pharmaceuticals

On Monday, The New York Times ran a damning story detailing how the nation’s drug makers are hiking their prices ahead of the reform laws winding their way through Congress. The very next day, some powerful House Democrats called for a closer look, asking the Government Accountability Office to examine the drug industry to verify [...]

President Obama today made official an $80 billion deal with the pharmaceutical industry to cut prescription drug costs for the nation’s seniors.
As it is, Medicare patients are forced to pay the full cost for their prescription drugs when annual expenses fall between $2,700 and $6,154. Under the new agreement, drug companies would pick of 50 [...]

Two bills introduced in Congress recently stake out rival positions on a key issue related to health care reform. Which approach ultimately prevails will help determine whether the pharmaceutical industry maintains the support that Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler voiced Wednesday for President Obama’s plan’s to overhaul the nation’s health care system.
Reps. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) [...]

Pharma Times, news site of the drug industry, is calling the emerging outlines of the Obama health care plan “radical.” Whether that is a good thing or a bad thing, depends on which sector of the industry you talk to.
Makers of generic drugs, for example, are smiling. Kathleen Jaeger, president of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, [...]