Formulary Watch |

Current treatments for urea cycle disorders, which causes ammonia to build up in the blood, have a bitter taste and smell. Pheburane was developed with a special coating that masks the taste of sodium phenylbutyrate. It has a list price of $4,375 per bottle.

Peter Rubin of No Patient Left Behind worries that patients may not see benefits, either in lowered costs or continued investment in new therapies, from drug price negotiations required under the Inflation Reduction Act.

Last year saw the approval of several firsts, including the first vaccines to prevent respiratory syncytial virus in older adults and infants and a first vaccine to prevent the mosquito-borne virus chikungunya.

A 2020 rule stands in which copay assistance from pharmaceutical companies counts toward deductibles for brand name drugs without a generic competition.

IQVIA’s most recent Global Use of Medicines report projected that market introductions of new biosimilar and generic drugs will increase projected losses for originator products from $111 billion to $192 billion over the next five years.

Less flexible plans, such as health maintenance organizations, are more likely to use biosimilar therapies than more flexible plans.

UnitedHealth Group executives attribute the increase of revenue at Optum Rx to the addition of new clients, expanded relationships with existing clients, and advancements in services.

Clients are cautious about how the cost in “cost-plus” programs is determined, how rebates factor in and the benchmarks used, says Navitus’s Brent Eberle.

CVS Caremark has entered into an agreement with AbbVie, the manufacturer of Humira, to supply Cordavis with Humira to develop a cobranded product. Cordavis is a CVS company developing private label therapies.

Zilbrysq has a list price $1,047.19 for a 23 mg syringe. It is UCB’s second treatment for patients with myasthenia gravis.