Global Pharmacy News

Drug-makers spend record $155m lobbying US government

The pharmaceutical industry spent a record $155 million lobbying the US federal government and its agencies from January 2005 to June 2006.

The information was published in a report by the Center for Public Integrity, and is based on data obtained from the Senate Office of Public Records. The Center for Public Integrity is a non-profit organisation which does investigative reporting and research on public policy issues.

The huge sum of money was used by pharmaceutical industry to protect profits by supporting a law preventing the federal government from negotiating on Medicare drug prices. The industry also lobbied strongly to protect lucrative drug patents and to prevent the importation of lower-priced Canadian drugs.

In 2005, sales for the top companies represented more than a quarter trillion dollars of the U.S. prescription drug market. The pharmaceutical lobby in Washington now outnumbers members of Congress by two to one.

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Thailand throws down gauntlet to drug giants

IN A precedent-setting challenge to global drug companies, Thailand has become the first developing country to issue a compulsory licence to manufacture a generic drug that is not AIDS related.

The decision by the Ministry of Public Health to produce Plavix - an anti-blood-clotting drug used to treat heart disease - for less than a 10th of the manufacturer’s price challenges the accepted practice of when an international drug patent can be broken.

In response, international pharmaceutical and bio-science companies have frozen investments in Thailand and warned of the dangers - commercial and health-related - of taking this route.

Whether the move is legal or not depends on the reading of the World Trade Organisation’s Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights agreement, which requires member countries to recognise international patents on medicine.

The rules allow a government to approve the production or sale of a patented drug without the patent holder’s permission in a “national emergency or other circumstances of extreme urgency”.

The exemption has been seen as a legitimate tool in the fight against AIDS but not something that should be extended to other health conditions.

But the Thai Public Health Minister, Mongkol Na Songkla, justified the decision on the need to create greater access to life-saving drugs for all Thais.

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Senate OKs bill to lower cost of medicine

The Senate on Wednesday approved on third and final reading a bill amending specific provisions of the Intellectual Property Code that would consequently lower the prices of medicine in the country.

“This is just the first step toward promoting competition in the local pharmaceutical market that would increase people’s access and lead to lower prices of medicines to ensure our people’s health,” said Senator Manuel Roxas III, author of the measure.

In a separate statement, Senate President Manuel Villar said the passage of the bill is proof of the Senate’s “commitment to pass measures that would address the people’s health, education and other key requirements.”

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Brand-Name Drug Prices Still Rise Faster Than Inflation

TUESDAY, Sept. 19 (HealthDay News) — The prices of the brand-name prescription drugs most used by older Americans continue to increase faster than the rate of inflation, a new report finds.

But, the prices of the 75 generic drugs commonly used by older Americans remain unchanged, according to the AARP’s quarterly Rx Watchdog Report, released Tuesday.

In the survey of almost 200 brand-name prescription drugs, AARP found that prices rose 6.3 percent during the 12 months ending with the second quarter of June 2006. This increase exceeded the rate of inflation, which was 3.8 percent over the same period, the group said.

The biggest year-to-date increases were Adventis’ Ambien, a sleep aid, 5 milligram (13.3 percent); Boehringer Ingelheim’s Combivent, a bronchodilator aerosol (12 percent); Pfizer’s Atrovent Inhaler (12 percent); Adventis’ Ambien 10 mg. (9.9 percent); and GlaxoSmithKline’s Wellbutrin, an antidepressant, 150 mg. (9.4 percent), according to the report.

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Eighty Percent of U.S. Adults Favor Allowing Importation of Prescription Drugs, According to Wall Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll

Many feel banning of drug importation is intended to protect pharmaceutical
company profits

