Ed’s stories explore prescription drug pricing, affordability and access, as well issues surrounding patents, litigation, and legislation. He is also the author of the morning Pharmalittle newsletter and the afternoon Pharmalot newsletter. The Federal Trade Commission settled a lawsuit against CVS Caremark, one of the largest pharmacy benefit managers in the U.S., over allegations that the company…
Listen to the article 4 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. CVS Health’s Caremark has reached a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission requiring notable changes to the pharmacy benefit manager’s business practices, including that Caremark prefer the lowest-cost drugs on its standard formularies and pass through savings…
What You Should Know Structural biology and AI drug design pioneer Chai Discovery has announced a $400M Series C funding round, valuing the company at $3.8 billion just two years after its 2024 founding. The heavily oversubscribed round was led by Index Ventures, alongside Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital, and Dimension, with strategic backing from existing…
Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: Freenome said its updated blood-based colorectal cancer screening test met its primary and secondary endpoints in a pivotal validation study. Called SimpleScreen CRC, the new test showed improvement over an earlier version, particularly in detecting…
Four years into the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s review of Zyn nicotine pouches, and not long before the agency approved them for sale, an FDA toxicologist ran some informal tests in her kitchen that led her to question whether the agency truly understood the addictive product it was about to green-light. Christy Leppanen worked…
Listen to the article 5 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: The savings generated by a value-based care pilot in traditional Medicare continue to increase, even as it’s set to sunset at the end of this year. ACO REACH generated $2.5 billion in gross savings in…
Ben Scharfe, EVP for AI, Altera Digital Health There is a common misconception that artificial intelligence (AI) will improve efficiency steadily and uniformly across healthcare, from primary care offices to hospital ICUs. Instead, what is now emerging is a divergence in how AI impacts different care settings. AI in ambulatory care and acute care is…
Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: Edwards Lifesciences will pay a $10 million penalty to the Federal Trade Commission to settle charges it purchased JC Medical from Genesis MedTech without complying with the notification and waiting period requirements of the Hart-Scott-Rodino…
Ed’s stories explore prescription drug pricing, affordability and access, as well issues surrounding patents, litigation, and legislation. He is also the author of the morning Pharmalittle newsletter and the afternoon Pharmalot newsletter. After more than a year of squabbling, a group of AIDS activists obtained an R&D agreement that was at the heart of a…
Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief: The oversight office of the HHS said it generated about $5.6 billion in monetary impact from fighting fraud, waste and abuse in federal health programs between October and March. The HHS Office of Inspector General…