Pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma, maker of OxyContin, often win patents for incremental changes with debatable value. Now there's a twist involving an opioid addiction treatment.
Federal officials will allow private Medicare insurance plans to require patients who are candidates for certain expensive drugs to try cheaper drugs first.
Massachusetts planned to exclude expensive drugs that weren't proven to work better than existing alternatives from its Medicaid plan. Medicaid drug spending had doubled in five years.
A consortium of hospital systems and three foundations is moving ahead with a nonprofit drugmaker that would produce some of the generic medicines health care facilities need the most.
Officials in Texas are responding to the findings of an investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity into drugmakers' influence over medication choices for Medicaid patients.
After an investigation by the Center for Public Integrity and NPR into conflicts of interest in Medicaid decisions about drugs, Arizona's governor added new transparency rules.
Drug companies have infiltrated nearly every part of the process that determines how their drugs will be covered by Medicaid, an investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity finds.
The vast amount of data held in electronic medical records and insurance bills contains bits that could be useful in refining the use of approved for drugs. But how to find it?
ProPublica found that drugmakers spent less to market opioids to doctors in 2016 than in prior years. Studies have shown that payments to doctors are linked to more prescriptions for the drugs.
A Harvard Medical School project aims to become the first national registry for exceedingly rare cancer patients who respond mysteriously well to treatments that failed to help others.
With 113 locations in the U.S., Brain Balance says its drug-free approach has helped tens of thousands of children. But experts say there's insufficient proof of its effectiveness.
The civil lawsuit is just one of many the opioid drug manufacturer now faces — but the complaint filed Tuesday adds an unusual wrinkle: It also singles out the Sackler family, which owns Purdue.
Legislation that would give terminally ill people a direct path to get experimental treatments raises questions about how the Food and Drug Administration would safeguard patients.
An antibody-based drug reduces the frequency of migraine headaches, according to data reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration. The agency approved Aimovig, priced at about $6,900 a year.
Celgene Corp. has thwarted rival drugmakers eager to make cheaper versions of medicines for a form of blood cancer. Now administration officials are criticizing practices they say hold generics back.
After criticism that the administration's blueprint for drug prices was vague, the secretary of health and human services zeroed in on actions that he said need only his signature.
Drugs like Valium, Xanax and Ativan are more popular than ever. Frequently used to treat anxiety, the medicines can be risky, especially when mixed with alcohol or opioids.
Legal analysts say the decision to overturn Maryland's law could slow momentum for other states that are attempting to take action to curb high drug costs.
Even big clinical studies can miss important drug side effects. Researchers, doctors and drugmakers are looking at patients' experiences posted on social media for clues on problems that were missed.
The Department of Justice and 45 states allege that generic drug makers colluded to divvy up customers and set prices. Prosecutors are now looking at potential involvement by drug distributors.
The market is flooded with 28 different medications for just 20,000 patients with the hereditary bleeding disorder. Yet intense competition hasn't worked to bring costs down.
When it comes to antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs, author Lauren Slater says,"We don't really know what we're taking into our bodies." Her new book is Blue Dreams.
The Trump administration rolled out a list of actions in its budget proposal to attack drug prices, but most of the measures dance around the edges of the problem.