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ — According to a recent Wall
Street Journal Online/Harris Interactive Health-Care Poll, four out of five
(80%) U.S. adults indicate that they favor allowing people to import
prescription drugs from Canada and other countries if they are much less
expensive. A vast majority (84%) of the public strongly or somewhat agrees
that the law banning pharmaceutical imports is intended to protect drug
companies’ profits, while only thirty-six percent say this law helps
protect Americans from potentially harmful drugs.
These are some of the results of an online survey of 2,295 U.S. adults
conducted by Harris Interactive(R) between August 23 and 25, 2006 for The
Wall Street Journal Online’s Health Industry Edition
(http://www.wsj.com/health).
While some pharmaceutical companies want to make it impossible for
Canadian pharmacies to sell drugs over the Internet, a majority of adults
(72%) state that this policy is very or somewhat unreasonable.
Additionally, 83 percent agree that it should be legal to import drugs from
Canada that are approved and vetted by Health Canada, Canada’s equivalent
of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since last year, Customs has
been confiscating packages mailed to U.S. consumers by Canadian pharmacies,
with 37,154 packages seized as of July 2006. A majority (77%) agrees that
confiscating drugs at the Canadian border jeopardizes the health of some
Americans, and very few (6%) feel that those who regularly order
pharmaceuticals from Canada should be fined or arrested.

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The last thing America’s seniors should have to worry about is whether U.S. Customs agents are going to seize their high-blood-pressure medicine. But thousands fret each day, wondering whether the prescription they’re trying to fill by mail with a Canadian pharmacy will make it across the border.

And, to add insult to injury, many of the seniors whose drugs are confiscated are treated to threatening letters from Customs advising them that they’re violating federal law.

Fortunately, the U.S. Senate recognizes that treating seniors on fixed incomes like criminals for filling badly needed prescriptions is an absurdity that can no longer be tolerated. The Senate approved a measure by Florida’s Bill Nelson to prohibit Customs and Border Patrol agents from seizing prescription drugs imported by individuals from Canadian pharmacies by mail or carried over the border.

The Senate vote follows a similar one by the U.S. House of Representatives. It’s important to note that each measure enjoyed the support of Republicans and Democrats. Indeed, Nelson, a Democrat, joined with Louisiana Republican David Vitter in introducing the Senate proposal that passed 68-32 [earlier this month].

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Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c31567) has announced the addition of McKesson Corporation Business Intelligence Report to their offering.

McKesson Corporation (McKesson) is a Fortune 15 corporation providing supply, information and care management products and services designed to reduce costs and improve quality across the healthcare industry. McKesson, founded in 1833, conducts its business through three segments. McKesson’s strategy is to create strong, value-based relationships with customers, enabling it to sell additional products and services to these customers over time. Through its Pharmaceutical Solutions segment, McKesson is a leading distributor of ethical and proprietary drugs, and health and beauty care products throughout North America. This segment also manufactures and sells automated pharmaceutical dispensing systems for retail pharmacies, and provides medical management and specialty pharmaceutical solutions for biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturers, patient and other services for payors, and software, and consulting and outsourcing services to pharmacies.

McKesson’s Medical-Surgical Solutions segment distributes medical-surgical supplies, first-aid products and equipment, and provides logistics and other services within the United States and Canada. McKesson’s Provider Technologies segment delivers enterprise-wide patient care, clinical, financial, supply chain, managed care and strategic management software solutions, automated pharmaceutical dispensing systems for hospitals, as well as outsourcing and other services, to healthcare organizations throughout North America, the United Kingdom and other European countries.

This Business Intelligence Report provides the information and analysis you need on McKesson Corporation to gain an understanding of what makes the company one of the leading drug and medical equipment distributors, as well as a leading information solutions organization. The report provides the following sections: Industry Overview/Trends, Company Overview/Corporate Strategy, Internet Activities, Company Executives, Financial Information, detailed Lines of Business, and Sources.

Topics Covered
1.0 Industry Overview/Trends
2.0 Company Overview/Corporate Strategy
3.0 New Economy
4.0 Company Executives
5.0 Financial Information
6.0 Lines of Business
7.0 Sources

Summary

Our BusIntell Report provides the information and analysis you need on McKesson Corporation to gain an understanding of what makes the company one of the leading drug and medical equipment distributors, as well as a leading information solutions organization. The BusIntell Report provides the following sections: Industry Overview/Trends, Company Overview, Corporate Strategy (including Strengths/Weaknesses), Internet Activities, Company Executives, Financial Information, detailed Lines of Business, and Sources.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c31567

Some states taking steps to deal with Medicare drug benefit problems

By Kevin Freking
ASSOCIATED PRESS

2:04 p.m. January 10, 2006

WASHINGTON – At least six states are taking emergency steps to help low-income senior citizens and the disabled get their medicine despite problems with the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
Several more states say they are reviewing whether they need to take such action as complaints come in from patients and pharmacists. Under a program that began Jan. 1, Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in private plans are supposed to have prescription drug coverage subsidized by the government.

