Several generic drugmakers that will produce versions of Pfizer’s COVID-19 antiviral treatment Paxlovid agreed to sell the medicine in low-income and middle-income countries for $25 a course or less, the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) said on May 12.

The U.S. health regulator approved Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s lead drug to treat seizures associated with a rare genetic disorder in patients two years of age and older, the company said on March 18, sending its shares soaring around 36 percent.

Japan’s Eisai Co. Ltd. will surrender the company’s rights to share profit from Aduhelm – the Alzheimer’s treatment drug jointly developed with U.S. partner Biogen Inc. – and instead receive sales royalties, the companies said on March 14.

Patient groups mounted a public pressure campaign aimed at persuading the U.S. government to loosen proposed restrictions on new Alzheimer’s treatments, spending millions of dollars on television and local advertisements that began running during the March 13 morning political shows.

Civica Rx announced the organization’s intentions to manufacture and distribute insulins that will be available to individuals with diabetes at lower prices than those presently on the market.

Prices increased on 810 different medications by the end of January 2021, not only on branded medications but also some generic drugs, according to a pricing report from GoodRx Health.

President Joe Biden called for the U.S. Senate to approve his Build Back Better legislation to reduce the costs of prescription drugs provided through Medicare and cap out-of-pocket drug costs for seniors.

Biogen Inc. is urging Medicare to broadly reimburse the company’s recently authorized Alzheimer’s drug, in response to a proposal by the U.S. government to sharply limit coverage of new drugs for the brain-wasting disease.

Lantus

Drugmakers have targeted the U.S. market to earn outsized profits from old medicines, according to a report released on December 10 by the House Oversight Committee that highlighted Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, which control the market for insulin.

Since the release of the Democratic Party’s $3.5 trillion budget draft in early August, intraparty tensions have been high as debate roils over what to cut and how to trim it so that the price tag becomes more amenable. On November 3, after almost three months of discussion, one hurdle of contention seems to have been cleared: the Democrats have reached an agreement about how to lower the price of some prescription drugs.