Thousands of homes in Navajo and other tribal lands don’t have access to electricity. A $200-million federal funding effort aims to fix that problem with solar power and other clean energy

Understanding the psychology of ambiguous loss can help people struggling with grief and depression in the wake of the 2024 election results

Is your kid in trouble? Blaming their friends is ill advised

A mysterious electromagnetic mechanism may be more important than the firing of neurons in our brain to explain our awareness

Outside groups often offer their solutions for climate adaptation in Africa. But the best people to manage the climate crisis are the people in those communities themselves. For climate adaptation to succeed in Africa, let communities and local leaders show the way

A team at Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a technique to enhance chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy in solid tumors. The technique involves engineering E. coli bacteria, that naturally tend to accumulate in the immune privileged core of solid tumors. The bacteria have been engineered to interact with […]

Researchers at Rice University have developed a magnetoelectric material that converts a magnetic field into an electric field. The material can be formulated such that it can be injected into the body, near a neuron, and then an alternating magnetic field can be applied to the area from outside the body. Magnetic fields are very […]

On October 8, 2024, Drug Channels Institute will release our 2024-25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors. This report—our fifteenth edition—remains the most comprehensive, fact-based tool for understanding and analyzing the large and growing U.S. pharmaceutical distribution industry.

9 chapters, 350+ pages, 178 exhibits, 750+ endnotes: There is nothing else available that comes close to this valuable resource.

We are providing you with the opportunity to preorder this thoroughly updated, revised, and expanded 2024-25 edition at special discounted prices. This means that you can be among the first to access our new report. Those who preorder will receive a download link before October 8.

• Review pricing/license options and place a preorder

• Download a free pre-publication report overview (including key industry trends, What's New in this edition, the Table of Contents, and a List of Exhibits)

You can pay online with all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) or via PayPal. Click here to contact us if you would like to pay by corporate check or ACH.

Special preorder and launch pricing discounts will be valid through October 23, 2024.

Read on for more details.
Read more »

Autumn is here! Curl up with your favorite pumpkin-spiced blog and savor these acorns that we’ve squirrelled away for you:

• Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicines gives a peek inside its $43 billion gross-to-net bubble

• Optum Rx joins the private label biosimilar bandwagon

• Biosimilars boom for provider-administered drugs

• Fresh evidence of how copay accumulators hurt patients

Plus, words of wisdom from Cencora's soon-to-be-former CEO Steve Collis.

P.S. Join my more than 58,000 LinkedIn followers for daily links to neat stuff along with thoughtful and provocative commentary from the DCI community.

There’s still time to request an invite to the inaugural Drug Channels Leadership Forum. Attendance will be highly limited. We have already begun extending invitations, so apply now to be considered. Click here to view the full agenda.

Read more »

Drug Channel Institute is pleased to announce The Drug Channels 2025 Video Webinar Series.

Join Dr. Adam J. Fein for three live video webinars during 2025. These live, interactive events will be broadcast via Zoom from the Drug Channels Video studio in beautiful downtown Philadelphia.

During these events, Dr. Fein will address the latest issues confronting the U.S. drug channel. Topics will be determined based on what’s happening—trends, policy changes, company announcements, and more. He’ll share DCI’s latest market data to help you stay on top of new developments. You will be able to use these events as both a capstone of your current learning and a touchpoint for the future.

The three events are scheduled for 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET on the following dates:

• April 4, 2025

• June 20, 2025

• December 12, 2025 (Drug Channels Outlook 2026)

For 2025, we are offering a Corporate Pricing option that will allow larger organizations to register hundreds of colleagues for one fixed price. Please contact Paula Fein (paula@drugchannels.net) for details.

Read on for full details on pricing, including substantial discounts for multiple sites.

P.S. If you're not familiar with our webinars, click here to watch brief excerpts from our video webinars.
Read more »

Today’s guest post comes from George Moore, Chief Information Technology Officer at CareMetx.

As George explains using novel survey data, manufacturers view new technologies  as crucial for patient services. He then explains how digital technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) can be used to improve patient adherence and increase hub efficiencies.

To learn more, download CareMetx’s new 2024 Patient Services Report: Revealing Manufacturer Priorities: Patients Naturally Take Center Stage.

Read on for George’s insights.
Read more »

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while we put the finishing touches on DCI’s new 2024-25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors.

Last week, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released the redacted version of administrative complaint against the three largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). The FTC rightly calls out how the gross-to-net bubble can raise patients’ out-of-pocket costs, while also acknowledging how rebates can reduce a plan's (but not the patient’s) costs. Apparently, the FTC believes that PBMs’ customers are pretty dumb, because PBMs are able to prevent plans from “appreciating” such healthcare financing dynamics.

