The cost of prescription medicines used by millions of people every day is about to plummet.
The next 14 months will bring generic versions of seven of the world’s 20 best-selling drugs, including the top two: cholesterol fighter Lipitor and blood thinner Plavix.
The magnitude of this wave of expiring drugs patents is unprecedented. Between now and 2016, blockbusters with about $255 billion in global annual sales will go off patent, notes EvaluatePharma Ltd., a London research firm.
WASHINGTON Medicare officials confirmed Thursday that the program will cover the $93,000 price tag for prostate cancer drug Provenge, an innovative therapy that typically gives men suffering from an incurable stage of the disease an extra four months to live.
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BOSTON Cancer patients, brace yourselves. Many new drug treatments cost nearly $100,000 a year, sparking fresh debate about how much a few months more of life is worth.
The latest is Provenge, a first-of-a-kind therapy approved in April.
An FDA panel of outside experts — including an FBI agent! — voted against expanding the use of Jazz Pharmaceuticals’ narcolepsy drug to fibromyalgia, in part because of its potential as a street drug.
An illegal form of sodium oxybate is similar to the drug GHB, Dow Jones Newswires reports. As the NPR Shots Blog noted in the run-up to the meeting, GHB gained notoriety for its use as a date rape drug. Right