Pricing & Reimbursement

Bristol Myers Squibb’s head of major markets, Monica Shaw, wants to improve patients’ access to lifesaving therapies. And the group has several new products ready to roll.

In this week's podcast edition of Five Must-Know Things: Teva’s immunology biosimilar launches; Intra-Cellular’s promising depression data; Phase III sleep apnea win for Lilly’s tirzepatide; an interview with Viking’s CEO; and China looks to define innovative drugs.

China’s public payer perceives innovative drugs in a different way from that of the country’s top drug regulator, a former senior healthcare security official with knowledge of the matter revealed during a recent industry event. The disclosure has unnerved pharma companies, which have been hit by sharp drug price discounts that were required by the public payer in exchange for reimbursement coverage.

The European parliament has voted for legislation it says will lead to fairer, more accessible healthcare. The continent's drugmakers are still not wholly convinced.

The sustainability of drugs that protect against antimicrobial resistance is on the edge without proper pull incentive models on a global scale. GARDP, Shionogi and a physician focused on infectious diseases explained why at a recent briefing in Tokyo.

The group’s new muscular dystrophy pill seems unlikely to cut into Sarepta’s sales.

The Swiss major’s global health chief Lutz Hegemann tells Scrip on a trip to Rwanda that being a profitable enterprise while helping to improve access to new and older therapies for those who need it most is the real measure of a successful business.

It might make sense from a competitive standpoint for Teva to join the trend. That’s the way it happened in the insulin category.

Orchard, which Kyowa Kirin bought in October, gave Lenmeldy a $4.25m list price, exceeding the upper bound of about $3.9m set by ICER.

The British drug maker’s move follows that of Boehringer Ingelheim earlier this month, which itself followed increasing political scrutiny on out-of-pocket costs.

Takeda’s head of multi-country organization, India and Southeast Asia, Dion Warren, tells Scrip how things are shaping for Qdenga in Brazil’s public vaccination program and outlines the contours, including pricing aspects, of the deal with Biological E for the dengue vaccine. The US IND application for the jab is still open.

Madrigal faces the challenge of opening the metabolic-associated steatohepatitis (MASH, also known as NASH) market, but the firm has been laying groundwork for over a year.

The Sino-American company believes faster, lower-cost R&D and competitive pricing and access will give it an edge in oncology. Its chief commercial officer for North America and Europe told Scrip how it is now looking to repeat the success of Brukinsa and finally launch its much-delayed PD-1 inhibitor Tevimbra.

As drug pricing continues its ascent among hot button issues, the multi-million-dollar price tags for one-and-done advanced therapies, their justification and reimbursement all remain unaligned.

As China’s fifth approved CAR-T cell therapy, CARSgen/Huadong’s zevorcabtagene autoleucel is priced at $159,735 for a single infusion. Expanding patient access will become a formidable task for the companies, due to the poor prospects of reimbursement coverage by China’s public medical insurance program. 

Roche is stepping up its game in India with the launch of blockbuster Vabysmo (faricimab), closely on the heels of Ocrevus (ocrelizumab). It hopes to drive access for the nAMD and DME drug via government procurement and insurance schemes and tiered pricing.