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☆ Novo Nordisk to Slash Insulin Prices by Up to 75%
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Novo Nordisk A/S is set to cut the U.S. list prices for several insulin drugs by up to 75%, the latest big drugmaker to make steep price reductions amid pressure to curb diabetes-treatment costs. Novo, one of the biggest sellers of insulin in the U.S. and around the world, said Tuesday it would cut the list price of its NovoLog insulin by 75% and the prices for Novolin and Levemir by 65% starting in January 2024.

☆ New Drugs Are Coming to Market at Sky-High Prices
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A new Amgen Inc. lung-cancer treatment, Lumakras, carried a hefty price tag when it came out in 2021: $17,900 per patient monthly. Just over a year later, in December 2022, a second drug for the same type of cancer, Krazati from Mirati Therapeutics Inc., had an even higher price: $19,750 a month—a 10% premium.

☆ How the New $35 Cap on Insulin Costs Will Work
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The new $35 cap on out-of-pocket costs for insulin is here, though it isn’t for everyone, and some people may experience delays in getting the price break. Starting Jan. 1, Medicare members, who include people 65 years and older and people with disabilities, should pay no more than $35 a month in copays or other out-of-pocket costs for an insulin prescription. Medicare benefit plans and in some cases drug manufacturers will pick up the rest of the drug’s cost.

☆ Eli Lilly to Cut Prices of Insulin Drugs by 70%
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Eli Lilly & Co., facing pressure to curb diabetes-treatment costs, will cut the list prices for its most commonly prescribed insulin products by 70% and take other steps to make it easier for patients to afford the drugs. The Indianapolis-based company said Wednesday the 70% price cuts will take effect in the fourth quarter for Humalog and Humulin, its two biggest-selling insulin products.

☆ Eli Lilly to Cut Prices of Insulin Drugs by 70%, Cap Patient Costs at $35
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Eli Lilly & Co., facing pressure to curb diabetes-treatment costs, will cut the list prices for its most commonly prescribed insulin products by 70% and take other steps to make it easier for patients to afford the drugs. The Indianapolis-based company said Wednesday that the 70% price cuts would take effect in the fourth quarter for Humalog and Humulin, its two biggest-selling insulin products.

☆ Ozempic Runs Low for Diabetes Patients as Weight-Loss Use Surges
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Jerrod Balzer takes Ozempic to manage his Type 2 diabetes and is concerned about receiving his medication refill due to a shortage. Drugs like Ozempic have become so popular among people seeking to lose weight that they are now in short supply for patients with diabetes who depend on the medicines. Diabetes patients said they are spending hours trying to find nearby pharmacies that have their prescriptions in stock. If they don’t, some patients have had to reduce dosing of Ozempic and similar drugs to stretch out their supplies, or switch to alternative drugs.

☆ Abbott Baby-Formula Business Is Under Investigation By SEC, FTC
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Photo: Sylvia Jarrus for The Wall Street JournalAbbott recalled certain powder baby-formula products that were manufactured at its Sturgis, Mich., plant, and halted production there. The Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission are investigating Abbott Laboratories ’ baby-formula business, the company said. The SEC’s enforcement division sent a subpoena to Abbott in December requesting information about its powder infant-formula business and related public disclosures, the company said Friday in a securities filing.

Johnson & Johnson ‘s loss in a federal appeals court over baby-powder litigation could force the health-products company to defend thousands of lawsuits case by case, just as it navigates the biggest restructuring in its 137-year history. The decision by the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting J&J’s efforts to use bankruptcy proceedings to handle talc-related lawsuits means the company won’t be able to resolve the allegations as soon as it could have and in a single court, according to legal experts and analysts.

☆ J&J’s Talc Bankruptcy Case Thrown Out by Appeals Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Jonathan Randles | Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A federal appeals court in Philadelphia rejected Johnson & Johnson ‘s use of chapter 11 bankruptcy to freeze roughly 40,000 lawsuits linking its talc products to cancer, blunting a strategy the consumer health giant and a handful of other profitable companies have used to sidestep jury trials. The Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday dismissed the chapter 11 case of J&J subsidiary LTL Management LLC, which the company created in 2021 to move the talc injury lawsuits to bankruptcy court and freeze them in place. J&J is now exposed once again to talc-related cancer claims that have cost the company’s consumer business $4.5 billion in recent years and are expected to continue for decades.

