Insulin makers face Senate | OTC birth control | Pfizer slams Medicare negotiations

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The big three drugmakers that control the U.S. insulin market faced a grilling from Bernie Sanders and the Senate health committee this week. 

There’s a push in Congress right now to permanently lock in price caps on insulin. Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi have all promised to slash prices, but there’s concern that the drugmakers could hike them again in the future.

Lilly CEO Dave Ricks promised the Senate that his company will not raise prices in the future. The heads of Sanofi and Novo Nordisk demurred. 

In a historic milestone for women’s health, the FDA appears poised to allow the sale of a birth control pill without a prescription for the first time since oral contraceptives were first approved more than 60 years ago. 

And Pfizer’s CEO took aim at Medicare’s new powers to negotiate drug prices. Albert Bourla said the federal government will likely face legal action over the program.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to me at spencer.kimball@nbcuni.com.

Eli Lilly CEO vows not to raise insulin prices again

Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks on Wednesday promised not to raise prices on the company’s existing insulin products again.

He was the only executive to do so before a Senate Health Committee hearing on making the life-saving diabetes drug more affordable.

Meanwhile, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen said the Danish company is committed to limiting price increases to “single digits.”

Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson responded that the company has a “responsible pricing policy.”

– Annika Kim Constantino

FDA advisors recommend sale of birth control pill without a prescription

A panel of experts who advise the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended Wednesday that the agency for the first time allow women to obtain a birth control pill without a prescription.

The FDA is not obligated to follow the recommendations of its independent advisors, all 17 of whom voted “yes” on the proposal after a two-day hearing.

“The history of women’s contraception is a struggle for women’s control over their reproduction and we need to trust women,” said Dr. Katalin Roth, a member of the FDA advisory panel.

– Spencer Kimball

U.S. Covid public health emergency ends, leaving behind a battered health system

The U.S. public health emergency declared in response to Covid-19 comes to an end Thursday more than three years after the pandemic began.

The end of the emergency will bring significant changes in how the U.S. responds to the virus. Hospitals will lose flexibility to rapidly add bed capacity if patient admissions surge, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will scale back its efforts to track the virus.

“I think we’ve passed the worst now, but there’s going to be a steady drumbeat of hospitalizations and deaths for many years to come,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.

– Spencer Kimball

Pfizer CEO says Medicare will likely face legal action over drug price negotiations

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla on Thursday said pharmaceutical companies will likely take legal action against Medicare drug price negotiations, which aim to cut costs for older Americans, but will likely reduce company profits.

“I think that there will be legal action, but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to stop anything before 2026 or not,” Bourla said during a live-streamed interview with Reuters. 

Bourla called the plan “negotiation with a gun to your head.”

– Annika Kim Constantino

WHO says mpox outbreak, the largest in history, no longer global health emergency

“We now see steady progress in controlling the outbreak based on the lessons of HIV and working closely with the most affected communities,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference in Geneva.

“I’m pleased to declare that the mpox is no longer a global health emergency,” Tedros said.

Mpox, a virus related to smallpox, was previously limited mostly to Africa.

The virus spread rapidly around the world last year, resulting in more than 87,000 cases and 140 deaths across 111 countries, according to WHO data. It is the largest known outbreak of the virus in history.

– Spencer Kimball

Breast cancer screenings should start at age 40 

Most women should get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40, a decade earlier than previously recommended, according to draft guidelines issued Tuesday by a government-backed panel of experts. 

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said its new guidance could save 19% more lives.

– Annika Kim Constantino

Gilead Sciences defeats U.S. government lawsuit alleging HIV drug patent violations

A Delaware federal court jury on Tuesday cleared Gilead Sciences of civil claims by the U.S. government that the company violated patents held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for an HIV prevention drug.

The government sued Gilead in 2019, arguing that the company was profiting off CDC patents through the company’s sales of Truvada and Descovy, oral medications taken to prevent HIV infection.

Gilead’s combined worldwide sales of Truvada and Descovy were about $2 billion in 2022, according to company financial statements.

– Spencer Kimball

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