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...Pharmaceutical companies raised prices on 1,376 drugs by an average of 5.8 per cent on January 1, according to data from RX Savings Solutions, which sells software to help employers and other health insurance...
...“The latest increases signal that it is ‘business as usual’ rather than the voluntary concessions that Trump indicated were coming,” said Michael Rea, chief executive of Rx Savings Solutions, which makes...
...By blocking a PD-1, a protein on the surface of the immune system’s T-cells, the drug allows the cells to attack tumour cells....
...“The vast discrepancy in what a drug costs the pharmacy and the amount it is sold for to the patient is pure profit for someone in the supply chain,” says Michael Rea, chief executive of Rx Savings Solutions...
...The Federal Trade Commission is already looking into competition in the pharmaceutical supply chain....
...While US lawmakers vie to be the people’s champion, the pharma executives appearing before the Senate finance committee on Tuesday are likely to do two things, according to Michael Rea, chief executive of Rx...
...However, Mr Rea of Rx Savings said some drugmakers with expensive products would try to buy preferred slots on formularies — and thus keep their cheaper rivals off the lists — by offering larger rebates...
...Michael Rea, chief executive of Rx Savings Solutions, which makes software to help people reduce their drug bills, says buying PillPack will allow Amazon to move more quickly than if it had launched its...
...Some pharmaceutical groups implemented much larger increases....
...Pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are bracing themselves for new regulations designed to lower drug prices in the US as President Donald Trump tries to fulfil his pledge to stop them “getting away...
...This article has been amended since it was first published to correct the owners of Caremark and Optum Rx...
..., a pharmaceuticals cost savings consultancy....
...“Allergan’s ‘social contract’ looks like it was lip service to consumers, insurers and politicians,” says Michael Rea, chief executive of Rx Savings Solutions, which makes software to help employers and...
...increases on this many products is far more costly and impactful for the American health economy than anything Shkreli ever did by raising one drug by 5,000 per cent," said Michael Rea, chief executive of Rx...
...The drugmaker reported a “significant acceleration” in patients undergoing a test to see if they have high levels of a protein known as PD-L1, which would make them candidates for Keytruda....
...Keytruda is one of those drugs, known as a PD-1 inhibitor, which targets a protein thought to stop the body from attacking cancer....
...Samir Devani, analyst at Rx Securities in London, expects peak sales for the drug of more than €700m....
...“In my opinion, this is the latest example of a pharma bad actor cornering the US market and taking advantage of payers and consumers,” said Michael Rea, chief executive of Rx Savings, which makes software...
...As a consequence, Merck’s Keytruda has been approved to treat a group of first-line lung cancer patients who have tumours that contain high amounts of a protein known as PD-L1, which is thought to make them...
...About a quarter of patients have PD-L1 levels of 50 per cent or more....
...These patients had tumours with very high levels of a substance known as PD-L1, a characteristic shared by somewhere between 25 and 30 per cent of all people suffering from non small-cell lung cancer....
...“Wow,” said Mark Schoenebaum, a veteran pharmaceuticals analyst with Evercore ISI. “This is a major surprise, possibly the biggest clinical surprise of my career.”...
...David Maris, a pharmaceuticals analyst at Wells Fargo, says he has “mixed feelings” about such tactics....
...Both are so-called PD-1 checkpoint inhibitors, which work by disabling the mechanism used by cancer to evade the immune system....
...However, only about 22 per cent of NSCLC patients have high enough levels of PD-L1 for Keytruda to be effective....
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