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Questioning drug company CEOs last week, Sens. Charles Grassley and Ron Wyden hammered away at the importance of high list prices for prescription drugs, while the CEOs testifying before the Senate Finance Committee mostly tried to change the subject. But Grassley (R-Iowa) and Wyden (D-Ore.) were right that list prices matter a lot. Medicare Part D drug plan enrollees and a growing number of commercially insured patients pay a percentage of the list price for drugs under their health plans’ coinsurance designs. That amount can be formidable, particularly for costly brand name and specialty products. (Meyer, 3/2)

Two years after the U.S. government launched a database of drug company payments to physicians, the effort raised awareness that the data is publicly available, but did not increase the extent to which Americans know whether their own doctors received a payment, according to a new study in BMJ Open. Just 13 percent of those queried knew payment information was publicly available and only 3 percent knew whether their doctor received payments. When also considering a recent study showing just 1.5 percent of Americans accessed the data, the researchers suggested the OpenPayments database “has fallen well short of its aspiration to better inform patients of their physicians’ industry relationships.” (Silverman, 3/4)

Three drug companies are interested in Louisiana's plan to use a Netflix-style subscription model to buy access to hepatitis C drugs for Medicaid patients and prisoners, a treatment concept being watched by other states, the state health department announced Friday. Health Secretary Rebekah Gee wants Louisiana to pay a fee to a drug manufacturer for unlimited access to its hepatitis C medication. The state will treat as many people as it can during the access period, rather than pay a per-patient treatment price. (DeSlatte, 3/1)

House Democrats will begin considering legislation to lower drug prices at a hearing next week, moving forward on one of their top priorities, according to people familiar with the plan. The House Energy and Commerce Committee will hold a legislative hearing on March 13 to consider bills to lower drug prices, the sources said. (Sullivan, 3/5)

Nearly a half million Minnesotans have diabetes, and hundreds of them go through this ordeal every year, sometimes more than once, when insurers update their drug formularies. But the problem extends far beyond diabetes, with thousands of Minnesotans battling chronic conditions such as depression, asthma and high blood pressure forced to switch medications. The changes can mean higher costs for new drugs and more co-payments for office visits to get new prescriptions and lab tests. They also can lead to medical complications as patients transition from one drug to another, doctors say. (Howatt, 3/2)

Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY), racing to convince shareholders to back its planned $74 billion acquisition of Celgene (CELG), could have its plans derailed by a pair of hugely influential financial advisers. ISS and Glass Lewis, two global firms that make recommendations to institutional investors, are yet to weigh in on the potential merger. Together they claim a roughly 97 percent share of market for shareholder advice, and their verdict on the deal could spoil the largest pharmaceutical acquisition in history. (Garde, 3/1)

Stahis Panagides walked into his local pharmacy recently to pick up medicine his doctor had prescribed for his Parkinson’s disease. But when he saw the price tag, the 81-year-old from Bethesda, Md., left the pill bottle on the counter. “I am glad we have some of the best medicine in the world,” Panagides said. “But if the price is so high and we can’t afford it, what’s the use?” The problem is familiar to families across the country that are watching their medical expenses eat up more of their household budgets. (Hernandez, 3/5)

Will Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) succeed in acquiring Celgene (CELG)? The proposed $74 billion deal is under pressure now that two investments firms are opposing the acquisition. On Wednesday, Wellington Management, the largest Bristol shareholder with 8 percent of its stock, argued the deal asks Bristol stockholders to accept too much risk, is priced “well below” asset value, and “could be more difficult to achieve than depicted” by Bristol management. (Silverman, 2/28)

Consumer advocates on Tuesday pushed for legislation that would allow Massachusetts to set limits on the prices of certain expensive drugs, ramping up pressure on Beacon Hill to take action to tackle rising drug costs. The bill, supported by Health Care For All and the Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group, or MassPIRG, would require pharmaceutical companies to disclose more information about their costs, including marketing expenses, so that state officials can determine if their drug prices are fair and reasonable. (McCluskey, 3/5)

Kaiser Health News: Cities And Counties Unlikely To Heed FDA Warning On Importing Foreign Drugs

Cities and local governments in several states said they will continue to use a Canadian company to offer employees prescription drugs at a highly reduced price, even though federal officials raised safety concerns about the practice last week. The municipalities use CanaRx, which connects their employees with brick-and-mortar pharmacies in Canada, Great Britain and Australia to fill prescriptions. (Galewitz, 3/6)

Clinical research organizations, which help run clinical trials for major pharmaceutical and biotech companies, have seen an uptick in business as smaller biotech firms — which don’t always have the same financial resources as bigger companies — do more and more drug development. CROs give them a way to do basic science without all the costs associated of directly hiring a full team, according to Jim Foster, the chief executive officer of one of the industry’s largest CROs, Charles River Laboratories (Sheridan, 2/28)

Visiting the Hometown Pharmacy in New Castle, state Auditor General Eugene DePasquale lambasted a system that he says drives up prescription drug costs for consumers and threatens the existence of independent pharmacies. According to DePasquale, the system is singling out rebates that pharmaceutical companies offer the middleman – the pharmacy benefit managers and insurance providers. (Delano, 2/28)

Medicare’s popular prescription-drug program serves more than 42 million people and pays for more than one of every four prescriptions written nationwide. Use this tool to find and compare doctors and other providers in Part D in 2016. (Jones, Groeger and Ornstein, 3/5)