Pharmaceuticals

Compensation in recent years for the CEOs of the largest U.S. health care companies has far outstripped the wage growth of nearly all Americans, an investigation by the news site Axios has found.

The innovative drug Ocrevus looks as if it could be a game-changer for people with MS. But it's very, very expensive. And as with any new medication, the long-term safety risks are unknown.

More than 70 drugs approved by the FDA from 2001 to 2010 ran into safety concerns that prompted withdrawals from the market, "black box" warnings or other actions.

An inexpensive drug could dramatically reduce the number of deaths of mothers from bleeding after childbirth in low- and middle-income countries around the world.

An organization campaigning against foreign drug imports has deep connections to the lobbying group PhRMA, which includes Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Bayer, an analysis by Kaiser Health News reveals.

Researchers use intermediate endpoints like how a drug lowers cholesterol to get a quick sense of whether the drug might improve health. But those shortcuts often don't show true benefits and harms.

Gottlieb is seen as a mainstream pick for an agency that oversees a quarter of the U.S. economy, including pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, cosmetics and other areas of human and animal health.

Citing a Kaiser Health News investigation, Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, will examine potential abuses of incentives to spur development of drugs for rare diseases.

In 2014, the government said health providers would have to register with Medicare in order to prescribe drugs to beneficiaries. Delays have pushed back the requirement until 2019.

The wholesalers that move medicines between drug companies and pharmacies have been fined for failing to call out suspicious transactions involving opioids.

A half-dozen senators involved in confirmation hearings for Rep. Tom Price to head the Department of Health and Human Services have health care investments made by themselves or family members.

Several new studies document widespread conflicts of interest in medicine. The way we think about disease "is being subtly distorted" by financial ties, the authors of an accompanying editorial write.