Senate Medicare Drug Pricing Plan Wouldn’t Help Majority Of Patients But It Would Offer A Lot Of Relief To Those Who Need It Most

A new study finds that the plan--which would cap out-of-pocket spending for Medicare beneficiaries at $3,100--would help those who rack up astronomical bills while not significantly hurting those who have moderate ones.

Stat: Study: A Cap On Medicare Drug Costs Helps A Small Few — A Lot
A Senate proposal to redesign the way Medicare pays for drugs could save seniors who rack up sky-high drug bills — more than $100,000 in a year — roughly $4,000 per year, according to a new paper published Monday in the New England Journal of Medicine. The plan wouldn’t actually change much for the average senior. But the paper’s lead author says that’s not necessarily a bad thing. (Florko, 9/5)

In other news from the pharmaceutical world —

Stat: What To Know Before Key FDA Meeting On Aimmune Peanut Allergy Therapy
The Food and Drug Administration is bringing together a panel of outside experts to review a novel but controversial treatment that aims to protect people against severe peanut allergy. The convening of the FDA advisory panel, scheduled to meet — and vote — on Sept. 13, will be a pivotal moment for Aimmune Therapeutics (AIMT), the biopharma company that developed the new treatment, called AR101. If approved, AR101 will be the first protective therapy for peanut allergy and the start of what Aimmune hopes will be a family of products with blockbuster commercial potential — all designed to benefit the millions of people who suffer with life-threatening food allergies. (Feuerstein, 9/4)

The New York Times: How To Get TB Patients To Take Their Pills? Persistent Texting And A ‘Winners Circle’
The hardest part of curing tuberculosis, doctors say, is getting patients to take all their pills every day for at least six months. Even the easiest regimens of four antibiotics can cause nausea, fevers, rashes and stomach pain. Health officials have tried many ways to persuade patients to comply, from gentle encouragement to imprisonment in locked wards. Now researchers have come up with a new tactic: A program based on nagging cellphone texts succeeded in goading patients into taking their drugs in a preliminary test in Nairobi, Kenya, according to a study published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. (McNeil, 9/4)

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