prepares to fold its consumer business into a joint venture with Pfizer. In his new role Symonds will oversee the changes being implemented by CEO Emma Walmsley who joined GSK in 2017. Walmsley hopes to revitalise GSK’s R&D efforts with the help of Chief Scientific Officer Hal Barron.

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It’s a unique and troubling time. We are all of course concerned about the coronavirus and its disruption to our personal and professional lives.

I presume that life will return to normal later this year. But what happens then? Will there be long-term changes to how the drug channel operates? Will we see permanent changes in behavior, policy, and industry structure?

To answer these questions, I want to tap the collective insights of Drug Channels’ 30,000+ audience.


This survey should take 10 minutes or less. I will provide a full review of the results next week on Drug Channels. The survey will close on March 20.

You can respond anonymously. Any information you provide will be kept confidential. Per Drug Channels' long-standing policy, I never publish, release, or disclose any personal data without your permission.

Thanks in advance for sharing your insights.

Regards,
Adam

First, let me say thank you to all of the healthcare workers who are putting themselves at risk during this crisis.

As I noted last week, many of the crucial issues for our healthcare system will remain after we all get through this challenging period. In that regard, here’s a look at some noteworthy news from the past month:

• Sanofi discloses new data about insulin prices

• Excellent new academic research on list vs. net drug prices

• Three notable researchers overturn their earlier research on drug costs

• Amazon switches PBM vendors for some of its employees

Plus, we unveil the teaser trailer for Drug Channels Video!

P.S. Join the more than 9,000 followers of my daily links to neat stuff at @DrugChannels on Twitter. My recent tweets have highlighted such topics as:

• How GoodRx shares patients’ prescription data
• 2019 drug trend at Prime Therapeutics
• Controversy about the independent pharmacy market
• A new $5 generic mail order program, Medicare Part D reform
• Retail pharmacy’s future
• Job openings at Amazon 
• Frozen cookie dough
• And much more!

I have also been tweeting many under-the-radar stories about how the coronavirus affects drug channels.
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ICYMI, the boffins at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released their new projections for U.S. National Health Expenditures (NHE). Unfortunately, the coronavirus almost immediately made these predictions obsolete.

It’s still useful to analyze these forecasts for a pre-pandemic examination of U.S. healthcare spending. A few highlights of the 2024 outlook:

• Total U.S. spending on healthcare was projected to grow, from $3.6 trillion in 2018 to $5.0 trillion in 2024.

• Spending on hospitals and professional services was expected to grow by a combined $800 billion—more than 60% of CMS’s projected $1.4 trillion increase in U.S. healthcare spending. That’s consistent with historical trends.

• Net spending on outpatient prescription drugs in 2024 was projected to shrink to less than 9% of total U.S. spending. That would be its lowest level since 2000.

As usual, the actual facts run counter to the popular narrative that drug spending is skyrocketing relative to any other aspect of U.S. healthcare. Of course, the coronavirus will alter these projections. Below, I speculate how COVID-19 and its aftermath will affect healthcare and prescription drug spending.

Prediction is very difficult, especially if it's about the future. Feel free to add your own outlook in the comment section below.
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In 2006, I launched the Drug Channels website to explore the economics of the U.S. reimbursement and distribution system for prescription pharmaceuticals. More than 30,000 professionals in the pharmaceutical and related industries rely on Drug Channels for timely analysis and provocative, fact-based insights.

Today, I am pleased to announce the launch of our new delivery platform: Drug Channels Video!

You can look forward to:

• Information and analysis via our new YouTube channel (Never fear. I’ll still be publishing articles on the website every week.)

• Livestream video webinars (Stay tuned next week for an announcement about our first two events.)

• Private, live virtual keynotes and remote presentations (Email me to schedule a safe social distancing event for your team.)

• Online video courses (Coming later in 2020)

Please watch my brief video introduction below. (Click here if you can’t see the video.)


I hope you and your families stay safe and healthy in these challenging times. I look forward to reconnecting with you in person soon.

Today’s guest post comes from Scott Dulitz, Chief Strategy Officer at TrialCard. Scott discusses how combining payer intelligence with market-leading technology can enhance patient access.

TrialCard recently acquired Policy Reporter, a healthcare software solutions company that provides payer intelligence to the biopharmaceutical, medical device, and diagnostics industries. To learn more, schedule a demo of Policy Reporter or contact Scott (scott.dulitz@trialcard.com).

You can also register for Trialcard’s upcoming webinar: Leveraging Payer Intelligence in Patient Service Programs.

Read on for Scott’s insights.
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Will home infusion growth be a long-overdue correction for the buy -and-bill channel or a temporary blip that will soon vanish?

