With credit card fees taking a sizable bite of their billings, many U.S. health care providers are fighting back by offering patients cash discounts. But when a drug company covers card processing fees for its distributors to pass on to their provider clients so they can pay for so-called “buy-and-bill” Medicare Part B drugs with a credit card at cash prices, it’s fraud if those concessions aren’t figured into the drug’s average sales price – at least that’s what the U.S. Department of Justice is claiming in a complaint it released April 10 against Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Following decisions in 2023 to back away from its lead neurological therapies and conserve cash, Eliem Therapeutics Inc. found a vote of investor confidence and a new direction through its acquisition of privately held Tenet Medicines Inc. and its anti-CD19 antibody for autoimmune disease.
The Hatch-Waxman Act provides a safe harbor that allows importation of an FDA-regulated article that would otherwise be deemed a case of patent infringement so long as the importation is for purposes reasonably related to obtaining regulatory approval. Edwards Lifesciences Corp. sued Meril Life Sciences Pvt Ltd. for importation of heart valves in a manner that Edwards argued was infringement under Hatch-Waxman, but while the Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 against Edwards, the dissenting opinion recommended an appeal to a full 12-judge panel that could reverse this outcome.
Finding an effective medication for patients with major depressive disorder is notoriously difficult, with 70% of patients failing to respond to the first drug prescribed and 30% not responding to the first four medications. Complicating matters, genetic mutations can increase psychotropic drug-related adverse events, including hospitalizations. A recent study indicates Myriad Genetics Inc.’s Genesight test can help minimize the risk of these negative events, with a reduction of nearly 40% in psychiatric-related hospitalizations and prescription of medications with significant gene-drug interactions.
Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. is acquiring Alpine Immune Sciences Inc. for $4.9 billion in cash to gain Alpine’s lead product, phase III-ready povetacicept, which demonstrates best-in-class potential in patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN). Povetacicept (ALPN-303), or “pove,” holds potential “as a pipeline in a product in a number of other serious renal diseases and cytopenias,” Vertex CEO Reshma Kewalramani said during an April 10 conference call, noting that the deal was “just the right fit with just the right assets at just the right phase of development where Vertex can add value.”
The U.S. FDA thinks using minimal residual disease as an endpoint for accelerated approval in new therapies to treat multiple myeloma (MM) might just be an idea whose time has come. The FDA now wants to know what its Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee thinks about it, so the agency has convened a meeting of the committee for a deep dive into the subject on April 12.
Having failed in their efforts to get the U.S. NIH to march in on Xtandi’s patents under the Bayh-Dole Act because of price, Knowledge Ecology International and two other advocacy groups are now asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to do what the NIH refused to do. But rather than pressing for a march-in, which can be a lengthy process, the groups are pushing for CMS to use other statutory tools to clear the way for Xtandi (enzalutamide) generics to launch in the U.S. before Astellas Pharma Inc.’s three remaining patents for the prostate cancer drug expire in 2026 and 2027.
With the recent removal of its amyotrophic lateral sclerosis drug from the market, Amylyx Pharmaceuticals Inc. is looking to revive investor interest with interim data from its phase II Helios study testing the same drug, AMX-0035 (sodium phenylbutyrate plus taurursodiol), in Wolfram syndrome, a rare indication in which Amylyx could be leading the charge.
Exact Sciences Corp., Seekin Inc. and Serum Detect Inc. presented encouraging results for the field of multicancer early detection at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting in San Diego April 6-10, but delays in coverage may slow further progress.
Australia’s Speedx Pty Ltd. is launching a new rapid polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) test for 14 different respiratory viruses in a single test that works on almost every commercial PCR platform in half the time and at a fraction of the cost of what its competitors charge.
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