Tasha Hedges took Xanax for 20 years to treat her anxiety and panic attacks, exactly as a psychiatrist had prescribed it. Then in 2022, that doctor unexpectedly died. A general practitioner continued her prescription but retired shortly afterward. The next doctor moved to Canada. Finally, Ms. Hedges found a new psychiatrist. “The first thing he did was start yelling at …
Read More »Tag Archives: Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Trump Signs Executive Order Asking Companies to Lower Drug Prices
President Trump on Monday signed an executive order asking drugmakers to voluntarily reduce the prices of key medicines in the United States. But the order cites no obvious legal authority to mandate lower prices. The order said the administration would consider taking regulatory actions or importing drugs from other countries in the future if drugmakers do not comply. It was …
Read More »Trump Plan Would Tie Some Drug Prices to What Peer Nations Pay
President Trump will sign an executive order on Monday aimed at lowering some drug prices in the United States by aligning them with what other wealthy countries pay, he said on Truth Social on Sunday evening. The proposal he described, which alone cannot shift federal policy, is what he calls a “most favored nation” pricing model. Mr. Trump did not …
Read More »Trump Plan Would Tie Some Drug Prices to What Peer Nations Pay
President Trump will sign an executive order on Monday aimed at lowering some drug prices in the United States by aligning them with what other wealthy countries pay, he said on Truth Social on Sunday evening. The proposal he described, which alone cannot shift federal policy, is what he calls a “most favored nation” pricing model. Mr. Trump did not …
Read More »Why Patients Are Being Forced to Switch to a 2nd-Choice Obesity Drug
Tens of thousands of Americans will soon be forced by their heath insurance to switch from one popular obesity drug to another that produces less weight loss. It is the latest example of the consequences of secret deals between drugmakers and middlemen, known as pharmacy benefit managers, that are hired by employers to oversee prescription coverage for Americans. Employers pay …
Read More »Sybil Shainwald, Lawyer Who Fought for Women’s Health, Dies at 96
Sybil Shainwald, a lawyer who for nearly half a century represented women whose health had been irreparably and often catastrophically harmed by poorly tested drugs and medical devices, died on April 9 at her home in Manhattan. She was 96. Her daughter Laurie Shainwald Kleeger announced the death, which was not widely reported. Ms. Shainwald was 48 years old and …
Read More »Kennedy Issues Demands for Vaccine Approvals That Could Affect Fall Covid Boosters
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced a plan that would require placebo-controlled studies for all new vaccines, surprising some experts who noted that such testing already routinely took place. In a statement, Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said that “all new vaccines will undergo safety testing in placebo-controlled trials” before approval, and …
Read More »Immunotherapy Drug Spares Cancer Patients From Grisly Surgeries and Harsh Therapies
When a person develops solid tumors in the stomach or esophagus or rectum, oncologists know how to treat them. But the cures often come with severe effects on quality of life. That can include removal of the stomach or bladder, a permanent colostomy bag, radiation that makes patients infertile and lasting damage from chemotherapy. So a research group at Memorial …
Read More »Europe’s Pharma Industry Braces for Pain as Trump Tariff Threat Looms
Insulin, heart treatments and antibiotics have flowed freely across many borders for decades, exempt from tariffs in a bid to make medicine affordable. But that could soon change. For months, President Trump has been promising to impose higher tariffs on pharmaceuticals as part of his plan to reorder the global trading system and bring key manufacturing industries back to the …
Read More »Trump Seeks to Lower Drug Prices Through Medicare and Some Imports
President Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday outlining a series of actions intended to lower drug prices, including helping states import drugs from Canada. The policies were more modest than proposals to reduce drug prices that Mr. Trump offered in his first term. And one of his new directives could increase drug prices. It calls for the Trump administration …
Read More »