The Johnson & Johnson company offices in Irvine, California, U.S. | Photo Credit: REUTERS The story so far: Bedaquiline has now become the cornerstone to cure drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB). Last week, a major barrier for drug resistant TB care ended, when Johnson & Johnson’s patent on bedaquiline expired on July 18. This long-awaited expiry will … Read more
March 4, 2022 — Everyone knows that insulin prices in the United States are ridiculously high and unaffordable to many people with diabetes, but nobody has done anything about it — until now. Civica Inc., a nonprofit organization governed by health systems and philanthropies, announced Thursday that it plans to manufacture and sell generic insulin … Read more
Nov. 18, 2021 — At least one generic drug approval – and ideally more than one – is needed to spur competition and reduce the overall cost to consumers taking a particular medication. This is particularly true when a drug is difficult to make or has the potential to only treat a small number of … Read more
By Robert PreidtHealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, July 7, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Can Costco beat Medicare Part D when it comes to prescription drug prices? Apparently so, claims a new study that found that roughly half of generic medications were cheaper when purchased from the discount retailer than from the government program. The researchers compared the … Read more
By Robert PreidtHealthDay Reporter WEDNESDAY, March 3, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Wider use of prescription generic drugs could save Medicare nearly $2 billion a year, researchers say. The new analysis of Medicare Part D prescription drug claims for 2017 used a random 20% of beneficiaries, 224 drugs with one or more generic substitutes and at … Read more
A group of developing countries, backed by United Nations agencies and activist groups, is pushing to limit patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines being tested by some of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies so that inexpensive copies can be produced for poorer nations. South Africa, Ghana, Senegal, Pakistan and others argue they won’t be able to … Read more
By Robert Preidt HealthDay Reporter MONDAY, Sept. 14, 2020 (HealthDay News) — Here’s evidence that prescription drugs don’t have to cost a fortune: New research finds Medicare saved billions as more generic cholesterol-lowering medications became available, even though the number of Americans using the drugs increased. “One of the most important contributors to … Read more