☆ FDA Rejects Lilly’s Alzheimer’s Drug Candidate, Seeks More Data
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Lilly said it would work with the FDA to evaluate the fastest pathway to get its Alzheimer’s drug to market. U.S. drug regulators rejected Eli Lilly & Co.’s proposed new Alzheimer’s disease treatment, saying they need more data from clinical testing, according to the company. The setback could delay a potential commercial introduction of the highly anticipated drug by at least several months, if the Food and Drug Administration eventually decides to approve it.

☆ FDA Seeks More Data on Lilly’s Alzheimer’s Drug Candidate
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Lilly said it would work with the FDA to evaluate the fastest pathway to get its Alzheimer’s drug, donanemab, to market. U.S. drug regulators rejected Eli Lilly & Co.’s proposed new Alzheimer’s disease treatment, saying they need more data from clinical testing, according to the company. The setback could delay a potential commercial introduction of the highly anticipated drug by at least several months, if the Food and Drug Administration eventually decides to approve it.

☆ Moderna Finds Life After Covid-19
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( David Wainer | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

There are few examples in modern history of a company like Moderna . As recently chronicled by Wall Street Journal reporter Peter Loftus in his book “The Messenger,” at the start of 2020 Moderna was a tiny biotech company with dim prospects and an experimental technology—messenger RNA—that looked years away from delivering any products. Then came Covid-19, and everything changed.

☆ Moderna’s RSV Vaccine Reduces Risk of Respiratory Diseases, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Moderna says it will apply in the coming months for regulatory approval to sell its vaccine against RSV. An experimental vaccine from Moderna Inc. significantly reduced the risk of a viral respiratory disease among older adults in a large clinical trial, the latest promising sign in drugmakers’ efforts to fight the deadly RSV virus. Based on the results, the Cambridge, Mass., company said Tuesday it would apply in the coming months for U.S. regulatory approval to sell its vaccine against RSV, which stands for respiratory syncytial virus. If regulators approve, it could become available by early 2024, the company said.

☆ J&J Slashes Production of Its Unpopular Covid-19 Shot
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Jared S. Hopkins | Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

After mobilizing to quickly develop and manufacture a Covid-19 vaccine, Johnson & Johnson has vastly scaled back its efforts in producing the shots as it faces slumping demand. The New Brunswick, N.J., pharmaceutical company in recent months terminated manufacturing agreements with companies that helped produce the shot during the pandemic such as Catalent Inc. and Sanofi SA.

☆ Moderna Considers Price of $110-$130 for Covid-19 Vaccine
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Moderna Inc. said it is considering pricing its Covid-19 vaccine in a range of $110 to $130 per dose in the U.S. when it shifts from government contracting to commercial distribution of the shots. The range is similar to the one Pfizer Inc. said in October it was considering for the Covid-19 vaccine it developed with BioNTech SE .

☆ CIOs Nominate Their Favorite Reads of 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Tom Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +9 min

Chief information officers, ever alert to any development in a field that only hurtles forward, largely reflected that alacrity in their choice of reading during 2022. PREVIEWChris Bedi, chief digital information officer, ServiceNow Inc. Photo: IBM Corp.Ron Guerrier, chief information officer, HP Inc. Photo: Cisco Systems Inc.Fletcher Previn, chief information officer, Cisco Systems Inc. Photo: Home Depot Inc.Fahim Siddiqui, chief information officer, Home Depot Inc.

☆ Drug Prices Reach New High—in the Millions
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-26 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The most recent gene therapy approved in the U.S. set a price record: $3.5 million for CSL’s Hemgenix, a treatment for hemophilia B. A new era of expensive drugs has arrived: medicines priced in the millions of dollars a patient. Since August, U.S. or European health regulators have approved four new products intended as one-time treatments for rare genetic diseases that carry list prices of at least $2 million a patient, including two from Bluebird Bio Inc.

☆ Why You Can’t Find Wegovy, the Weight-Loss Drug
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Peter Loftus | Denise Roland | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Wegovy is among a new class of drugs regulators have approved to lower the weight of people who are obese, a goal long sought by doctors and patients. Novo Nordisk A/S flubbed the launch of its buzzy new weight-loss drug Wegovy, missing out on hundreds of millions of dollars in sales and squandering a head start before a rival could begin selling a competing product. Wegovy is among a new class of drugs that health regulators have approved to cut the weight of people who are obese, a goal long sought by doctors and patients. Elon Musk tweeted about Wegovy in October. And a related drug for diabetes, Ozempic, is a hot topic in Hollywood among celebrities seeking to stay thin, according to doctors.

