After reviewing lots of data and gathering input from patients and other stakeholders, the Colorado PDAB now says Stelara is unaffordable to consumers. States are doing a lot to lower drug costs, interested to see what happens next!

The latest The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics is now available, featuring "Medicare Should Cover Weight Loss Drugs as Long as the Prices are Affordable," by Hwang, Aaron Kesselheim, and Ben Rome. Please take a look! Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law ASLME Harvard Medical School cambridge.org/core/journals/…

NEW from PORTAL: Drug patent thickets, FTC's pharma actions, trust in the FDA, & more in this month's newsletter: mailchi.mp/95288b2fb55a/p…

Check out all the latest great work being done here at Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law! 👀

Do U love Rx data, are U an experienced researcher focused on policy, do U care about Rx affordability? Come work w/MN's Pharmaceutical Economics Research team! mn.gov/mmb/careers/, job# 77354. NASHP, Stacie Dusetzina, 46brooklyn Research, Ben Rome, Sayeh Nikpay; USC Schaeffer Center

Excellent takes by Joey Matingly. Blaming PBMs for everything is an oversimplification. Hopefully Rebecca Robbins can incorporate some of this nuance in the rest of the PBM series.

For those attending AcademyHealth #ARM24 , come check out what Program On Regulation, Therapeutics, And Law has been up to with some posters and presentations by me and Christopher Cai, MD!

Me trying to use the #ARM24 app to plan out my conference schedule.

Planning your #ARM24 Sunday? Come say hi. I’ll be sharing presenting some exciting data about the Inflation Reduction Act at 9am in room 321-323! And to bookmark the day, I’ll be sharing some one at the 8am and 5pm poster sessions.

Do $35 insulin out-of-pocket caps work??? Find out at 9:30 in 321-323.

Happening at 930: Come see the freshest health policy research at #ARM24 in our late-breaking session "Prices policy: No surprises, transparency, and monthly caps!"

Great to see so many Brigham and Women's Medicine Residents alumni at #ARM! 💪 Others not pictured: Jessica Lee Jose Figueroa, MD, MPH Rishi Wadhera, MD MPP Lisa Rotenstein MD Walid Gellad Michael L. Barnett Michael McWilliams Aaron Schwartz Christopher Cai, MD

#ARM24 friends: Come by 308 at 11am to hear about Medicaid coverage of anti-obesity meds.

Hmm, not sure Peter Rheinstein actually read the CMSGov ref’s on this. I get that STAT is wants a diverse group of options, but something like this should still be fact checked. statnews.com/2024/07/15/med…

Using the U.S. FDA Drug Shortage List in November 2023, we identified 117 drugs in shortage. 20% of drugs in shortage are generic (off-patent), essential for public health (listed on World Health Organization (WHO) list) and made by 3 or fewer manufacturers (limited competition). Here's a list! 2/

In JAMA Health Forum, Catherine Hwang, Hussain Lalani, MD, MPH, MSc & Ben Rome discuss state efforts to set drug spending targets. They outline the limitations of using this policy to address high drug spending, absent a more robust approach to improve affordability. jamanetwork.com/journals/jama-…

Analysis: U.S. Patent Office software mistakes extend patent life for drugs statnews.com/pharmalot/2024…

I didn’t realize a new season of Succession was coming out so soon! nytimes.com/2024/07/24/bus…

In their new Forefront article, Suhas Gondi, Ben Rome + William H. Shrank from Brigham and Women's Hospital + Humana argue that, as regulators consider how mergers involving PBMs affect competition, they should also consider the clinical and financial benefits for patients. bit.ly/3WvYEzt

Analysis led by Dongzhe Hong in Health Affairs examined the patient & prescriber factors impacting US #biosimilar use from 2013-2022, including geography, patient age, prescriber type, & where the drug was administered. healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hl…