All posts tagged "Pharmaceuticals"

At a cabinet meeting Tuesday, President Donald Trump floated the idea of imposing a 200% tariff rate on pharmaceuticals, which could cause the cost of medications to skyrocket.

"We'll be announcing something very soon on pharmaceuticals," Trump said. "We're gonna give people about a year, a year-and-a-half to come in, and after that, they're gonna be tariffed if they have to bring the pharmaceuticals into the country — the drugs and other things into the country — they're going to be tariffed at a very high rate, like 200 percent. We'll give them a certain period of time to get their act together."

Forbes reported that the enormous tariff rate, "could affect some $200 billion in imports and raise prices on Americans’ medications if it takes effect."...

In recent months ominous ads about prescription drugs have flooded the TV airwaves. Perhaps by design, it’s not always clear who’s sponsoring the ads or why. Or, for that matter, why now? The short answer is that Congress is paying attention. House and Senate members from both parties have launched at least nine bills, parts of which may be packaged together this fall, that take aim at pharmacy benefit managers, companies that channel prescription drugs to patients. Here’s a primer to help you decipher what’s happening. What are pharmacy benefit managers? Known as PBMs, these companies were cr......

Warning of a coming “panic” over decreasing drug supplies, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday outlined steps to strengthen the supply chain. The U.S. has shortages of about 300 drugs for everything from cancer to asthma, he said, citing the Food and Drug Administration — and the situation is poised to get worse. “There’s a dire drug shortage hitting New York and the nation right now,” Schumer said at a Midtown Manhattan press conference. “Our doctors and our patients are near panic because of the loss of these pills.” He cited a range of reasons for the situation, like lack of chem......

Catherine Reitzel’s multiple sclerosis medication costs nearly $100,000 a year. Kris Garcia relies on a drug for a blood-clotting disorder that runs $10,000 for a three-day supply. And Mariana Marquez-Farmer would likely die within days without her monthly $300 vial of insulin. At best, a Colorado panel of medical and pharmacy experts seeking to cut the costs of expensive drugs will be able to help only one of them. Starting this summer, the state’s Prescription Drug Affordability Board will choose up to 18 high-cost drugs for review over the next three years to determine if the medications ar......

Most Grammy viewers experienced live performances from the nation’s top recording artists Sunday night, but right-wing activists saw a Satanic conspiracy theory. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., needed until Monday morning to process her disdain. “The Grammy’s featured Sam Smith’s demonic performance and was sponsored by Pfizer,” the anti-vax conspiracy theorist tweeted. She also ranted about last week’s announcement that the ironically named Satanic Temple — a “nontheistic religious organization” — planned to provide abortion assistance in New Mexico. “American Christians need to get to wo......

The grinding two-plus years of the pandemic have yielded outsize benefits for one company — Pfizer — making it both highly influential and hugely profitable as covid-19 continues to infect tens of thousands of people and kill hundreds each day. Its success in developing covid medicines has given the drugmaker unusual weight in determining U.S. health policy. Based on internal research, the company’s executives have frequently announced the next stage in the fight against the pandemic before government officials have had time to study the issue, annoying many experts in the medical field and le......