biologics

The amount of rebates and fees collected by insurers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) drive formulary positions and access for brand name medicines.

What drives innovation? After all, innovation is how we feed more with less and enhance and extend our lives. Is improvement something we can control by who and how we organize research and implementation?

(Disclaimers: My IRA contains a pitifully small amount of Regeneron stock. ACSH gets no funding from the company. I also am a patient who takes the drug I will be discussing.)

Blaming your parents for your woes is both trite and whiny. No one wants to hear it.

Humira, Enbrel, you see their ads regularly; they are part of a class of medications called biologics. Biologics provide relief for about 2% of America’s population at the cost of about 40% of the money we spend on pharmaceuticals.

Who among us hasn’t chuckled at a television prescription drug ad when it ventures into a litany of wide-ranging potential side effects like anal leakage to erections lasting more than four hours?