The Food and Drug Administration is stopping more packages at the border. Many are ordered by Americans trying to save money on medications.
Eleven years ago today, while I was still serving as head of corporate communications for Cigna, I flew from Philadelphia to Sacramento to attend the first U.S. screening of a new documentary, Michael Moore’s SiCKO. It never occurred to me as I walked into the historic Crest Theatre that...
You’re not alone in wanting to fix a broken system that perpetuates high prices.
Many medicines are cheaper if you buy them outside your insurance for the cash price.
The arrangements between drug manufacturers and insurance middlemen are accelerating price increases.
When you buy an overpriced medicine at the pharmacy, a complex network of players has taken a quiet cut. They aim to keep it that way.
Across the country, expanding the dental workforce to include dental therapists is one of a very few health care proposals that attracts support from lawmakers in both parties.
Yes, Novartis secretly paid Trump lawyer Michael Cohen $1.2 million to gain insights into the president’s thinking on health care. But there is more to it.
Thirty-six state attorneys general and others allege that the manufacturer of Suboxone, a balm for America’s opioid crisis, gamed regulators and manipulated the market to overcharge consumers.
The drug industry worked with the Obama administration to sow safety fears about cheaper medications from foreign sources.
The coveted treat was quietly delivered by lawmakers who had long sought oil extraction in wildlife refuge.
David Lichtenstein A new treatment could extend David’s life by 33%. But he can’t afford to take it. David Lichtenstein has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and likely has only 3 to 5 years to live. This summer, the FDA approved a new treatment called Redicava that could extend...
If prescription drugs are cheaper in other countries, why not allow Americans to import them? In many cases we’re talking about bringing back drugs that U.S. companies made in the first place. To be sure, re-importation has long been a popular idea with individuals and some policy makers. But no...
Congress has prohibited the government from bargaining for cheaper Medicare medications under Part D.
There is clear evidence the pharmaceutical industry manipulates well-intentioned laws to increase prices and profits. We’ll use two laws as our case studies, the Orphan Drug Act of 1983 and the Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984 which jumpstarted the generic drug industry. The first was designed to give incentives to drug...
Five years ago, a bipartisan bill that would have allowed Americans to order U.S.-made prescription medicines from Canada, where drug prices are much lower, went down to a bipartisan defeat despite widespread public support—just as it has every time the idea has been considered by Congress over almost two...
Department of Health and Human Services Secretary nominee Alex Azar would be the first former drug industry executive to lead the agency if he is confirmed by the Senate. A Tarbell review of past HHS secretaries – and before that leaders of its predecessor bureau, the Department of Health Education and Welfare...
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main trade association for the drug industry, wrote $14.3 million in checks in 2015 to a panoply of nonprofit think tanks, disease advocacy groups and charities. The money is spread around liberally to win friends, to win influence, and to win the...
The pharmaceutical industry has reinforced its clout on Capitol Hill with campaign contributions that heavily support incumbents in both parties. That figure came to a total of $62.7 million during the 2016 election cycle, according to the OpenSecrets database. The largest drug companies lean, in particular, toward the members of...
The pharmaceutical industry doesn’t just contribute to patient groups or the lawmakers themselves through campaign contributions to assert influence. It floods the U.S. Capitol with lobbyists. A Tarbell analysis of lobbying disclosures found that the leading drugmakers that make up the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, and the association itself, have spent...