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Why some people are worried about drug patent protections in the new NAFTA

Oct 2, 2018
The trade agreement reached over the weekend between the U.S., Canada and Mexico includes longer intellectual property protection periods for the expensive class of drugs known as biologics.
LARS HAGBERG/AFP/Getty Images

There's a new generic drugmaker in town, and it doesn't need to turn a profit

Sep 6, 2018
Across the country, hospitals and clinics are dealing with a really difficult problem: Sometimes they can’t get their hands on certain life-saving generic drugs. So one group of large hospital systems, including the Mayo Clinic and Intermountain Healthcare, has come up with a workaround. It’s created a nonprofit company called Civica RX that will make […]

Generic Viagra floods the market. Here’s how Pfizer is reacting

Jul 13, 2018
Pfizer hopes to run with its “little blue pill” as long as it can. That includes the time-honored strategy of launching its own generic.
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The FDA approves the first drug derived from cannabis

Jun 28, 2018
Will this be the catalyst for big pharmaceutical companies to get into the pot business?
An assistant studies cannabis leaves in the Maripharma Laboratory in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2002.
Michel Porro/Getty Images

Senate to scrutinize hospitals on low-income patient profits and spending

Jun 19, 2018
This morning, a Senate committee checks in to see how the cuts to the so-called 340b program, which allows hospitals to buy drugs at a discount, are impacting hospitals and patients. Critics say there’s little evidence that hospitals used the savings to help patients. Click the audio player above to hear the full story. 

Those coupons people use for expensive meds are starting to count for less

Mar 19, 2018
Insurers are pushing back on manufacture coupons for expensive drugs in the hopes that it will pressure drug companies to lower prices.
A pharmacy manager assists a shopper in the pharmacy area of a Walmart store in Mount Prospect, Illinois.
Tim Boyle/Getty Images

The FDA wants more medical devices in your pocket

Dec 20, 2017
The agency is being led by a venture capitalist who is taking some cues from the tech industry.
The FDA is working with companies like Fitbit to streamline the approval process for health and medical software.
DAVID MCNEW/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

How one sentence helped set off the opioid crisis

Dec 13, 2017
Recently unsealed documents shed light on how the maker of OxyContin seems to have relied more on focus groups than on scientific studies to create an aggressive and misleading marketing campaign that helped fuel the national opioid epidemic.
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Merck executive resigns from president's council, and Trump lashes out

Aug 14, 2017
The council has shrunk since it was formed earlier this year.
President Donald Trump meets with Kenneth C. Frazier, Chairman and CEO of Merck & Co. (L) and other representatives from PhRMA, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on January 31, 2017 in Washington, D.C.
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Why the government believes seniors are paying $200 million more for drugs than they need to

Aug 9, 2017
Critics say a controversial program that provides hospitals with deep discounts is being abused.
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