Tuesday Tidbits

It's all good new tidbits today!

• The Associated Press reports

After years of frequent list price hikes, many drugmakers are showing some restraint, according to the analysis of drug prices provided by health information firm Elsevier.  In the first seven months of 2019, drugmakers raised list prices for brand-name prescription medicines by a median of 5 percent. That’s down from about 9 percent or 10 percent over those months the prior four years, the AP found. From January through July this year, there were 4,483 price hikes, down 36 percent from that stretch in 2015.

• Fierce Healthcare reports that last week the Food and Drug Administration approved an AbbVie drug that competes with the blockbuster Humira drug to treat rheumatoid arthritis.  The new product Rinvoq should be available in the U.S. by late August, AbbVie said. Rinvoq bears a list price of $59,000, which "is lower than the current leading treatments for moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis," an AbbVie spokeswoman said by email. 

• HHS announced the issuance of its 2018 SAMSHA National Survey on Drug Use and Health. “This year’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health contains very encouraging news: The number of Americans misusing pain relievers dropped substantially, and fewer young adults are abusing heroin and other substances,” said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. “At the same time, many challenges remain, with millions of Americans not receiving treatment they need for substance abuse and mental illness."  This has been the FEHBlog's point. Health plans need to focus on covering evidence based treatment for these problems

• The American Association for the Advancement of Science informs us that "The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report on the use of antibiotics in health care settings across the United States in 2018 tell us that while progress has been made to promote appropriate use of infection-fighting drugs, strengthened and continued efforts and greater resources are needed to protect some of the most valuable medicines we have and prevent the accelerating development of illness-causing bacteria that are resistant to treatment."

• Forture's Health Brainstorm reports that the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force has given a B recommendation to expanded BRAC genetic counseling for breast cancer.  According to the new recommendation, 

Primary care clinicians assess women with a personal or family history of breast, ovarian, tubal, or peritoneal cancer or who have an ancestry associated with BRCA1/2 gene mutations with an appropriate brief familial risk assessment tool,” wrote the panel in the journal JAMA. “Women with a positive result on the risk assessment tool should receive genetic counseling and, if indicated after counseling, genetic testing.”

This builds upon existing recommendations by emphasizing that women who have already had breast cancer, or other kinds of BRCA-associated cancers, or those whose families and ancestries put them at particularly high risk of BRCA mutations that can lead to such cancers, should be genetically screened by primary care physicians.

With this information in hand, the panel says, the women can make personal decisions with the help of a genetic counselor on the best ways to reduce the risk of cancer or cancer recurrence.

• Following up on the blog post yesterday about Fotune Magazine's list of companies that help improve the world, the Business Roundtable, which includes the Nation's largest employers, has released a new "Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation signed by 181 CEOs [including publicly traded healthcare companies] who commit to lead their companies for the benefit of all stakeholders – customers, employees, suppliers, communities and shareholders." Previously this statement lead with making profits for shareholders. Checkout this week's Econtalk podcast episode in which 

Author and economist Tyler Cowen of George Mason University talks about his book, Big Business, with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Cowen argues that big corporations in America are underrated and under-appreciated. He even defends the financial sector while adding some caveats along the way. This is a lively and contrarian look at a timely issue.

The FEHBlog enjoyed listening to the episode.