E-DRUG: A Drug 5x Price. Now, Drug Industry Players Feuding Over the Windfall.
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[This article illustrates the powerful forces of Big Pharma against affordable access to medicines. Read the whole article here
https://tinyurl.com/yb5ng6r7 ]
A Drug Quintupled in Price. Now, Drug Industry Players Are Feuding Over the Windfall.
Update, May. 31, 2017
by Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, and Katie Thomas,
The New York Times, May 31, 2017, 5:59 p.m
https://www.propublica.org/article/drug-quintupled-in-price-now-drug-industry-players-feuding-over-windfall?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter
Amid public concern over spiking drug prices, a powerful middleman is suing a tiny drugmaker over unpaid rebates and fees. The maker calls the suit baseless; analysts say the suit offers a window into an opaque world.
A company that manages prescription drug plans for tens of millions of Americans has sued a tiny drug maker that makes an emergency treatment for heroin and painkiller overdoses, increasing the tension between the companies that make drugs and those that decide whether they should be covered.
Express Scripts, the nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager, is suing Kaléo, the manufacturer of Evzio, the injectable overdose treatment whose price quintupled last year, drawing widespread outrage and inquiries from members of Congress. Express Scripts claims it is owed more than $14.5 million in fees and rebates related to Evzio, and it has dropped the drug from its preferred list.
In recent months, anger over rising drug costs set off a civil war within the pharmaceutical industry, pitting drug makers against other players in the health care system, including the little-known pharmacy benefit managers who negotiate with drug makers on behalf of insurers, large employers and government health programs. Drug makers have accused Express Scripts and other benefit managers of operating in the shadows, pocketing an undisclosed share of the payments they exact from drug makers even as consumers are asked to pay inflated prices for the medicines they need.
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