Industry Blog

31
Dec 09

Use of generic medicines plans to save money..

The proposals of an increase to make generic medicines in primary care cheaper have been set out of England.

Generic Medicines are less cost effective than a branded equivalent and the Department of health is keen to use them.

Many suggestions contain establishing a list of products for replacement and another list of items that would be excused.

The proposals will be made known for public consultation over the next 3 months. The NHS spends around £9bn a year on branded prescription medicines in the UK.

A 5 year voluntary agreement negotiated between government and the pharmaceutical industry last year, includes measures aimed at reducing NHS expenses on branded medicines by an average of 5% a year over the lifetime of the plan.

Generic medicines - which have to include the same active ingredient as the branded originals, and can be sold once the originator’s patent protection has expired - can save substantial costs.

Currently, around 83% of prescriptions issued by the NHS are for generic drugs, but ministers want this to rise by around 5%.

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21
Oct 09

Pharmaceutical companies to pay $124M over Medicaid fraud charges

According to the Justice Department, four pharmaceutical companies will pay $124 million to resolve claims of Medicaid fraud.

Mylan Pharmaceuticals, UDL Laboratories, AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals and Ortho McNeil Pharmaceutical have signed settlement agreements focusing on violations of the False Claims Act, which claimed they failed to pay appropriate rebates to state Medicaid programs for drugs.

“The settlement with Mylan and UDL is the largest healthcare fraud recovery that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New Hampshire has ever obtained,” said John P. Kacavas, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Hampshire. “The settlements show that the government is committed to identifying healthcare fraud and ensuring that companies that benefit from doing business with the government agree to play by the rules.”

The Medicaid Prescription Drug Rebate Program was enacted by Congress in 1990 out of concern for the costs that Medicaid was paying for outpatient drugs.

By participating in the rebate program, the four companies agreed to pay quarterly rebates to Medicaid that were based upon the amount of money that the healthcare program paid for each company’s drugs. The amount of a rebate is determined in part by whether a drug is considered an “innovator” or a “non-innovator.”

The settlements resolve allegations that the companies sold innovator drugs that were manufactured by other corporations and had been classified as non-innovator drugs. The improper classification of these drugs allegedly enabled the companies to pay smaller rebates.

Mylan and UDL agreed to pay $118 million to resolve allegations involving several drugs from each company. AstraZeneca will pay $2.6 million to resolve allegations that it underpaid its rebate obligations with respect to Albuterol. Ortho McNeil will pay $3.4 million to resolve allegations that it underpaid its rebate obligations with respect to Dermatop.

“The Civil Division will continue to work with our state partners to ensure that Medicaid programs, which provide healthcare to more than 58 million Americans, receives the same discounts that any larger insurer gets,” said Tony West, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division. “These cases exemplify the strong cooperation between the Department of Justice and the states in protecting American taxpayers.”

The case was brought under the False Claims Act, which allows for private persons to file suits on behalf of the government. The whistleblower, Ven-A-Care, a corporation located in Key West, Fla., will receive almost $10.8 million as its share of the recovery.

Source: www.healthcarefinancenews.com

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16
Sep 09

China shares at 3 week low..

HSI range-bound, off 13-month high hit last week

* Sinopharm up 15.8 pct, but market starts discounting rally

 * U.S. Fed expected to keep policy rate steady (Updates to close)

 By Claire Zhang and Nerilyn Tenorio

 SHANGHAI/HONG KONG, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Chinese shares closed lower on Wednesday as the mainland markets remained weighed down by worries over excessive IPO share supply while Hong Kong began to discount the listing debut gains made by Sinopharm (1099.HK).
The markets, which also started factoring in expectations of stable monetary policies by both the United States and China, will be in search of new catalysts for their next trading move.
“People (on Wall Street) are still cautious, and here we would just follow that trading stance. We won’t be seeing very aggressive trading moves,” said Alex Wong, director at Ample Finance Group in Hong Kong.

 In Shanghai, traders have started taking profit ahead of the week-long Chinese national holiday from Oct 1.
China’s top pharmaceutical firm Sinopharm debuted in a consolidating Hong Kong market with a 15.8 percent closing gain, which analysts said was relatively modest compared with China’s other recent new listings.
Hong Kong’s benchmark Hang Seng Index .HSI settled 0.49 percent lower at 21,595.52 points, slipping off the 13-month closing high at the 21,700-level hit last week.
Turnover was HK$58.5 billion ($7.5 billion), up from Tuesday’s HK$50 billion.
The China Enterprises Index .HSCE of top locally listed mainland Chinese stocks was down 0.6 percent at 12,431.81.
Banks and financials were down 1.1 percent, with index heavyweight HSBC (0005.HK) down 1 percent at HK$90.80, China’s leading lender ICBC (1398.HK) down 0.82 percent at HK$6.06, and Bank of China (3988.HK) down 1.15 percent at HK$4.28.
Sinopharm Group Co Ltd, which raised $1.13 billion in its IPO, jumped to as high as HK$19.74, or 23.4 percent above its HK$16 issue price, before closing up 15.8 percent at HK$18.52.
Geely Automobile Holdings (0175.HK), China’s largest privately-owned carmaker, was up nearly 19 percent at HK$2.13, easing back from a 25.7 percent initial gain after the lifting of trading suspension. The carmaker said earlier that it planned to issue HK$2.59 billion ($334 million) in convertible bonds and warrants to an affiliate of Goldman Sachs (GS.N) [ID:nHKG310894].

 www.reuters.com

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