APSTOCK
Good afternoon.
A large study has now delivered the strongest evidence yet about how to identify cancer patients who are likely to benefit from a particular form of immunotherapy: count the number of mutations their tumor cells have. The higher this “tumor mutational burden,” the likelier a patient is to go into remission, and possibly be cured, by checkpoint inhibitor drugs such as Bristol-Myers Squibb’s nivolumab (Opdivo) and Merck’s pembrolizumab (Keytruda).
While investors may have cheered the recent $74 billion bid that Bristol-Myers Squibb made for Celgene, a pair of Congressional lawmakers want federal authorities to examine the extent to which such a deal may impede competition or cause higher drug prices for Americans.
As Congressional lawmakers push to negotiate prices for Medicare Part D, a new analysis finds the federal government could have saved $14.4 billion on the top 50 pills that were covered two years ago if the program obtained the same prices as the Department of Veterans Affairs, which already haggles for discounts.
Yet another flare-up over the cost of medicines is playing out in the Netherlands, where the government is angry at Novartis for boosting the price of a cancer treatment more than six times — to roughly $26,000 for an infusion — in a convoluted case that has spurred debate about orphan drug status and the ability of local hospitals to make their own lower-cost alternatives.
Don’t miss
We’ll be back tomorrow with more great stories. |
