Pharma's Many Scams & Hustles (Do Not Resuscitate #357) Aug 2 2024

On “Do Not Resuscitate" we look at the mainstream and specialty healthcare news media about how we spend trillions of dollars making intermediaries rich instead of making ourselves healthier. This week’s focus is pharmaceuticals: their crazy cost, the corrupted system of approvals, patent abuse, regulatory laxity, and the PBM scam in which yet another set of intermediaries extracts monopoly rents and destroys neighborhood pharmacies. 

You can get my full written weekly digest by writing to me at <tfrasca@yahoo.com>.

It's archived at www.nypan.org/single-payer-news-archive.

Here are links to all the articles mentioned this week: 

Joe Biden & Bernie Sanders, “Novo Nordisk, Eli Lilly must stop ripping off Americans with high drug prices,” USA Today, Jul 2, 2024 https://bit.ly/4fsRR1W

Andy Hirschfeld, “What is behind the insulin shortage in the US?” Al Jazeera, May 2, 2024 https://bit.ly/4fjDAVv

Stephanie Nolen, “South Africa runs out of insulin pens as global supply shifts to weight-loss drugs,” New York Times, Jun 19, 2024 https://nyti.ms/3WpMqIv

Alan Yu, “A discontinued asthma medication has patients scrambling, some to the ER,” NPR/WHYY, Jul 22, 2024 https://n.pr/3StsYJR

Megan Henney, “Prescription drug prices have surged almost 40% over the past decade,” FOX Business, Jul 2, 2024 https://fxn.ws/3SszUXz

Rebecca Robbins & Reed Abelson, “The opaque industry secretly inflating prices for prescription drugs,” New York Times, Jun 21, 2024 https://nyti.ms/3ylmaak

Reed Abelson & Rebecca Robbins, “FTC slams middlemen for high drug prices, reversing hands-off approach,” New York Times, Jul 9, 2024 https://nyti.ms/4d378oK

Jared S. Hopkins, “Mail-order drugs were supposed to keep costs down. It’s doing the opposite,” Wall Street Journal, Jun 25, 2024

Bhanvi Satija, “Boehringer-GoodRx partner to offer Humira rival at 92% discount,” Reuters, Jul 18, 2024 https://reut.rs/3SsJx8y

Anna Claire Vollers, “Angry patients spur new state watchdogs to bring down drug prices,” Baltimore Sun/Tribune News Service/Stateline, Jul 23, 2024 https://bit.ly/4fsE9fM

Rosemary Westwood, “Louisiana reclassifies drugs used in abortions as controlled dangerous substances,” KFF Health News/WWNO, Jul 24, 2024 https://bit.ly/46uuYY8

Melissa Barber, Joseph S. Ross & Reshma Ramachandran, “One way to pay for weight loss drugs: CMS could buy Novo Nordisk,” STAT, Jul 23, 2024 https://bit.ly/3yafFHk

Matt Bevins, “A real world Dr. Evil: Big Pharma’s conspiracy to game medical literature,” Racket News, Jun 15, 2024 https://bit.ly/4fnBm7o

Jason Mast & Matthew Herper, “Top FDA official Peter Marks overruled staff to approve Sarepta gene therapy,” STAT, Jun 20, 2024 https://bit.ly/3WrD7b9

Liam Bendicksen, Edward Cliff & Aaron S. Kesselheim, “This gene therapy may not work. So why did the FDA fully approve it?” Washington Post, Jul 22, 2024 https://wapo.st/4bZY42w

Adam Feuerstein, “Sarepta demanded Duchenne patient advocacy group censor video critical of the company,” STAT, Jul 29, 2024 https://bit.ly/4dl0FoF

Devi Shastri, “Rural pharmacies fill a health care gap in the US. Owners say it’s getting harder to stay open,” Associated Press, Jun 7, 2024 https://bit.ly/3WIGLyq

Ian Karbal, “Prescription for trouble: Pennsylvania pharmacists say PBMs are driving pharmacy closures,” Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Jun 2, 2024 https://bit.ly/3WL1n9B 

Jessica Grose, “It’s time to ban pharmaceutical advertising,” New York Times, Jun 19, 2024 https://nyti.ms/4drgDOl

Ruth Reader, “Opioid deaths rose 50 percent during the pandemic. In these places, they fell,” Politico, Jun 26, 2024 https://politi.co/3YsO9PQ