For some time, I have been tracking the evolution of the buy-and-bill system for provider-administered drugs. The data have shown that hospital outpatient departments have been displacing physician offices. Amid this shift, home infusion providers have accounted for a minority of commercial medical benefit spending and a tiny share of Medicare Part B spending.

However, the coronavirus pandemic is triggering new growth in home infusion for buy-and-bill products. Below, I highlight the early signs of a marketplace change. I believe that some of these short-term shifts in the buy-and-bill market will persist even after we have recovered from COVID-19. They may even slow the runaway growth of the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

If not, then I suppose we'll just keep living in a world with limited home infusion over and over.

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. Watch my video invitation below.

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Rumor has it that Spring has finally reached our worldwide headquarters here in beautiful downtown Philadelphia. (See photo at right.) While we wait to go outside, please enjoy this month’s selection of noteworthy news:

• The outlook for drug prices

• A outstanding (and free!) resource for tracking COVID-19 daily data

• What’s up with community oncology practices?

Plus, I share my favorite chart of 2020 (so far).

P.S. Join the more than 9,200 followers of my curated links to neat stuff at @DrugChannels on Twitter. My recent tweets have highlighted: Prime Therapeutics new gene therapy offering, AmerisourceBergen’s laudable deal with the Justice Department, the Costco/Instacart deal, Rite Aid’s new CEO, clinical trial trends, vaccine pricing, and much more! I have also been tweeting under-the-radar stories about how the coronavirus is affecting drug channels.

Tomorrow (May 1), Drug Channels Institute will host the first of two live video webinars: Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: Retail & Specialty Pharmacies. We'll host the second video webinar—Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: PBMs & Payers—on 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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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.

I suspect this deal will remain profitable for the participating companies even as COVID-19 alters the US. prescription payer mix. Click here to see the original post and comments from January 2020. National market shares for the largest PBMs in 2019 appears as Exhibit 88 of our 2020 Economic Report on U.S. Pharmacies and Pharmacy Benefit Managers.

P.S. Sorry that today's meme is one day too late for Star Wars day.

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Just before the holidays, Cigna’s Express Scripts business announced a market-changing deal with Prime Therapeutics. Click here to read the press release.

There's been very little written about this transaction, though it has potentially major implications. Below, I share my thoughts on the following topics arising from the deal:

• Implications for manufacturers and pharmacies

• The role of the secretive Ascent Health Services

• What this all means for Walgreens

• Why the Federal Trade Commission won’t challenge the deal

A few weeks ago, I explained why integrated insurer / PBM / specialty pharmacy / provider organizations are poised to restructure U.S. drug channels. The Express Scripts / Prime deal signals that the channel will continue its amazing pace of reinvention.

The scale, scope, and interconnectedness of today’s market participants make the system increasingly resistant to massive disruption from either external players like Amazon or a government takeover. Like it or not, the channel will continue to gain power and extract profit. Read on and see if you agree.
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With substandard medicines already in wide circulation, fears are growing that coronavirus could create a lethal ‘parallel crisis’

When Joana Opoku-Darko’s daughter Anna was 18 months old, she came down with malaria, a disease common in Ghana and especially deadly for children.

She bought medication from a pharmacy in Ghana’s capital, Accra; when Anna’s fever didn’t subside she took her to a hospital, where they ran some tests.

The current focus on curbing Covid-19 spread means there is less focus on routine market surveillance

Related: Fight the fakes: how to beat the $200bn medicine counterfeiters | Helen Lock

Continue reading...

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) wrote a letter to Republican Arizona Governor Doug Ducey urging the wider use of hydroxychloroquine, based on data they have collected.

Nearly half of US states will have their ‘stay-at-home’ orders expire this week, paving the way for much of the US to relax its lockdowns.

A French patient who suffered from pneumonia in December actually had COVID-19, it has been revealed.

The biotech company Galecto Inc have appointed Jonathan Freve as its Chief Financial Officer, and in his role he will lead financial operations including overseeing investor relations and fundraising efforts.  

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A recent report from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) has shown that black people in Britain are four times more likely to die from the COVID-19 coronavirus than white Britons.

The ongoing spread of COVID-19 in Russia is leading to shortages of drugs against orphan diseases in…

Italian drugmaker Recordati has reported consolidated revenues for the first quarter of 2020 are 429.2…

Novartis is using familiar faces—real patients from its Cosentyx TV commercials—to thank healthcare workers and promise support for patients. It’s a shift away from product-centered TV ads as Novartis adjusts its Cosentyx DTC effort during the COVID-19 crisis to highlight resources for patients, the drugmaker said.

Russian authorities said on Saturday they had recorded 10,817 new cases of the coronavirus in the last day, pushing the nationwide tally to 198,676.

