IN THE MID-1930s, a church group financed a film intended to frighten parents about the dangers their children face from marijuana. “Reefer Madness” portrayed cannabis as a powerful drug capable of sending users into psychotic, violent rages. The movie has become something of a cult classic in recent decades, mocked as a laughable example of anti-drug […]
Drugs
Posted inOpinion
State shouldn’t define pharmaceutical ‘value’
THERE’S A REASON that Americans get access to new cancer medicines two years earlier, on average, than patients in Europe: prices in the United States respond to medical needs and market demands, not public commissions using inflexible formulas. Unfortunately, Gov. Charlie Baker’s budget proposal fails to take this into consideration and could put cutting-edge treatments […]
Posted inOpinion
Cost of drugs in the US is an outrage
THE HIGH COST OF PHARMACEUTICALS in the United States is an embarrassment. Americans don’t consume more prescription medications than their counterparts in other developed countries but, on a per capita basis, we spend almost twice as much. The traditional rationale for this disparity is that we are more innovative and must pay up for pharmaceutical […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Commission torn over supervised injection sites
MEMBERS OF A STATE COMMISSION see some theoretical benefits from establishing supervised drug injection sites, but when it comes to the feasibility of actually establishing such programs, consensus was harder to find. Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders, who chairs the Harm Reduction Commission, was the most vocal skeptic at a meeting Thursday, but […]
Posted inOpinion
Baker’s Orwellian drug pricing policy
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION recently released its budget proposal for one of their most high-profile issues: drug prices in the Medicaid program. To the surprise of many in the biopharmaceutical industry, there are some promising initiatives in the proposal from an administration that is thought to be hostile to the industry on drug prices. By far the most […]
Posted inDrug Addiction
Pharma faces different type of drug trial
WHITE-COLLAR CRIME may be conducted in executive suites or empty speaking halls, but its victims can all too quickly wind up in the same place as those killed by a knife or gun. That’s one of the takeaways from a slew of ongoing cases against pharmaceutical companies accused of using sleazy or aggressive tactics to […]
Posted inHealth Care, Politics
Baker backs rate-setting for high-cost drugs
THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION is seeking legislative authority for MassHealth to negotiate prices directly with the manufacturers of high-cost drugs that have little or no competition and, if that effort fails to produce savings, to put the companies through a rate-setting process followed by regulatory and legal penalties if the firm fails to charge the target […]
Posted inOpinion
Four reasons medication-assisted treatment may not help inmates
IN DECEMBER, a federal district court judge in Massachusetts ordered the Essex County jail to provide an entering inmate methadone so that he could continue his successful methadone treatment of the last two years. The individual had failed on the other opioid medications, buprenorphine and naltrexone. He had overdosed and been revived with naloxone multiple […]
Posted inOpinion
We need better tools to control pharma prices
FROM THE BEGINNING of the Baker-Polito Administration, managing MassHealth has been a top priority. We are pleased with the progress made to date, including its first major systems overhaul in 20 years, implementing strong internal controls, and reducing the growth rate from double digit numbers. However, it is evident that additional major structural reforms are […]
Posted inHealth Care, Opinion
Taming MassHealth drug costs
IT’S ELECTION SEASON, and the focus of politicians has again moved to “skyrocketing” drug prices. When officials with the Massachusetts Medicaid program, MassHealth, and other senior state officials recently threatened to limit spending on pharmaceuticals,, reporters breathlessly reported that something must be done about “out of control” drug prices. One might ask, how much did […]