Section V.E. of the complaint (starting on page 23) focuses on the PBMs’ alleged unlawful conduct related to preferring high-list/high-rebate insulin products over versions with lower list prices. I thought it would therefore be fun to take the Wayback Machine to November 2021, when I wrote about this specific topic.

Below, you can review my commentary about the warped incentives behind Viatris’ dual-pricing strategy for its interchangeable biosimilar of Lantus. Much of the FTC’s description of the drug channel aligns with my commentary. But before you fist pump too hard for Ms. Khan’s FTC, you should pause to reflect on the agency’s legal theories in light of plans’ revealed preferences.

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The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the first interchangeable biosimilar insulin product: the insulin glargine-yfgn injection from Viatris. Read the FDA’s press release.

Alas, I’m sad to report that the warped incentives baked into the U.S. drug channel will limit the impact of this impressive breakthrough.

Viatris is being forced to launch both a high-priced and a low-priced version of the biosimilar. However, only the high-list/high-rebate, branded version will be available on Express Scripts’ largest commercial formulary. Express Scripts will block both the branded reference product and the lower-priced, unbranded—but also interchangeable—version. Meanwhile, Prime Therapeutics will place both versions on its formularies, leaving the choice up to its plan sponsor clients.

Consequently, many commercial payers will adopt the more expensive product instead of the identical—but cheaper—version. As usual, patients will be the ultimate victims of our current drug pricing system.

Below, I explain the weird economics behind this decision, highlight the negative impact on patients, and speculate on what this all could mean for biosimilars’ future. Until plan sponsors break their addiction to rebates, today’s U.S. drug channel problems will remain.
Read more »

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while we put the finishing touches on DCI’s new 2024-25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors.

Click here to see the original post from June 2024.

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The 340B contract pharmacy market shows little sign of slowing down. Drug Channels Institute’s exclusive analysis of the 2024 market reveals that:Read more »

This week, I’m rerunning some popular posts while we put the finishing touches on DCI’s new 2024-25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors.

The article below highlights an underappreciated consequence of the Inflation Reduction Act’s inflation rebates for Medicare Part B drugs. Last night, I posted an updated analysis showing that the volatility in seniors' coinsurance rates continues. For the fourther quarter of 2024, coinsurance rates for 51 drugs increased, while rates for only 19 drugs decreased. What's more, rates for 17 drugs returned to their original 20% level. Click here to see our original post from May 2024.

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Contrary to what you may have heard, the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) inflation rebates for Medicare Part B drugs do not always save money for seniors.

As we document below, a growing share of Part B drugs have inflation-adjusted coinsurance rates that have been increasing, not declining. In many cases, the coinsurance rate declines only briefly before rebounding back to the standard 20% rate. What’s more, these fluctuations have triggered huge jumps in patients’ out-of-pocket obligations for some drugs—even when a drug’s costs were falling.

Chalk off these coinsurance surprises to yet another unintended consequence of the IRA. Seniors who are expecting to see costs drop may find they are instead being taken for a rollercoaster ride.
Read more »

I am pleased to announce Drug Channels Institute's new 2024–25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors, available for purchase and immediate download.

• Download a free report overview (including key industry trends, the Table of Contents, and a List of Exhibits)

• Review pricing/license options and download the full 2024-25 report

We’re offering special discounted pricing if you order before October 23, 2024.

2024–25 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors—our 15th edition--remains the most comprehensive, fact-based tool for understanding and analyzing the large and growing U.S. pharmaceutical distribution industry. This 2024-25 edition includes substantial new material—outlined on page vii of the report overview.

9 chapters, 380+ pages, 178 exhibits, more than 750 endnotes: There is nothing else available that comes close to this valuable resource.

You can pay online with all major credit cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) or via PayPal. Click here to contact us if you would like to pay by corporate check or ACH.

Email Paula Fein (paula@drugchannels.net) if you’d like to bundle your report purchase with access to DCI’s video webinars.

If you preordered the report, you should have already received an email with download instructions last week. Please contact us if you did not receive your email.

Read on for some additional details.
Read more »

Reality has again failed to support the spin surrounding the 340B Drug Pricing Program.

For 2023, discounted purchases under the 340B program reached a record $66.3 billion—an astounding $12.6 billion (+23.4%) higher than its 2022 counterpart. The gross-to-net difference between list prices and discounted 340B purchases also grew, to $57.8 billion (+$5.5 billion). 340B purchases are now almost 40% larger than Medicaid’s prescription drug purchases.

Hospitals again accounted for 87% of 340B purchases for 2023. Purchases at every 340B covered entity type grew, despite drug prices that grew more slowly than overall inflation.

