Latest California Healthline Stories
Negotiating Drug Prices: Should State Agencies Band Together?
A California lawmaker wants to strengthen collaboration among public agencies to bring down costs to taxpayers.
Drugmakers Dramatically Boosted Lobbying Spending In Trump’s First Quarter
With high drug prices creating widespread controversy, top pharmaceutical companies and their trade group vastly increased their lobbying spending on Capitol Hill.
Nonprofit Linked To PhRMA Rolls Out Campaign To Block Drug Imports
The advocacy group behind an expensive media blitz opposing Canadian drug imports has deep ties to the drug industry’s largest trade group.
Kids With Hepatitis C Get New Drugs And Coverage May Prove Easier Than For Adults
The drugs, approved by the FDA for children earlier this month, can run $100,000 for a course of treatment.
California Presses Forward In Fight To Regulate Pharma
Such efforts have previously failed in the face of opposition from the drug industry, which questions their effectiveness and contends prices reflect research and development costs.
Drugmakers Help Turn Patients With Rare Diseases Into D.C. Lobbyists
Amplifying the “patient voice,” those with the rarest afflictions are trained to become powerful advocates for new drugs and legislation that would help the industry.
Trump’s Promise To Rein In Drug Prices Could Open Floodgate To Importation Laws
Sen. Bernie Sanders’ bill to allow Americans to buy cheaper medicines from Canada would bypass a requirement that blocked past legislative efforts over two decades.
GAO To Launch Investigation Of FDA’s Orphan Drug Program
The Government Accountability Office said it will investigate potential abuses of the orphan drug program, which offers incentives to drugmakers to develop medicines for rare diseases.
Cholesterol Drug Prevents Heart Attacks — But It Doesn’t Come Cheap
A cholesterol-lowering drug called Repatha cuts the risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart-related death by 20 percent, according to a new study.
$89,000 Orphan Drug Gets A New Owner — And Likely A New Price
Marathon, maker of an expensive treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, sells the drug for $140 million in cash and stock to PTC Therapeutics.