Barrday Inc. and two related companies have agreed to pay the United States more than $1 million to resolve allegations that they violated the False Claims Act in connection with their role in the weaving of Zylon fabric used in the manufacture and sale of defective Zylon bullet-proof vests. Barrday, headquartered in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, is a weaver of ballistic fabrics and designs and produces specialty industrial textiles.

Kentucky Utilities (KU), a coal-fired electric utility, has agreed to pay a $1.4 million civil penalty and spend approximately $135 million on pollution controls to resolve violations of the Clean Air Act.

A former employee at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti pleaded guilty today to one count of theft for stealing more than $800,000 from the U.S. Department of State. According to court documents, Jean G. Saint-Joy, 25, a citizen of Haiti, was employed as a cashier by the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, from approximately 1995 until July 2008.

APL Limited has agreed to pay the government $26.3 million to resolve allegations that it submitted false claims to the United States in connection with contracts to transport cargo in shipping containers to support U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

AT&T Technical Services Corp. (AT&T-TSCO) has agreed to pay $8,266,414.33 as part of a civil settlement relating to allegations that the company violated the False Claims Act in connection with the Federal Communication Commission's E-Rate program.

Methodist Hospital in Houston has agreed to pay the United States $9.99 million to settle allegations that it defrauded the federal Medicare program. The settlement resolves allegations that Methodist improperly increased charges to Medicare patients in order to obtain enhanced reimbursement from Medicare.

The United States has sued four Certified Public Accounts (CPA), 27 tax preparers and one other individual, seeking to bar them from promoting an alleged tax scam involving bogus income tax credits claimed for sham sales of methane from landfills.

Three defendants were sentenced to prison today after pleading guilty in January 2008 to federal charges of running an “advance-fee” scheme that targeted U.S. victims with promises of millions of dollars.

Two Department of Defense (DOD) contractors were charged with conspiracy and bribery relating to their roles involving DOD contracts in Afghanistan. A Lebanese contracting company is also charged with participating in the same conspiracy.

Two former managers of the Bank of China and their wives were sentenced today after their convictions on Aug. 29, 2008, by a federal jury in Las Vegas on charges of racketeering, money laundering, international transportation of stolen property as well as passport and visa fraud.

A Virginia man has been sentenced to 63 months in federal prison for participating in a conspiracy that led to more than 10 million pounds of frozen catfish being imported from Vietnam, but fraudulently labeled and sold in the United States as sole, grouper and other species. This sentence is one of the longest imposed by a federal judge for falsely labeling seafood.

Today, in federal court in Dallas, U.S. District Judge Jorge A. Solis sentenced the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF) and five of its leaders following their convictions by a federal jury in November 2008 on charges of providing material support to Hamas, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

A former employee at the U.S. Embassy in Haiti was sentenced today to 18 months in prison for stealing more than $800,000 from the U.S. Department of State.

Raschad L. "Sean" Lewis, a former fuel section employee of Kellogg Brown and Root Inc. (KBR), assigned to Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan, was found guilty yesterday by a federal jury of conspiracy, false writing, bribery of a public official, and false claims stemming from a bribery and a fuel diversion scheme.

Two U.S. military officials pleaded guilty to various bribery, fraud and conspiracy charges relating to Department of Defense (DOD) contracts in Afghanistan.

“As demonstrated by today’s charges and arrests, we will strike back against those whose fraudulent schemes not only undermine a program upon which 45 million aged and disabled Americans depend, but which also contribute directly to rising health care costs that all Americans must bear,” said Attorney General Holder.

Haji Bagcho, aka Haji Bagh Chagul, an Afghan national, was ordered detained today by Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia while he awaits trial on U.S. narcotics charges.

A retired U.S. military official pleaded guilty to bribery and conspiracy charges relating to Department of Defense (DOD) contracts in Afghanistan. According to the plea agreement, which was filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago today, First Lieutenant Robert Moore (Ret.) pleaded guilty to conspiracy and bribery charges.

A federal judge in Tampa, Fla., has permanently barred eight men – including five tax preparers and two Certified Public Accountants (CPA) – from promoting an alleged tax fraud scheme involving bogus income tax credits.

Consultores de Navegacion, a Spanish company that operates the M/T Nautilus, an ocean-going chemical tanker ship, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock to pay a fine of more than $2 million and serve three years of probation for criminal violations related to the overboard discharge of oil-contaminated bilge waste on the high seas.

Two dual Afghan/U.S. citizens today pleaded guilty for their roles in a scheme to offer $1 million in bribes to a U.S. Army contracting official in Afghanistan.

Tyson Fresh Meats, Inc., the world’s largest supplier of premium beef and pork, has agreed to pay a $2,026,500 civil penalty to settle allegations that it violated terms of a 2002 consent decree and a federally-issued pollution discharge permit at its meat processing facility in Dakota City, Neb.