On Tuesday, lawmakers in New Hampshire authorized up to $500,000 for payments to pharmacists who give a 10-day supply of drugs to elderly people having problems getting their medicines.

The day before, South Dakota began a program that allows people who qualify for both Medicare and Medicaid to get a 30-day supply of medicine.

“By then, we hope that problems with the new (Medicare benefit) will be resolved,” said the state’s Republican governor, Mike Rounds.

Previously, Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts and North Dakota had announced plans that would allow low-income people to get their medicine if pharmacists were having trouble confirming coverage through the new Medicare benefit.

In many instances, people who enrolled in plans are not listed as participating when the pharmacies check their computers.

In Arizona, nearly 20,000 people who should have been automatically enrolled in a plan because of their income levels were not. “When they couldn’t get their meds, they were calling us,” said Alan Schafer, who runs the state’s long-term care program.

He said state officials were meeting this week with Medicare and health insurance officials to try to sort out the problems.

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Problem-plagued drug plan an extra headache for Republicans

By Tom Raum
ASSOCIATED PRESS

1:49 p.m. January 17, 2006

WASHINGTON – The Medicare drug program that was supposed to win political points for Republicans has exploded in their faces as this election year has begun. It’s a particularly vexing problem for the GOP, since older Americans are such active voters and no one seeking office wants to see them angry.
Since the Bush administration’s prescription medicine program began on Jan. 1, tens of thousands of elderly people have been unable to get medicines promised by the government. Some 20 states have had to jump in to help them.

And while officials promised anew on Tuesday that a fix was on the way, Democrats pointed to the confusion surrounding the rollout and pounded the administration and its GOP allies in Congress.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts cited a “systemwide failure” that he said “puts the health of our frailest citizens at great risk.” Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York likened the government’s response to a “man-made disaster” to its missteps on Hurricane Katrina.

“The time for all levels of government to act is now,” 14 Democratic governors said on Tuesday in a letter to President Bush.

“The political fallout is potentially enormous,” said Ross Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University. “This is a program that touches tens of millions of people. And anytime that a government program is working poorly, and is affecting adversely so many people, it’s bound to have huge consequences.”

Under the program, some 42 million disabled and older people are eligible to enroll in private plans that will subsidize their prescription drug costs. The signup period closes May 15.

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Prescription-plan shortfalls lead to rift between Washington Democrats, Gov. Bush
By Larry Lipman, Alan Gomez

Palm Beach Post Staff Writers

Thursday, January 19, 2006

WASHINGTON — U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler on Wednesday sharply criticized Gov. Jeb Bush for rejecting suggestions that Florida cover low-income Medicare beneficiaries who are denied drug coverage or charged exorbitant rates because of the new prescription drug law.

“I am deeply disappointed, profoundly disappointed, that my own governor… has not followed the lead taken by other governors across the country, Republicans and Democrats, in seeking to protect at-risk Floridians,” Wexler, D-Delray Beach, told a gathering of predominantly Democratic congressional staffers at a workshop.

Wexler sent Bush a letter Friday urging him to issue an executive order authorizing the state to pay for the uncovered drug claims of low-income beneficiaries whose drugs had been covered by the state-federal Medicaid program. Those beneficiaries, known as “dual eligibles” because they were covered by both Medicaid and Medicare, were automatically enrolled in Medicare-subsidized private drug plans on Jan. 1.

Bush, who is traveling this week in Ecuador and Peru, could not be reached for comment. Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Alan Levine said paying for people surprised by their co-pays is only a “short-term solution that doesn’t solve the bigger problem.”

He estimated Florida would have to pay $40 million to cover the co-pays that dual-eligibles would have to pay in the new program. And he said it’s more important to fix the larger glitches with the program than try to pay for something Medicare enrollees will eventually have to cover themselves.

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