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KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Democrats do drugs (prices)

Despite the turmoil from the ongoing impeachment inquiry, Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives are proceeding with work on a major prescription drug price bill crafted by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

17 Oct 2019

California’s new transparency law reveals steep rise in wholesale drug prices

Drugmakers fought hard against California's groundbreaking drug price transparency law, passed in 2017. Now, state health officials have released their first report on the price hikes those drug companies sought to shield.

14 Oct 2019

Prescription drug nonadherence linked to food insecurity, study shows

Food insecurity is linked to higher disease rates but not much is known about the reasons for this. A new study of more than 10,000 Canadian households shows that this connection may be at least partially attributed to lack of access to prescription medication.

11 Oct 2019

New study to explore how medical cannabis affects people with chronic pain

A team of researchers at the University of Georgia will study how legalized medical cannabis affects people living with chronic pain.

8 Oct 2019

Study: Essential medicines list in Canada should be evidence-based

An essential medicines list in Canada should be evidence-based and independent of conflicting interests, found a study of decision-makers and policy-makers that is published in CMAJ.

7 Oct 2019

Trump speech offers dizzying preview of his health care campaign strategy

President Donald Trump offered a preview of what his 2020 health agenda might look like in a speech Thursday — blasting Democratic proposals for reform and saying he would tackle issues such as prescription drug prices and affordability.

3 Oct 2019

New study shows link between antidepressant use and gestational diabetes mellitus

A study has found a link between the use of antidepressants and the development of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in pregnant women.

2 Oct 2019

Tobacco treatment program in an oncologic setting could foster smoking cessation

A tobacco treatment program delivered at a cancer center had average seven-day smoking abstinence rates of about 45% at three- and six-month follow-ups and nearly 44% at the nine-month follow-up, and those rates didn't differ between patients with and without cancer.

27 Sep 2019

FDA warns about Ranitidine containing known carcinogen NDMA

The United States Food and Drug Administration have issued a warning regarding some substances present in a brand of Ranitidine that could be carcinogenic. In their first warning issued on the 13th of this month, the FDA warns that one of the brands of Ranitidine, Zantac is said to contain a nitrosamine impurity called N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) at low levels. NDMA is a known carcinogen, the report reads based on lab data and is also found in the environment, food and water the report adds.

26 Sep 2019

Hill hodgepodge: Pelosi draws from Democrats, GOP and Trump for drug plan

House Democratic leaders on Thursday unveiled an aggressive plan to lower drug prices through negotiations between federal health officials and the makers of some of the most expensive drugs.

20 Sep 2019

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Tennessee seeks Medicaid changes

Tennessee announced this week that it hopes to become the first state to take the Trump administration up on its offer to transform funding for its Medicaid program into a block grant.

19 Sep 2019

Despite repeated calls for unity, Democrats throw some debate punches on health plans

Unity was in the air on Thursday, as a trimmed-down cast of 10 Democratic presidential candidates met on the debate stage again and nodded to the stakes: another four years of President Donald Trump.

13 Sep 2019

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Despite booming economy, uninsured rate ticks up

The annual report from the Census Bureau, released this week, found that 27.5 million Americans were without health insurance last year, an increase of nearly 2 million from 2017.

12 Sep 2019

Legislation to end surprise medical bills has high public support — in both parties

Nearly 8 in 10 Americans support legislation to protect people from surprise medical bills, a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation shows.

12 Sep 2019

Biosero forms four-member strategic advisory board

Biosero, Inc. has formed a strategic advisory board made up of four members who will contribute to Biosero’s mission to provide automation software solutions that enable people and technology to make complex decisions in less time, using more data.

From Biosero Inc. 9 Sep 2019

School districts double down on drug testing, targeting even middle schoolers

Thirteen-year-old Aura Brillhart and her 11-year-old sister, Morgan, will face a new sort of test in school this year: a drug test.

5 Sep 2019

Shopping at the Apotheke: Compare German pharmacies with your corner drugstore

If you're looking for bobby pins, cheap lipstick or a protein bar, well, sorry, Americans, the German pharmacy can't help you.

30 Aug 2019

Shopping abroad for cheaper medication? Here’s what you need to know

In its effort to temper the sky-high prices Americans pay for many vital medications, the Trump administration last month unveiled a plan that would legalize the importation of selected prescription drugs from countries where they sell for far less.

22 Aug 2019

Drugmakers now ‘masters’ at rolling out their own generics to stifle competition

When PDL BioPharma's $40 million blood-pressure medicine faced the threat of a generic rival this year, the company pulled out a little-known strategy that critics say helps keep drugs expensive and competition weak.

5 Aug 2019

Brand–brand competition unlikely to lower list prices of brand-name drugs

Greater brand–brand competition alone will likely not lower list prices of brand-name drugs in the US, according to a study published July 30 in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Ameet Sarpatwari of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and colleagues.

From PLOS ONE 31 Jul 2019