Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, often win patents for incremental changes with debatable value. Now there's a twist involving an opioid addiction treatment.

Federal officials will allow private Medicare insurance plans to require patients who are candidates for certain expensive drugs to try cheaper drugs first.

Massachusetts planned to exclude expensive drugs that weren't proven to work better than existing alternatives from its Medicaid plan. Medicaid drug spending had doubled in five years.

A consortium of hospital systems and three foundations is moving ahead with a nonprofit drugmaker that would produce some of the generic medicines health care facilities need the most.

Officials in Texas are responding to the findings of an investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity into drugmakers' influence over medication choices for Medicaid patients.

After an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and NPR into conflicts of interest in Medicaid decisions about drugs, Arizona's governor added new transparency rules.

Drug companies have infiltrated nearly every part of the process that determines how their drugs will be covered by Medicaid, an investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity finds.

The vast amount of data held in electronic medical records and insurance bills contains bits that could be useful in refining the use of approved for drugs. But how to find it?

The pharmaceutical company says it will delay price increases that went into effect on July 1. The move follows pressure from President Trump.

Researchers are looking to redeploy drugs used for years to treat cholesterol and high blood pressure as remedies for influenza and Ebola.

ProPublica found that drugmakers spent less to market opioids to doctors in 2016 than in prior years. Studies have shown that payments to doctors are linked to more prescriptions for the drugs.

A Harvard Medical School project aims to become the first national registry for exceedingly rare cancer patients who respond mysteriously well to treatments that failed to help others.