The AMS Blog

We like to view modern medicine as based on rigorous science, and while it certainly beats the various dangerous alternatives out there, sometimes physicians still end up adopting practices based on little evidence. When a medical treatment, device or procedure is no better than previous or lesser alternatives, it’s deemed a ‘medical reversal’. These discredited practices are a major barrier to better and cheaper healthcare, but actually identifying them is surprisingly difficult and rarely done. A recent study, designed to create a more comprehensive list, has…

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Insys Therapeutics, an opioid manufacturer, has agreed to pay $225 million to settle the federal government’s criminal and civil investigations into the company’s marketing practices. As part of the settlement, Insys Therapeutics admitted to bribing doctors to prescribe their opioid painkiller. Last month, a federal jury in Boston found five top Insys Therapeutics executives guilty of racketeering conspiracy for these same practices. Now, the federal government is holding the company accountable.  In the agreement, the drug maker admitted to orchestrating…

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The cancer world flocked to Chicago over the weekend for what’s traditionally been the biggest oncology meet-up of the year. But this year’s American Society of Clinical Oncology line-up didn’t exactly thrill analysts—or some attendees, either, as some of our executive interviews showed. Sure, fewer headliner studies had people talking. But we found plenty of data and analyses worth highlighting, including several truly buzz-worthy bits from AstraZeneca, Amgen, Merck, Seattle Genetics and more. And keep on reading for some of…

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When it comes to concerns over the rising costs of prescription drugs, it’s not just an isolated few that should be grabbing the headlines.  A new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, which examined prices for the 49 top-selling drugs between January 2012 and December 2017, found virtually all of them rose in price on a regular basis. The median price among those drugs rose 76% over the time period, and 78% of the drugs in the study…

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Adding a newer drug to standard hormone therapy lengthens the lives of younger women with advanced breast cancer, a new trial has found. The drug, called Kisqali (ribociclib), is already approved for treating such patients — based on earlier results showing it can delay the progression of their cancer. This is the first evidence it can also extend their lives, said senior researcher Dr. Debu Tripathy, chair of the breast medical oncology department at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston….

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An analyst wrote that while the Phase III data – released alongside Phase I/II data – for valrox could be enough for accelerated FDA approval and appeared to allay concerns about declining Factor VIII levels, it could face commercial challenges. A company developing a gene therapy for hemophilia plans to meet with US and European regulators to discuss potential filings for approval later this year after releasing interim Phase III data. San Rafael, California-based BioMarin Pharmaceutical said Tuesday it would meet with…

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Dive Brief: The last major legal standoff for a Humira biosimilar has ended, as AbbVie and Boehringer Ingelheim announced Tuesday a settlement of patent litigation over the U.S. entry date. Boehringer can begin selling its copycat of the world’s best-selling drug on July 1, 2023, paying royalties to AbbVie for the U.S. license, according to the settlement. Eight companies have now settled with AbbVie over Humira biosimilars. While Humira competition started this year in Europe, the deals reached in the…

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Patients treated at hospitals that earned “D” or “F” grades when it comes to patient safety face a 92% higher risk of death from avoidable medical errors than at hospitals with an “A” grade, according to a new report from The Leapfrog Group. In Leapfrog’s Annual Hospital Safety Grades, about 32% of the 2,600 hospitals evaluated received an “A” grade for safety, 26% earned a “B” grade and 36% earned a “C” grade. The hospital safety group awarded a “D” or an “F” grade to…

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It might be the biggest price-fixing scheme in U.S. history. On Friday, Connecticut and a coalition of more than 40 states filed a 500-page lawsuit accusing the biggest generic drug makers of a massive, systematic conspiracy to bilk consumers out of billions of dollars. It’s a more sweeping version of a similar lawsuit the states filed in 2016 that’s still being litigated. The generic industry vehemently denies the allegations. Congress established the current generic industry in 1984 to push prices…

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When women get a mammogram they may be offered one of two types. The older type of mammogram takes a single straightforward X-ray image of the breast. The newer 3D takes pictures from many angles. Now, more evidence shows that 3D mammography offers a more thorough picture of breast tissue and is more accurate.  When Mary Hu, an administrator in communications with Yale School of Medicine, went to get a mammogram two years ago, she didn’t even know she was…

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