January 30, 2015—The biotech company Celgene, acting at the request of the Health Resources and Services Administration, has posted a notice on the 340B program website explaining why it has stopped adding providers to its limited distribution networks for three of its products, including its top-selling blood cancer drug Revlimid.  [ms-protect-content id="2799"] In the … [Read more...]

January 30, 2015—Annual recertification of 340B eligibility for all enrolled providers other than hospitals and Title X family planning clinics began on Jan. 28 and will end on March 11, according to a notice on the Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Pharmacy Affairs home page. [ms-protect-content id="2799"] Covered entities other than hospitals and … [Read more...]

January 29, 2015—Attorneys for the Department of Health and Human Services have asked a federal district judge to dismiss the drug industry's lawsuit against the 340B orphan drug exclusion interpretive rule. [ms-protect-content id="2799"] In a Jan. 27 motion, the Justice Department says that Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America's claims that the Health … [Read more...]

January 29, 2015—U.S. hospitals provided $46.4 billion in uncompensated care in 2013, $500 million more than in 2012, the American Hospital Association reports. [ms-protect-content id="2799"] The new data come from the AHA's latest Annual Survey of Hospitals. The figure includes charity care and bad debt but excludes Medicaid and Medicare underpayment. The group reported … [Read more...]

January 28, 2015—The Republican chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday released the first draft of legislation to spur the development of disease-curing drugs, but the lead Democrat on what is called the 21st Century Cures Initiative declined to endorse the discussion document. [ms-protect-content id="2799"] One of the draft bill's many provisions … [Read more...]

January 23, 2015—Congress should not scale back the 340B drug discount program in an effort to pay part of the multi-billion-dollar cost of Medicare physician payment reform, the American Hospital Association told a House subcommittee yesterday in written testimony. Hospitals have faced more than $121 billion in federal spending cuts since 2010 and "now is not the time to … [Read more...]

January 22, 2015—The Food and Drug Administration approved 41 "novel new" drugs in 2014, of which 17 – a record high – were for orphan diseases or conditions, the federal agency says in a new report.  [ms-protect-content id="2799"] Hundreds of medicines are approved every year, most of them variations of drugs already on the market. The FDA reports annually on the small … [Read more...]