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The drug industry is gearing up for a new threat in January when Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) takes over as head of the Senate Finance Committee. Drugmakers will soon lose a reliable ally in Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the retiring committee chairman who has been viewed by industry lobbyists and drug pricing advocates alike as a major roadblock to reform efforts pushed by Democrats and even the Trump administration. (Weixel, 11/20)

In unusual language, the Department of Health and Human Services watchdog rebuked Mallinckrodt (MNK) over a proposed plan to provide free amounts of its high-priced Acthar Gel treatment to hospitals and patients, which the agency maintained could create “fraud and abuse risks.” At issue is an effort by Mallinckrodt to widen the market for its drug, which is used to combat infantile spasms and is a treatment of last resort for other serious maladies. But the decades-old medication has a controversial pricing history that the HHS Office of Inspector General made a strong point of noting in explaining why the company proposal was problematic. (Silverman, 11/19)

BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc is turning to the theater to establish its name with hemophilia patients, long before its experimental cure for the bleeding disorder could reach the market. Earlier this month, BioMarin hosted 25 teenagers and their chaperones for an all-expenses paid trip to New York City, where they performed a Broadway-style musical based on their own experiences with bleeding disorders. Some came from as far away as Hawaii to work with a professional theater crew, have their headshots taken and meet members of the show Hamilton. (11/21)

Not surprisingly, there are a lot of questions these days about biosimilars — nearly identical variants of biologic drugs that are expected to achieve the same results in patients as the original brand-name drug. Last week we hosted an hourlong webinar on the biosimilars, and we also fielded many questions on the subject from folks who tuned in. (Florko, 11/20)

Novartis AG’s recent acquisition streak is pivoting the company toward new treatments that bear little resemblance to traditional drugs. The Swiss company has spent nearly $15 billion in the past year to build its presence in cutting-edge areas of medical research, including gene therapy, or treatments that introduce new DNA into the body, and radiopharmaceuticals, which are drugs that carry radioactive particles to tumors for close-range radiotherapy. (Roland, 11/19)

Health care lobbyists are watching to see whether Congress, in the next few weeks, will side with the drug industry against health insurers and the seniors’ group AARP in a fight over Medicare pharmaceutical benefits. The dispute is over a change lawmakers made earlier this year that was a surprise loss for drug companies, who are now seeking to overturn it. (Adams, 11/26)

Americans don’t have much confidence in President Trump’s pledge to bring down drug prices, according to our latest Axios/SurveyMonkey poll. (Baker, 11/17)

Kansas has agreed to cover the cost of drugs to treat Medicaid patients with chronic hepatitis C without subjecting them to a lengthy list of requirements. A legal settlement, which awaits final court approval, resolves a class action lawsuit alleging the state made it too difficult for hepatitis C patients to receive the potentially life-saving treatments. (Margolies, 11/20)

There is already public consensus that drug prices are too high. Both Democrats and President Donald Trump have vowed to lower them. Yet, even with a new Democratic majority in the House, they may face challenges lowering pharmaceutical costs. Politically divided governments are often synonymous with gridlock, even on an issue as widely supported as drug prices. For their part, markets are signaling a belief in continued gridlock. (Bradford, 11/9)

Who wants drug prices in ads? Older people, that’s who. A recent survey by Wells Fargo Securities found that 77% of people 65 and older think pharma companies should be required to disclose prices in ads. That compares with just 40% of people 18 to 24 who think the price should be included. Younger people also tended to be more indifferent. Among 18- to 24-year-olds, 41% of chose the middle ground in Wells Fargo's query, not picking a definitive yes or no, but rather that “it wouldn’t matter to me.” (Bulik, 11/14)

We keep mentioning “middlemen” as part of the complex, expensive drug supply chain. They’re actually called pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, and their role in the system is both incredibly important and incredibly opaque. (Herman, 11/17)

Amid growing pressure on the pharmaceutical industry to ensure people in low- and middle-income countries have access to needed medicines, a new report finds five large drug makers are doing most of the heavy lifting, but much of the R&D is focused on only five diseases, leaving many illnesses unaddressed. Specifically, 45 different maladies have been identified as areas in which R&D should be a priority for developing medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics, but these represent only one-fifth of the total product pipeline numbering more than 1,300 projects. (Silverman, 11/20)

Over the past five years, Massachusetts' Medicaid program has doubled its spending on drugs - from around $1 billion to $2 billion. Nationally, spending on prescription drugs makes up around 17 percent of total U.S. health care spending. Pharmacy spending is the single largest reason that health care spending in the U.S. is much higher than in Europe and other developed countries. (Schoenberg, 11/15)

One Watertown, Mass.-based biotech is working to capitalize on growing momentum for cell and gene therapies — and it seems to have found its opening. The company is working on a technology that will squeeze cells to open up tiny pores in their membranes to deliver gene therapies or medicines straight into the cell. And SQZ has had a busy fall. It closed a $72 million series C fundraising round in August. Even more recently, the company extended a partnership with Roche that could bring in more than $1.3 billion, if SQZ and Roche can get some products to market. (Sheridan, 11/19)