#pharmalot

Continued criticism around drug company pricing policies has extended to the insulin market, with a 197% price increase from 2002–2013, despite only minor modifications/improvements to the drug class. Oral diabetes medications, however, did not experience this drastic price hike – with the cost of some drugs actually decreasing. The exception to the insulin price hikes is Lantus (by Sanofi) a well-established, long-acting form of insulin. After major pushback from PBMs, Sanofi decreased the cost of the drug by 14% in 2015. Drug cost predictions are also hampered by the anticipated release of a biosimilar version of Lantus – although generic competition typically drives down drug costs by 80%+, actual price impacts of biosimilars on the US market remain unknown. Drug manufacturers continue to defend drug costs, stating that the list price is very rarely the cost paid by insurers or patients.

The Rise Of Marketing-Based Medicine

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By Ed Silverman // January 28th, 2010 // 7:57 am

You’ve heard of evidence-based medicine. Well, a new paper summarizes a panoply of practices employed over the past two decades or so - ghostwriting, suppressing or spinning data, disease mongering and managing side effect perceptions among docs - that the authors call marketing-based medicine. And they rely on internal documents from litigation - such as the much-publicized lawsuits over antipsychotics and antidepressants - to illustrate their point.

A stunning must-read from Ed Silverman on a must-read paper. The comments following Ed's post are also rich.

I imagine there will be blowback and some vigorous challenges to the facts and stats in the paper. But the industry emails quoted are themselves devastating, and suggest how successfully the marketing forces within the industry won out over those who wanted to make drugs that clearly worked, rather than aggressively sell drugs that either didn't work that well or worked for some but carried nasty side-effects that were downplayed.