Derek Lowe's commentary on drug discovery and the pharma industry. An editorially independent blog from the publishers of Science Translational Medicine. All content is Derek’s own, and he does not in any way speak for his employer.

By Derek Lowe

Posts tagged with "Drug Prices"

• Current Events

  Sen. Warren’s Generic Drug Idea

  20 December, 2018

  Here’s a proposal from Sen. Elizabeth Warren to have the government manufacture generic drugs directly. (I was traveling yesterday and wasn’t able to blog this then). It’s clear that there are some problems with parts of the generic drug system that we have, so my first thoughts were (1) whether Warren saw the same problems… Read More

• Drug Prices

  Blame the FDA for This Fiasco

  14 December, 2018

  Back in 2013 and again in 2016, I wrote about Catalyst Pharmaceuticals, a South Florida company whose business plan I found repellant. That’s because said plan involved running an old generic compound (3,4-diaminopyridine) through the FDA modern approval process, which under the agency’s rules would grant them market exclusivity. I have… Read More

• Drug Prices

  A “Moral Imperative”

  13 September, 2018

  Unfortunately, we have another example of “price of ancient generic drug shoots through roof”. Whenever this happens, the first thing to look at is the regulatory environment. After that you can go on about the greed of the company and its executives, the stupidity of the insurance companies, all the usual stuff, and you won’t… Read More

• Business and Markets

  Anarchist Drugs For All. Yeahboy.

  30 July, 2018

  I’ve had numerous requests for my opinion about this article, so here it comes: it’s largely bullshit. It’s about “a volunteer network of anarchists and hackers developing DIY medical technologies”, and I can see why Vice.com is running the article, because that drugs/anarchists/hackers combo is absolute catnip to thei… Read More

• Drug Prices

  The Latest Drug Reimportation Idea

  27 July, 2018

  It’s been a while since we talked about drug reimportation here, but it’s been back in the news recently. Drug prices are, naturally, of economic, medical, and political importance, and the administration has been making a great deal of noise about lowering them. To that end, HHS Secretary Alex Azar has announced the formation of a… Read More

• Clinical Trials

  Cost of Trials

  22 February, 2018

  There’s been an interesting discussion about pharma R&D productivity and drug pricing on Twitter the last few days – here’s the starting point, from John Tucker. His thesis is that the hefty rate of inflation for medical services/hospitalization, where the data seem alarmingly solid, is one of the things driving the problem. T… Read More

• Business and Markets

  Drug Synthesis In Printed Reactors

  23 January, 2018

  I’m still trying to get my bearings with this new paper from the Cronin group at Glasgow. What it proposes is a new style of API (active pharmaceutical ingredient) production. Instead of being done in bench- or process-scale lab glassware or in production-plant reactors, these syntheses take place in 3D-printed reactors, connected together in… Read More

• Business and Markets

  Hospitals Making Drugs?

  19 January, 2018

  This story from the New York Times got a lot of attention yesterday, and understandably so. It’s fundamentally about the shortage of some generic drugs, a problem that’s been with us for some years now in one form or another. My own belief is that much of this is a regulatory problem, and I note… Read More

• Drug Development

  Drug Development Costs Revisited

  18 October, 2017

  A recent paper on drug development costs did not impress me. But if possible, it impressed Matthew Herper at Forbes even less. That’s the one where the authors looked at a number of companies that had been around long enough to develop one drug – they figured that this would give a cleaner read on… Read More

• Business and Markets

  It Costs More Than This

  12 September, 2017

  Here’s another paper on the cost to develop a new drug, a topic about which, I’m convinced, debate will never end. This one is designed as a response to the Tufts estimates on these costs, and I’m not going to help much, because I have some things to debate about this paper myself. The authors… Read More