Peter Wehrwein

The FDA approved Apretude (cabotegravir extended-release injectable suspension) for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV in December. Administered as an injection every other month, Apretude gives people at risk of contracting HIV a PrEP alternative to taking daily pills.

The cost-effectiveness group say Lilly’s diabetes treatment should have an annual price of between $5,500 and $5,700. The FDA is expected to make a decision on whether to approve tirzepatide this year.

U.S. healthcare is the most expensive healthcare in the world. Many of the policies and programs designed to rein in those costs have been predicated on the idea that information about quality and price would make Americans more discerning shoppers of healthcare — and with that shopping would come some market discipline.

CMS has started to experiment with a value-based version of Medicare Advantage that allows plans to tweak their offerings in various ways to see whether they might improve outcomes.

Kaiser research shows fewer hip fractures during the pandemic. People working at home may mean more supervision of older people.

ICER's analysis is slated to include two as-yet unapproved monoclonal antibody treatments, donanemab and lecanemab, as well as Aduhelm (aducanumab).

Apotex's importation of Chantix (varenicline) and Express Scripts' formulary exclusions were among the best read articles this year that didn't concern COVID-19.

The price cut came as CMS begins to weight whether Medicare should cover Biogen's controversial Alzheimer's disease drug.

The FDA approved efgartigimod on Friday (Dec. 17). The treatment, which is being sold under the brand name Vyvgart, could foment price competition with Soliris (eculizumab) and other treatments usually reserved for severe or refractory cases of myasthenia gravis. But there is a long way to go. According to one cost-effectiveness analysis, Soliris should be priced at between 2% and 3% of its current price.

Early treatment helps improve the efficacy of treatment of spinal muscular atrophy, according to a comprehensive review article published earlier this month.

Fluctuating body weight may worsen insulin resistance — and insulin resistance can, in turn, stress the kidneys and harm kidney tissue.

Prescription digital therapeutics are FDA approved and available only by prescription. Their developers are aiming to get them covered by insurers.

Despite the surge in late 2020, a study by Stanford researchers shows just a 10% drop in procedures from 2019 levels.

Researchers find that only 2.4% of prescriptions for 90 “substitutable” drugs were for brand-name drugs yet they accounted 21.2% of the expenditures on those drugs.

Researchers say findings argue for including substance use counseling in family planning care for people living with HIV.

Researchers calculated that 262,591 people in the United States received an hypertrophic cardiomyopathy diagnosis in 2019, an increase of 60% from 164,403 calculated to have been diagnosed in 2013.

A roundup of the latest news about the omicron coronavirus.

A round-up of news about the new variant of the coronavirus.

The $56,000 price tag is a rational response to an irrational insurance system, says a Berkeley Public Health economist in an opinion piece in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine.

The traditional dividing line between transmission by droplets and smaller aerosols is incorrect, say the authors of a Annals of Internal Medicine review paper, and infection control measures need to reflect the new understanding that respiratory viruses spread in respiratory particles of all sizes and perhaps mainly in aerosols.

Two key health provisions in the House “BBB “ would empower CMS to negotiate the prices of 10 drugs starting in 2023 and put a limit of $2,000 on Medicare Part D annual out-of-pocket costs.

JAMA Internal Medicine editor and a UCSF colleague wrote in a New England Journ of Medicine opinion piece that the decision highlights the need to establish a new requirement that would make coverage decisions contingent on evidence of benefit for Medicare population.

Managed Healthcare Executive® recently interviewed Jacqueline Glascock, Ph.D., the director of research programs at Cure SMA, an nonprofit organization in Elk Grove, Illinois, that funds research into spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and advocates for families and patients. In this video, Glascock discusses SMA and her organization, the three current therapies for the disease, and a combination therapy approach to the disease.

Califf, who is described by some as a safe choice for the agency’s top job, headed the FDA during the last year of the Obama administration.

In an interview with Managed Healthcare Executive®, Ty Gluckman, M.D., FACC, FAHA, provides helpful explanations of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy diagnosis and treatment

In an interview with Managed Healthcare Executive®, Ty Gluckman, M.D., FACC, FAHA, explains the definition, incidence and pathophysiology of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

Interviews with 32 patients shows a wide range of experiences but authors say one takeaway is a need for better coordination between HCM specialist and community cardiologists.