Hospitals are rationing cancer treatments. Pharmacies are scrambling to fill routine antibiotic prescriptions. And across the USA, patients are facing growing delays, substitutions, or outright denials of essential medicines, not because the drugs don’t exist, but because the supply chains behind them have buckled. 24 July 2025
A new report has drawn attention to the growing number of prescription drugs being excluded from commercial insurance formularies in the USA—particularly affordable generics and biosimilars—raising fresh concerns over patient access and out-of-pocket costs. 24 July 2025
The race to develop effective cancer vaccines has entered a new phase, with late-stage trials from companies like Moderna and BioNTech generating momentum and sharpening investor focus. 23 July 2025
Denmark-based allergy immunotherapy specialist ALK Abello today announced that the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended the use of the company’s tree pollen tablet Itulazax for the treatment in adults. 21 July 2025
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has cast doubt on the value of a new spinal muscular atrophy treatment from US biotech Scholar Rock, while reaffirming concerns about limited comparative data across the class of SMA therapies. 18 July 2025
The Bristol Myers Squibb-Pfizer Alliance today announced a new direct-to-patient option for purchasing Eliquis (apixaban) via their Alliance’s patient resource Eliquis 360 Support. 17 July 2025
The UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended Novartis’ Kisqali (ribociclib) as an adjuvant treatment for all eligible populations of HR+/HER2- early breast cancer patients. 17 July 2025
The UK government’s new life sciences plan has been met with skepticism by the pharmaceutical industry, which says the strategy will fall flat unless there is a serious shift in the way new medicines are funded and valued. 16 July 2025
The US regulator has launched a new national initiative to help Medicaid programs fund gene therapies for sickle cell disease, under an agreement aimed at broadening access while linking payments to real-world treatment results. 16 July 2025
The USA's Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) has released a Final Evidence Report assessing the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of Sanofi’s tolebrutinib for the treatment of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS). 15 July 2025
In the USA, the 340B hospital markup program cost state and federal taxpayers an estimated $6.5 billion per year due to lost Medicaid rebates, according to a new report from Berkeley Research Group (BRG). 15 July 2025
US biotech major Vertex Pharmaceuticals has reached a wide-ranging reimbursement deal with NHS England for Alyftrek (deutivacaftor/tezacaftor/vanzacaftor), a next-generation oral therapy for cystic fibrosis (CF), clearing the way for access to thousands of eligible patients across the country. 15 July 2025
A quiet shift with potentially big implications for cancer drug access is underway in the UK. In June, the country’s health technology assessor, NICE, recommended GSK’s Blenrep (belantamab mafodotin) in multiple myeloma. 14 July 2025
China’s vaccine landscape is shifting after local biotech Xiamen Innovax Biotech unveiled the country’s first domestically developed nine-valent HPV vaccine, Cecolin 9, at a price far below that of the incumbent Gardasil 9. The new shot is being offered at around $70 per dose—less than half the typical price of Merck & Co’s (NYSE: MRK) product in the country. 14 July 2025
South Korea’s Samsung Bioepis today published a whitepaper titled ‘Solving the Biosimilar Void in Europe’ that proposes policy recommendations to fully recognize the value of biosimilars and ensure a more sustainable market in Europe. 14 July 2025
New figures in Danish pharma trade group Lif's Medicine Reimbursement Meter show a slight increase in the number of pharmacy medicines for which companies applied for reimbursement in 2024 - and the development for 2025 is positive. 14 July 2025
The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published final guidance recommending Eli Lilly’s Omvoh (mirikizumab) for use on the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales as an option for moderately to severely active Crohn’s disease in adults. 11 July 2025
BeOne Medicines - the Sino-American oncology specialist formerly known as BeiGene - has announced that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has recommended Brukinsa (zanubrutinib) to treat relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) after one line of treatment. 10 July 2025
Japanese authorities are putting Eisai under pressure to reconsider the price of its Alzheimer’s disease therapy Leqembi (lecanemab), after a government-backed review found that the drug significantly exceeds accepted cost-effectiveness thresholds in the country. 10 July 2025
The US Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) has released new research showing how key Inflation Reduction Act provisions will lower costs for women enrolled in Medicare, including nearly 30 million women enrolled in Part D. 3 April 2024
A report released by the non-profit group No Patient Left Behind has claimed that it has found critical flaws in a key metric used by US insurance companies and foreign governments to determine whether to cover prescribed treatments at low out-of-pocket costs. 2 April 2024
Joint Clinical Assessments (JCA) can support getting new innovative cancer medicines to patients faster, if the right balance in evidence generation and assessment to facilitate national decisions on access for these innovations can be found. 2 April 2024
The Brazilian Ministry of Health backed Fiocruz foundation and non-profit organization Caring Cross have announced a collaboration to develop local manufacturing of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell and stem cell gene therapies. 27 March 2024
Validating Novo Nordisk’s decision to research the cardiovascular impact of Wegovy (semaglutide), US authorities have said Medicare patients with heart problems can now receive the drug. 22 March 2024
Members of the European Parliament’s health committee (ENVI) yesterday adopted a compromise position on the EU Pharmaceutical legislation review (comprising of a new Pharmaceutical Directive and Regulation). 20 March 2024
More than 86% of the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority's (NPPA) total demand for overcharging remains unrecovered from drug majors operating in India. 15 March 2024
Britain’s health technology assessor (HTA) is moving to recommend against funding Casgevy (exagamglogene autotemcel), the second such blow for people with sickle cell disease (SCD) in the country. 15 March 2024
Just a couple of months after launching its direct-to-consumer pharmacy service, Eli Lilly has announced plans to ramp things up significantly. 14 March 2024
US health technology assessor the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) released a Final Evidence Report assessing the comparative clinical effectiveness and value of Novartis’ iptacopan and AstraZeneca subsidiary Alexion’s danicopan for the treatment of paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria (PNH). 14 March 2024
A final report for KarXT (xanomeline tartrate/trospium chloride) has been published by influential US pricing watchdog The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER). 12 March 2024
Germany’s Bayer has entered into deal with USA-based BridgeBio Pharma to commercialize its cardiovascular candidate acoramidis worth $310 million in upfront and milestone payments. Research news last week included Denmark’s Novo Nordisk releasing positive new data on its semaglutide, showing it cut kidney-disease related events in diabetes patients by 24%. Also, Singapore-based TauRx Pharma released new data on its Alzheimer’s candidate hydromethylthionine mesylate (HMTM). US President Joe Biden is moving further with his intent to bring down drug prices in the USA, with plans not to limit Medicare negotiations to just 20 drugs a year. 10 March 2024
With demand for GLP-1 agonists outstripping supply, Zepbound (tirzepatide) developer Eli Lilly has issued a warning against resorting to counterfeits. 8 March 2024
India's drug manufacturers are lobbying for a one-time exemption from a price control regulation linked to the Wholesale Price Index (WPI). 8 March 2024
French drugmaker Ipsen has secured a positive reimbursement decision from the UK’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). 7 March 2024
The US subsidiary of Germany’s family-owned drug major Boehringer Ingelheim today said it will cap out-of-pocket costs at $35 per month for eligible patients for all the company’s inhaler products. 7 March 2024
President Joe Biden’s actions to cut prescription drug prices through the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other means have been far from popular with big pharma and its lobbyists. 7 March 2024
A bold move to rip up intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines appears to have been quietly dropped, after the World Trade Organization (WTO) opted not to extend the measure. 6 March 2024
A pair of big pharma companies have become the latest drugmakers to take aim at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the cost-effectiveness watchdog for England and Wales. 5 March 2024