The morning’s briefing arrives from the Pharmalot campus, where our mascots remain peacefully dormant as our shortest colleague resumes out‑of‑town studies. We are sipping another cup of blueberry‑infused stimulation today.
The public is about to see the first pricing disclosures for drugs launched under President Trump’s most‑favored‑nation agreements with 17 manufacturers. STAT reports that these deals obligate companies to price new U.S. launches at net rates comparable to those in other affluent nations, though exact terms remain confidential. Three forthcoming launches — AstraZeneca’s Baxfendy for hypertension, Novo Nordisk’s insulin Awiqli, and the cancer therapy Veppanu (developed by Arvinas and Pfizer and licensed to Rigel Pharmaceuticals) — will offer the clearest view yet of the real‑world effects of Trump’s pricing strategy. Baxfendy and Veppanu are not yet available in the reference countries used for price comparisons.
CVS Health will restore Eli Lilly’s weight‑loss medication Zepbound to certain formularies effective October 1, positioning it as an additional preferred option for insurers. Reuters notes that Caremark, CVS’s pharmacy benefit manager, removed Zepbound from its formularies in July while continuing to reimburse Wegovy, a competing obesity drug from Novo Nordisk, after securing a more favorable price. Caremark will also lift the “new‑to‑market” restriction on Lilly’s recently approved weight‑loss pill Foundayo, allowing health plans to cover it beginning June 1. A new‑to‑market block is a payer policy that limits coverage of FDA‑approved drugs deemed newly released.
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