Lobbyists claim that manufacturers’ 340B contract pharmacy changes are “stripping billions of dollars from the healthcare safety net.” But every year, the data tell a very different story. Only in the U.S. healthcare system can billions more in payments and spreads be considered a cut.

Read on for full details and our analysis, along with fresh details of troubling behavior by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
Read more »

Eeek! It's time for Drug Channels’ Halloween roundup of terrifying tales to share with your ghoulish fiends. This month’s tricks and treats:

• Spooky! Blue Shield of California frightens away the gross-to-net bubble with its Humira biosimilar strategy

• Vampiric! Prior authorization sinks its fangs into providers’ time

• Wicked! How the IRA will put a stake through specialty physician practices

• Eerie! Google’s monstrous AI podcasts leave me petrified

• Zoinks! Join the vampire hunters at Drug Channels Institute

Plus, Dr. Glaucomflecken tells us a frightening tale of copayments.

P.S. Stretch out your arms and join the ever-growing zombie horde who shamble after me on LinkedIn. You’ll find my ghostly rantings along with commentary from the undead hordes in the DCI community.
Read more »

Today’s guest post comes from Kimberley Chiang, Vice President of Biopharma Commercial Solutions at CoverMyMeds

Kimberley highlghts the crucial roles of field reimbursement managers in removing access and reimbursement barriers. She then identifies the keys to successful implementation of field reimbursement services.

To learn more, register for CoverMyMeds' November 13, 2024, webinar: Specialty Therapies & Field Reimbursement Services: Driving Better Outcomes for Brands and Patients.

Read on for Kimberley’s insights.
Read more »

FDA’s mission is “at risk” because of inadequate funding. So says Alliance for a Stronger FDA President Diane Dorman, testifying before the FDA Science Board. Her remarks come 5 years after the Science Board made a similar declaration, concluding that decades of underfunding had left FDA without the resources to fulfill its mandate and make science-based decisions. Congress responded with more monies for the agency, but since then the FDA’s workload has increased even faster. The current threat to FDA comes from two sources: four major new laws to implement since 2009; and changes in the environment in which FDA operates, notably acceleration of globalization and increasing scientific complexity. Ms. Dorman’s remarks are reprinted below. If you care about FDA, FDA Matters urges you to read her testimony, go to the Alliance’s site (www.StrengthenFDA.org) and join.

At a time when FDA’s responsibilities continue to grow rapidly, the agency has been caught in an across-the-board reduction (sequester) in federal discretionary spending, effective March 2, 2013. Although Congress may yet reverse course and restore money to affected federal agencies, this is not considered a high probability. Altogether, FDA will lose about $209 million between now and September 30, 2013. This will reduce inspections, slow drug and device approvals, and restrict implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act and other recent legislation. Because of the many questions about the process and outcome, this is FDA Matters’ primer on the sequester of FDA funds.

On May 24, Governor Tim Walz signed into law Minnesota’s new comprehensive data privacy law, the Minnesota Consumer Data Privacy Act (HF 4757 referenced as the MCDPA). The MCDPA goes into effect on July 31, 2025, with some exceptions for colleges and universities (who have until 2029). The MCDPA is similar to other state privacy laws, […]

The New York legislature passed two bills on June 7, 2024 directed at children’s use of online technologies – the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act (S7694) that restricts access to addictive algorithmic feeds and the New York Child Data Protection Act (S7695) that bans sites from collecting, using, sharing or selling personal […]

On June 25th, Rhode Island Governor Daniel McKee transmitted without signature (effectively a pocket veto) the Rhode Island Data Transparency and Privacy Protection Act (SB 2500 / HB 7787). The act is based on the Washington Privacy Act model but diverges from the prevalent forms of that model in two ways. First, the act contains a unique […]

No, CRISPR gene editing technology is not going to “cure” heart disease. But a New York Times story by Gina Kolata on an extremely early study in animals prominently plays up just this extremely unlikely claim. The Times story is based on a press release issued by Verve Therapeutics, a new biotechnology company founded by Sekar Kathiresan, an influential cardiologist and genomic...

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Note to readers: After a period of inactivity CardioBrief is coming back, but with some big differences. This website, CardioBrief.Org, will remain my personal website. A new website, CVCTCardiobrief.com, will be the new home for my “professional” blogging activities. To develop this website I have joined forces with the global CVCT Forum. I look forward to...

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We still don’t know what COVID-19 is doing to the heart or how we should be investigating it and treating it. Last month JAMA Cardiology published a German cohort study of 100 patients recently recovered from COVID-19… A number of striking problems with the study were noted on Twitter…...

Click here to continue reading...

At this moment in time the pre-pandemic cardiology research agenda needs to be completely reprioritized. There are two broad areas that now take precedence over all existing research concerns. On the one hand, researchers need to achieve a better understanding of the staggering incidence of deferred or delayed treatment of cardiovascular events and conditions as...

