Drug Prices Jump
January is when drug firms traditionally re-price their products and this year is no different. Twitter users were up in arms about old drugs whose list prices have been jacked up. Here's a comparison of price jumps and age of drug.
Notably you have Humira, which has been around for 18 years whose list price jumped 7.4%. Never a good look, but especially bad during a worldwide health crisis. So this is a straightforward case of drug companies ripping us off, yes?
Drug Prices Drop
The thing about the US healthcare system is it makes no sense. The list prices of drugs do generally rise each year, but so do rebates and discounts. So the prices after discounts have actually dropped for the third straight year.
It really seems like drug pricing is a big accounting trick, doesn't it? Charge $100 for a hospital-administered aspirin, offer a 99% discount, brag about $100 in headline sales. Transparency would be a nice start because as of now no one knows why they pay what they pay thanks to our opaque middlemen know as insurance companies.
McGraw Hill
Major US medical content provider McGraw Hill would like your views about online medical resources and they're prepared to compensate you for them. Independent researcher, Simon Danczuk (check him out here), is running online discussion groups on their behalf where you share your views on which products and services your company commonly uses, how you use them, and who decides what is available in your organization.
If you’re a senior director, medical officer, or librarian in the biotech/pharma industry, they want to hear from you. It’s completely confidential and if selected you will receive $500 for your time. Just drop an email with your details in it to Simon at: simondanczuk@live.co.uk
Nuance Biotech
These guys changed their name to Nuance Pharma. Interesting since usually renames go the other way - dropping 'pharma' in favor of 'biotech' what with all the negative press/connotations of being a pharma company. But really, these days the difference between the terms biotech and pharma is a matter of...hmm, what word are we looking for here?
Biotech Highs
Most IPOs, most funding, biggest stock price gains, saving the world...you name it, 2020 was the all-time best year for biotech. For those in the industry, it has been interesting to say the least given how poorly most of the real economy has fared.
