drug prices

Senators called pharmaceutical industry leaders to account for the high costs of medicine during a Senate hearing. The executives deflected blame to insurance companies and middlemen.

A Senate hearing on Tuesday featuring pharmaceutical executives will tackle many issues raised in the historic Kefauver hearings, which led to tougher drug regulation. High prices remain a concern.

The president's State of the Union address laid out a series of goals, including lowering prescription prices, pursuing an end to the HIV epidemic and increasing research for childhood cancers.

Pharmacy benefit managers are the focus of proposed regulations that could reduce drug costs for seniors and cut profits for middlemen. It could set a precedent for the broader market.

A recent study shows the cost of brand-name drugs is rising — not because of expensive new therapies entering the market but because manufacturers are raising prices on existing drugs.

Biologic drugs, often made with the help of living organisms, are especially lucrative because they have scant competition from biosimilars, drugs akin to generics. It's a different story in Europe.

An administration proposal would link what Medicare pays for certain drugs administered in hospitals and doctor's offices to the prices paid in Europe and other advanced economies.

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.