Roundtable with Jeffrey B Geske, MD; R Scott Wright, MD; Stephen L Kopecky, MD
More at Medscape
Rx Cost Debate Overlooks Patient Access Issues
Widespread debate erupted several weeks ago when a pharmaceutical start-up bought and raised the price of a 60-year-old drug by 5,000 percent. In the face of public backlash, the company’s CEO agreed to a reduced price. And when a San Diego-based company introduced a $1 alternative, patients and the media alike celebrated. But the incident has fueled a broader public debate about the cost and value of prescription medications.
More at Institute for Patient Access
Will New Value Assessments Lead to Care Rationing?
For patients, the immense value of a life-changing medication can be difficult to quantify. Yet as drug prices rise, more health insurers and policy analysts are trying to do just—create a price point based upon a medical therapy’s clinical effectiveness. But when market price doesn’t conform to analysts’ value assessment, effectiveness data can be used to justify limiting patients’ access to breakthrough treatments. Such could be the case with a new study from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, which considers the value two new drugs for treating high cholesterol.
More at Institute for Patient Access
Statement on FDA Approval on Repatha
The National Forum for Heart Disease & Stroke Prevention is pleased that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Repatha™ (evolocumab), the second PCSK9 inhibitor to enter the market this year. This newly available therapy will serve to markedly reduce low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), or “bad cholesterol”, among patients whose elevated LDL-C levels place them at elevated risk for heart attacks and strokes. Repatha has been shown in clinical trials to significantly reduce LDL-C, with minimal side effects, among patients with cholesterol levels that are too high despite previous therapies or who have familial hyperlipidemia, an inherited high cholesterol disorder.
More at National Forum for Heart Disease & Stroke Prevention
Patients Seeking Alternatives to Statins May Undergo Rigorous Vetting
A powerful new class of drugs promises to change the management of heart disease for high-risk patients who struggle to get their cholesterol levels under control—a group that numbers in the millions.
But only some of them are likely to get the new medicines.
More at Wall Street Journal