- A Look at Major Drug-Pricing Proposals The New York Times by Katie Thomas—Several bills that seek to tackle the high cost of prescription drugs are moving through Congress, and the Trump administration has also signaled that it may take action.. Here's a list of the major drug-pricing proposals under consideration: speeding approval of generic drugs; requiring notice when drug prices go up; importing drugs from outside the United States; requiring pharmacy benefit managers to be more transparent; and allowing the government to negotiate the price of drugs covered by Medicare.
- Trump's Quiet on Drug Pricing, but His FDA Isn't Bloomberg by Max Nisen—Scott Gottlieb, the Trump administration's Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner, generally gets a big thumbs-up from the pharmaceutical industry. But he may end up making some drugmakers unhappy. An ex-FDA official, physician, industry consultant, and biotech investor, Gottlieb is seen as industry friendly and was certainly preferable to some other less experienced and more extreme candidates the White House floated. But he seems to have a mandate that includes getting drug prices under control , a topic he mentioned in his initial remarks to FDA staff on May 15.
- Mylan May Have Overcharged Taxpayers by $1.27 Billion for EpiPen Bloomberg by Cynthia Koons—U.S. taxpayers may have overpaid for Mylan NV's EpiPen shot by as much as $1.27 billion over the last decade, according to a U.S. government report. Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, on Wednesday posted a copy of a report by the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General. The report says that Mylan, by classifying EpiPen as a generic drug rather than a brand-name product, shortchanged the Medicaid program for the poor. Under Medicaid, makers of brand-name drugs must provide deep discounts on their products. In October, Mylan said it reached a settlement with the U.S. to pay $465 million for misclassifying the drug as a generic product, which doesn't require the same discounts. Grassley has been critical of the October settlement, calling it too small.