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<p>In May 2024, Malaysia’s National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) announced that it will trial new timelines for variation applications&nbsp;of registered pharmaceutical products and natural health supplements (TMHS).</p>

<p>In October 2024, China based Bio-Thera Solutions&nbsp;(Bio-Thera)&nbsp;and Hungary’s Gedeon Richter announced they have reached an exclusive commercialization and license agreement for BAT2206, a biosimilar candidate to&nbsp;Johnson &amp; Johnson’s Stelara (ustekinumab).</p>

The government implied wholesalers had more personal protective equipment in stock than was the case during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Healthcare Distribution Association has said.

The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee is in talks with the government over potential plans to distribute COVID-19 treatments in primary care.

Community pharmacies should be reimbursed for their additional costs during the COVID-19 pandemic “as soon as possible”, the prime minister has told The Pharmaceutical Journal.

Starting COVID-19 patients on prophylactic anticoagulation within 24 hours of being admitted to hospital has been linked to a reduced risk of mortality.

Some 180 women were prescribed valproate, a medicine used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder, during their pregnancy within a 2.5 year interval, NHS data has revealed.

Consultations on the reclassification of two progestogen-only contraceptive pills from prescription-only to pharmacy medicines have been launched.

Researchers around the world are working at record speed to find the best ways to treat and prevent COVID-19, from investigating the possibility of repurposing existing drugs to searching for novel therapies against the virus.

A new type of drug that targets chemotherapy directly to cancer cells reduces the risk of death from the most common type of bladder cancer by 30%, a phase III trial in the New England Journal of Medicine has suggested.

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society has expressed its sadness at the death of Joy Wingfield, honorary professor of Pharmacy Law and Ethics at the University of Nottingham.

Today IFM Therapeutics announced the acquisition of IFM Due, one of its subsidiaries, by Novartis. Back in Sept 2019, IFM granted Novartis the right to acquire IFM Due as part of an “option to buy” collaboration around cGAS-STING antagonists for

The post IFM’s Hat Trick and Reflections On Option-To-Buy M&A appeared first on LifeSciVC.

By Mike Cloonan, CEO of Sionna Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC An insightful piece on this blog following the JPM healthcare conference noted the “refreshing burst of enthusiasm” in the biotech sector. It’s true

The post Lessons From A Private Funding Round: Science, Relationships, And Experience appeared first on LifeSciVC.

Novartis recently announced the acquisition of Mariana Oncology, an emerging biotech focused on advancing a radioligand therapeutics platform, for up to $1.75 billion in upfronts and future milestones. The capstone of its three short years of operations, this acquisition represents

The post Mariana Oncology’s Radiopharm Platform Acquired By Novartis appeared first on LifeSciVC.

By Jonathan Montagu, CEO of HotSpot Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC As Boston’s weather has started its turn from the frigid darkness that is a northeast winter to the longer days and lighter conditions

The post Has Spring Sprouted New Growth in Immuno-Oncology? appeared first on LifeSciVC.

By Robert Clarke, CEO of Kinaset Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC Strategic considerations of when and how to consider raising additional capital to support clinical development in an improving but still volatile market. As

The post To B or Not to (Series) B appeared first on LifeSciVC.

By Aimee Raleigh, Principal at Atlas Venture, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC From the outside, one might assume all biotech venture capital (VC) firms are more similar than different. However, once you look under the

The post A Primer on Early-Stage Biotech VC appeared first on LifeSciVC.

By Ankit Mahadevia, chairman of Spero Therapeutics, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC A common theme in startup literature is that by cutting a range of unnecessary tasks, a step-change in results will follow.  I’ve found

The post Keeping It Simple: What Really Matters For Emerging Enterprises   appeared first on LifeSciVC.

By Ivana Magovčević-Liebisch, CEO of Vigil Neuroscience, as part of the From The Trenches feature of LifeSciVC In an industry where boom and bust cycles occur regularly and 90 percent of drug candidates fail to reach the market, an outstanding

The post Reflections On My Experience As A Board Member appeared first on LifeSciVC.

Today’s market likes products. Platforms aren’t in vogue anymore. Investors, especially in the public markets, only want late stage de-risked assets. Pharma only seems to be buying these kinds of asset. VCs need to focus on clinical stage companies. Or

The post Biotech Risk Cycles: Assets And Platforms appeared first on LifeSciVC.

The UK body that oversees health research is writing a new strategy on clinical trial transparency and it wants to hear opinions on it. The Health Research Authority (HRA) says its strategy aims to “make transparency easy, make compliance clear and make information public.” It has opened a public consultation on the strategy and some […]