Articles/Reports Archives

[Forbes] ’60 Minutes’ Just Attacked High Drug Prices. Here’s What You Should Know.

Oct 5, 2014

60 Minutes, the most successful news program in American history… Read More

[WSJ] Lawmakers Probe ‘Staggering’ Price Hikes for Generic Drugs

Oct 2, 2014

In response to recent reports that the cost of some generic drugs has been unexpectedly rising at a rapid clip, two members of Congress have launched an investigation and asked 14 generic drug makers to providing data about what the lawmakers called the “escalating prices they have been charging” for generic medicines. Read More

[MarketWatch] Sovaldi pricing raises debate over drug costs

Oct 1, 2014

With the California-based drug manufacturer Gilead Sciences planning to roll out another hepatitis C medication, academics said Wednesday that policy changes are needed in the costly drug market so the interests of patients, health insurers and pharmaceutical companies align. Read More

[The Wall Street Journal] France Will use Taxes to Pressure Drug Makers on Hep C Prices

Sep 30, 2014

In an effort to blunt the high price of hepatitis C treatments… Read More

[Reuters] New cancer therapy comes of age, cost a ‘toxic’ side effect

Sep 30, 2014

A raft of new cancer drugs promise better, longer-lasting treatments with fewer adverse side effects -- but their high cost is a growing concern. Read More

[The Washington Examiner] America’s other drug war

Sep 22, 2014

Winston Churchill famously described an appeaser as "one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last." Today, in a very different context, his remark captures the plight of the American pharmaceutical industry. Read More

[The Washington Post] The new $84,000 hepatitis C treatment is losing momentum, for now

Sep 18, 2014

After recording the best launch of any drug in history, it looks like the pace is starting to slow down for Gilead Sciences' Sovaldi — the new $84,000 hepatitis C cure that's sparking a new focus on specialty drug costs. Read More

Gilead–The Predictable Path or the Road Less Traveled?

Sep 17, 2014

Gilead should be commended for taking action to make their best-selling treatment for Hepatitis C, Sovaldi, available to more people around the world. In India, they’ve struck licensing agreements with generic firms to produce the product for pennies on the dollar. Unfortunately, Gilead’s largess is being funded largely on the backs of American families. Read More

[Reuters] Study shows downward trend in Sovaldi utilization

Sep 17, 2014

Over the last several months there has been a 'plateau and downward trend' in the use of Gilead Sciences Inc's controversial $1,000-a-pill hepatitis C treatment, Sovaldi, a CVS Health Corp analysis showed. Read More

[The New York Times] Gilead, Maker of Hepatitis C Drug, Strikes Deal on Generics for Poor Countries

Sep 15, 2014

Gilead announced that it had struck agreements with seven Indian generic drug makers to sell lower-cost versions of its $1,000-a-pill Hepatitis C drug in poorer countries. The deals are intended to provide greater access to the medicine Sovaldi for most of the nearly 180 million infected worldwide with Hepatitis C who do not live in rich countries. Some 350,000 people die every year of Hepatitis C infections, most of them in middle- and low-income nations. Read More

[The Street] Retrophin Assailed for ‘Exorbitant’ Price Hike

Sep 10, 2014

Runaway drug pricing has become a recent hot topic, witnessed best by the media and political bashing of Gilead Sciences (GILD_) for the $1,000-per-day cost of its hepatitis C pill Sovaldi. Read More

[The Boston Globe] New Genzyme drug comes at a high price

Sep 9, 2014

There are a lot of innovative therapies with encouraging prospects and eye-popping price tags in the news lately. All of them pose hard questions about the big commercial risks drug companies must take and the enormous pricing power of medicines that can help suffering patients. Read More