Pricing Debate

The COVID-19 windfall meant a 12% rise in spending on medicines in the US in 2021 versus 2020, but just 5% excluding COVID, which is expected to fall to 1%-4% compound annual growth through 2026.

The non-profit organization plans to make biosimilar versions of Lantus, Humalog and Novolog and sell them for no more than $30/vial.

Sanofi's US net drug prices declined 1.3% in 2021, the smallest decline in six years of publicly disclosing aggregate list and net price information.

China has fielded several homegrown checkpoint inhibitors, using lower cost as an argument for the US market, but sintilimab – a key test case – has underscored FDA skepticism.

Biopharma industry leaders highlight key concerns and opportunities across production, supply chain and commercial operations. Business transformation is top of mind for many, perhaps unsurprisingly following two years of rapid and mostly successful adaptation to the strictures of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Typically, state intervention in pharmaceuticals is aimed at drug cost control which, if taken to extremes, can border on nationalism.

While the Omicron variant does not bode well for 2022, vaccine boosters and oral antivirals are the products from the pharmaceutical sector that should keep on giving. Even if partisan analysts choose to forget them.

CEO Dave Ricks told investors Lilly will succeed via volume-driven growth of nine key products launched since 2019, which its commitment to lower prices will facilitate.

While Democrat politicians - and most voters- want to see drug pricing negotiations introduced in the US for the first time, pharma leaders believe a deal on out of pocket costs will be agreed instead.

ICER's report on unsupported price increases highlighted seven drugs that cost the US health system $1.67bn due to price increases after rebates and other concessions.

From the latest COVID-19 advances to the emergence of a game changer for heart failure, Scrip’s editor in chief Eleanor Malone reviews the big stories of the past three months. Safety issues around JAK inhibitors and AAV vector-based gene therapy were also to the fore, while biopharma financing continued apace.

With the latest Delta variant wave in the rear-view mirror, vaccine and antiviral sales, and their impact on full-year guidance, are likely to remain the big swing factors in third-quarter earnings season.