�Թϲ�����

Pharmaceutical and health insurance industry representatives on Wednesday sparred over the potential impacts of legislation to lower drug prices, underscoring an emerging flashpoint here as Congress attempts to broker sweeping pharmaceutical industry reforms. The debate centered on a recent analysis showing Democrats’ signature drug pricing legislation would reduce the number of new drugs approved in the U.S. by eight to 15 in the coming decade. Yet Matt Eyles, the CEO of the insurance lobbying group America’s Health Insurance Plans, disagreed with the projection. (Facher, 10/30)

A bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers today reintroduced the CONNECT for Health Act, a wide-ranging bill that expands payment for telehealth services.Some provisions of the bill, originally introduced in 2017, made it into the 2018 Bipartisan Budget Act. They allow Medicare Advantage plans to offer telehealth coverage as a basic benefit, and remove some geographic restrictions for telestroke and end-stage renal disease treatment. (Ravindranath, 10/30)

U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire and David McKinley of West Virginia have introduced a bill to make generic drugs more affordable for seniors. Kuster, a Democrat, and McKinley, a Republican, said Wednesday that last year, low-cost generic medications saved Medicare patients over $90 billion, but those savings are at risk because a growing number of these medicines have been moved into the same category as more expensive brand-name drugs. (10/30)

U.S. regulators have halted a trial of Novartis's Zolgensma treatment after an animal study raised safety concerns, the company said on Wednesday, in a setback for the drugmaker's plan to expand its use to older patients. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's partial hold on the so-called STRONG trial impacts patients aged up to five with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) who were to receive a higher dose of the gene therapy via a spinal infusion. (10/30)

The halt doesn’t affect the use of the therapy in children up to the age of two, which was approved earlier this year, because that version is given through intravenous injection rather than through the spine. Zolgensma provides a working version of the gene at fault in SMA. The news is a setback for Novartis, which hoped the trial targeting older children with type 2 SMA—a milder form of the disease—would pave the way to treat a much broader group of patients. (Roland, 10/30)

When Laura Indolfi set out to launch a biotech in Boston, she had an idea — and little else. She had never run a company before. She had no practical experience in fundraising. But she was undeterred. In 2014 she founded PanTher Therapeutics, with the goal of turning a postdoctoral side project into a bona-fide drug delivery company. “I took a leap of faith,” she told STAT. (Sheridan, 10/31)

Outcome Health agreed to a $70 million settlement with the Department of Justice to settle a fraud scheme that hobbled the once-high-flying startup. Outcome, which sold advertising to pharmaceutical companies on a network of TV screens in doctors offices, admitted to defrauding advertisers by selling inventory that it did not have, the Justice Department said in a statement. (Pletz, 10/30)

The Food and Drug Administration approved the oral drug Vumerity to treat relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, a serious chronic disease that affects the central nervous system. The disorder stems from overactive immune cells that cause inflammation and can result in debilitating symptoms, including difficulty walking and seeing. (Saltzman, 10/30)