Pharmacy
Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on Sunday said it would merge with Botox maker Allergan in a $160 billion deal that would shift the company's executive offices to Ireland in a tax-saving "inversion" deal that is sure to come under heavy regulatory scrutiny.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first nasal spray version of naloxone hydrochloride, better known as Narcan, in hopes that the ease of delivery will help combat the opioid epidemic.
People with hepatitis C who sought prescriptions for highly effective but pricey new drugs were significantly more likely to get turned down if they had Medicaid coverage than if they were insured by Medicare or private commercial policies, a recent study found.
Cancer patients shopping on federal and state insurance marketplaces often find it difficult to determine whether their drugs are covered and how much they will pay for them, the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society says in a report that also calls on regulators to restrict how much insurers can charge patients for medications.
The retail health clinic wave shows no sign of crashing, according to a new report by Accenture, with experts saying the number of these outposts will likely hit 3,000 by 2017.
In 31 states and the District of Columbia, silver-level plans cover fewer than seven of the 10 most common drug treatment options or charge consumers more than $200 a month in cost sharing, according to an analysis of 2015 silver plans by consultant group Avalere Health.
The investigation is spurred by dramatic drug price increases, often on older, off-patent drugs, after the acquisition or merger of pharmaceutical companies.
Healthcare spending grew by 3.4 percent in 2014, a new report by the Health Care Cost Institute found, even though overall utilization declined.
Pharmaceutical manufacturer Warner Chilcott will plead guilty and pay $125 million after admitting to paying kickbacks to doctors and other healthcare professionals so they would prescribe drugs Actonel, Asacol, Atelvia, Doryx, Enablex, Estrace, Loestrin and others, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Thursday.
Menlo Park, California-based Frazier Healthcare Partners has closed on a $262 investment fund that it plans to use to back biomedical companies developing new therapeutics products.