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FirstWord Lists: The 100 best selling pharmaceutical brands

CommentsFirstWord2016-04-19 09:32 Read   110

The one hundred biggest selling pharmaceutical products generated combined sales of $265 billion in 2015.

What does 'breakthrough' mean to docs and consumers? It's not the FDA definition

Commentsfiercepharma2016-04-18 11:14 Read   63

According to the dictionary, the word breakthrough means “a sudden, dramatic and important discovery or development.” However, what many doctors don’t know is that it doesn’t have the same meaning in the FDA drug approval process. 

New York AG sues insurer over restrictive hep C coverage

Commentsfiercepharma2016-04-18 11:11 Read   65

The New York State Attorney General has already taken some steps to find out why insurers are limiting coverage of pricey hep C meds to the sickest patients but has stopped short of suing companies for their decisions. Now, he’s stepping up his fight.

Novel drugs and rare diseases drive US prescription drug spend

Commentspmlive2016-04-18 10:52 Read   70

Spending on prescription drugs in the US reached a new record last year of $310bn, rising 8.5% and driven by new cancer and hepatitis C therapies.

Only Half of Rectal Cancer Patients Get Recommended Treatment: Study

Commentsdrugs2016-04-18 10:34 Read   63

Despite the increasing use of a standard therapy for rectal cancer in the United States, only slightly more than half of patients receive it, a new study finds.

Gilead hep C cocktail cures a pocket of drug-resistant cases

Commentsfiercebiotech2016-04-18 10:09 Read   92

Gilead has already provided a painless cure for the average hep C patient. Now they’re going after the final pocket of patients who are the toughest to treat.

Allergan’s Actavis recalls nearly 600,000 bottles of ADHD drug

Commentsfiercepharma2016-04-15 13:45 Read   79

Teva ($TEVA) is expecting to close on its buyout of Allergan’s generic drug business, but for now Actavis is still Allergan’s, for better or worse. That means that Allergan ($AGN) is responsible for the recall of more than 50 lots, consisting of nearly 600,000 bottles, of its copy of the ADHD drug Adderall.

U.S. prescription drug spending to hit $400 billion a year by 2020: IMS

Commentsreuters2016-04-14 14:36 Read   102

U.S. annual spending on prescription medicines will increase 22 percent over the next five years, climbing as high as $400 billion in 2020, according to a report released by health care information company IMS Health Holdings Inc on Thursday.

PCV13 vaccine deemed effective in preventing pneumococcal disease

CommentsHEALIO2016-04-14 14:23 Read   60

The majority of pediatric patients who received the 13-valuent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine in this study showed no signs of pneumococcal disease indicated by various serotypes, according to recent research.

Highly read articles on psoriatic arthritis highlight biologics news

CommentsHEALIO2016-04-14 14:13 Read   114

Biologics, and particularly biosimilars, have been in the news about psoriatic arthritis and other rheumatic, dermatologic and gastrological diseases.

One year after universal HCV treatment, Portugal shows 96% SVR rate

CommentsHEALIO2016-04-14 14:07 Read   96

A year after the Portuguese government approved oral treatment for hepatitis C virus for all infected patients, a presenter here showed the country achieved a 96% sustained virologic response rate.

ASCO pushes more HPV vaccine use in published recommendations

Commentsfiercepharma2016-04-14 13:25 Read   66

Calling the situation "alarming," all 69 of the NCI-designated cancer centers in February joined together to warn about the severely low rate of HPV vaccination in the United States.