High Costs For Drugs Used By A Few Are Starting To Add Up
A cystic fibrosis drug that is expected to be taken by only a few hundred people may drain almost $36 million from California's general fund over two fiscal years.
Pharmaceuticals
A Peek Inside Turing Pharmaceuticals: 'Another $7.2 Million. Pow!'
Congressional investigators have pried loose emails showing how the company's executives anticipated huge profits from a 5,000 percent drug price increase. They were blindsided by the blowback.
Modest Price Cut Expected For Generic Version Of Cancer Pill Gleevec
The generic form of the blockbuster cancer drug is being shipped to pharmacies. The generic is likely to cost 30 percent less than the brand-name version, but Gleevec's price doubled in recent years.
States Deny Pricey Hepatitis C Drugs To Most Medicaid Patients
Effective treatments for hepatitis C cost as much as $95,000. Medicaid in many states, including Indiana, is mostly limiting the drugs' use to very advanced cases. ACLU of Indiana is suing the state.
Hepatitis Drug Among The Most Costly For Medicaid
A Senate investigation finds that Medicaid programs in 33 states spent more than $1 billion on the hepatitis C drug Sovaldi in a single year.
Specialty Drugs Can Prove Expensive Even With Medicare Coverage
Medicare insurance plans for drugs vary widely in the medicines they cover. For 2016, some patients who pick the wrong plan could pay nearly $12,000 out of pocket annually for a single drug.
Cancer Society Asks Regulators To Limit Insurers' Charges For Key Drugs
Many covered medicines come with high out-of-pocket costs for patients, the American Cancer Society says in a report that calls for restrictions on the tabs insurers can pass along to patients.
Brand-Name Drugs Can Raise Costs Without Boosting Patient Satisfaction
The website Iodine has collected data about consumers' experience with prescription drugs that show generics scored highest among people who take medicines in three popular categories.
Menopause: A Gold Mine For Marketers, Fewer Payoffs For Women
Advertising for products to treat symptoms of menopause is becoming much more upfront about issues like painful sex. But more than a few of the remedies are solutions in search of a problem.
How Generic Drugs Can Cost Small Pharmacies Big Bucks
Independent pharmacies are getting pinched by reimbursements for generic drugs that aren't keeping up with rising prices. Drugstores blame the middlemen who manage companies' drug benefits.