☆ FDA Pulls Lilly’s Covid Antibody Drug
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Eli Lilly and Co. said it has paused distribution of the drug until further notice by the Food and Drug Administration, and advised healthcare providers to store unused bebtelovimab in case it can be used against other coronavirus variants. The Food and Drug Administration said a Covid-19 antibody treatment from Eli Lilly & Co. is no longer authorized for use because it isn’t likely to be effective against certain Omicron offshoots now dominant in the U.S. The subvariants, called BQ. 1.1, now cause more than half of new Covid-19 cases in the U.S., the FDA said on Wednesday. Yet Lilly’s drug, bebtelovimab, doesn’t retain neutralizing activity against the subvariants, the company said.

☆ Teva Pharmaceutical Names Richard Francis as CEO, President
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Colin Kellaher | Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. Distribution and use of this material are governed by our Subscriber Agreement and by copyright law. For non-personal use or to order multiple copies, please contact Dow Jones Reprints at 1-800-843-0008 or visit www.djreprints.com. https://www.wsj.com/articles/teva-pharmaceutical-names-richard-francis-as-president-ceo-11669034656

☆ Moderna’s New Covid-19 Booster Produced Strong Immune Response in Study
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Moderna’s updated booster shot targets both the original strain of the coronavirus and the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, which share an identical surface protein. Moderna Inc.’s new updated Covid-19 booster shot for the U.S. generated strong immune responses in people against Omicron subvariants, according to the first data from a company-sponsored study testing the new doses in volunteers. Moderna said Monday that people receiving the updated booster shot had more than five times the neutralizing antibodies against Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 than people who received Moderna’s original booster shot, which targeted an earlier strain of the coronavirus.

☆ England at the 2022 World Cup: who is in Gareth Southgate's 26-man squad?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Alan Baldwin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Nov 14 (Reuters) - England are looking to win their second World Cup title at the Nov. 20-Dec. 18 tournament in Qatar. * Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Conor Coady (Everton, on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers), Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Luke Shaw (Manchester United), John Stones (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Newcastle United), Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Ben White (Arsenal). Defenders: John Stones (Manchester City), Harry Maguire (Leicester City), Phil Jones (Manchester Utd), Kyle Walker (Manchester City), Kieran Trippier (Tottenham Hotspur), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Ashley Young (Manchester Utd), Danny Rose (Tottenham Hotspur), Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool). Midfielders: Eric Dier (Tottenham Hotspur), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Dele Alli (Tottenham Hotspur), Jesse Lingard (Manchester Utd), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Ruben Loftus-Cheek (Chelsea), Fabian Delph (Manchester City). Forwards: Harry Kane (Tottenham Hotspur), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), Marcus Rashford (Manchester Utd), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).

☆ Inflation, Supply-Chain Woes Hit Medical-Device Makers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-13 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Many hospitals have resumed more normal operations in recent months, and patients are returning for elective procedures. People are clamoring for the knee replacements and hip surgeries they had put off during the pandemic. But medical-device makers that produce those parts are struggling to meet demand. The reason: The inflation and supply chain issues that have challenged industries worldwide are now hitting the device makers.

☆ Medtronic Blood-Pressure Device Curbs Hypertension, but Misses Top Goal in Study
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The Medtronic device could offer a nonmedication treatment for people with blood pressure that remains high despite treatment with drugs. A Medtronic PLC medical device reduced the blood pressure of people with tough-to-treat hypertension in a closely watched study, but not significantly beyond what medications achieved. The device cut a crucial measure of blood pressure by only about two points more than the average reduction in study volunteers who didn’t get the procedure, researchers said Monday.

☆ J&J Makes a $16.6 Billion Bet on Heart Pumps to Lift Medical-Device Sales
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Peter Loftus | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Johnson & Johnson, based in New Brunswick, N.J., is planning to separate its consumer-health unit into an independent company next year. Johnson & Johnson is betting on a promising and fast-growing category of heart pumps to jump-start sales in its medical-device business with a new $16.6 billion deal to acquire Abiomed Inc. The health-products company will face challenges meeting ambitious growth targets for the new business, however, and ongoing clinical trials aren’t certain to produce results that will lead to wider use of Abiomed’s devices that J&J is counting on, analysts say.

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