Insurers Are Pocketing Copay Assistance Funds Meant to Curb Patient Drug Costs

For 16 years, Larry Gruber, a fitness coach from Wilton Manors, Florida, received a coupon card to help him pay for a psoriatic arthritis medication he needs that costs more than $7,700 a month. Each year, Amgen, which makes the drug, called Enbrel, sent the coupon card worth thousands of dollars, and that counted toward Gruber’s health insurance deductible and out-of-pocket maximum.
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Critics Warn TrumpRx Will Further Enrich Big Pharma, Not Reduce Drug Prices

US President Donald Trump on Thursday launched a website, branded with his name, in a purported effort to help patients buy prescription drugs at lower prices. But experts, watchdog groups, and Democratic lawmakers said TrumpRx will likely do little for consumers — or for the broader goal of bringing down exorbitant medicine costs — while further enriching Big Pharma and potentially lining…
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As Trump Touts 9 New Prescription Drug Deals, Many Call for Systemic Reform

“Starting next year, American drug prices will come down fast and furious and will soon be the lowest in the developed world,” President Donald Trump claimed Friday as the White House announced agreements with nine pharmaceutical manufacturers. The administration struck most favored nation (MFN) pricing deals with Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences…
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Big Pharma Is Making Mexico Sick. Medicine and Supply Shortages Are Rampant.

The U.S. has the highest medical and health care costs in the world — a reality that is driving 1.2 million medical tourists from there to Mexico each year, where up-front costs are lower. Yet for Mexicans whose wages or incomes are many times lower, living in the country with the most expensive medicine in Latin America presents an obstacle to treatment. Mexico faces serious…
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