A proposed bill in Connecticut would undermine pharmacy benefit managers' ability to reduce drug costs and "take contract decisions away from employers by forcing the disclosure of proprietary drug pricing information, which could promote tacit collusion among drug manufacturers to raise prices," said Pharmaceutical Care Management Association spokesman Charles Cote.

Former CMS Administrator Tom Scully and former Trump transition team member Ed Haislmaier are urging HHS Secretary Alex Azar to move Medicare coverage for drugs administered in clinical settings from Part B to Part D. The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association said the move could reduce costs and improve efficiencies.

The Supreme Court has ruled 7-2 that internal patent reviews by the US Patent and Trademark Office are legal, but the court also said the office must review challenges in their entirety. Oil States International had argued the process deprived parties of their constitutional right to have matters decided by a federal court and jury.

Knowledge Ecology International has sued the NIH, claiming that Gilead Sciences' chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy was invented using NIH funds and that the company should not be granted exclusive license without pricing and access conditions.

The latest study results, including the AstraZeneca ARCTIC study, indicate that immunotherapy combinations are less effective in treating lung cancer than combining chemotherapy with immunotherapy. Adding the experimental drug tremelimumab to Imfinzi failed to extend life or slow disease progression in the AstraZeneca study.