Novartis is working on pioneering advanced new cancer therapies, rather than looking for incremental improvements in existing drugs. Denise Roland explains Novartis' strategy at The Wall Street Journal, writing: Novartis AG’s NVS +0.43% recent acquisition streak is pivoting the company toward new treatments that bear little resemblance to traditional drugs. The Swiss company has spent nearly $15 billion in the past year to build its presence in cutting-edge areas of medical research, including gene therapy, or treatments that introduce new DNA into the body, and radiopharmaceuticals, which … [Read more...]

In a piece for The Wall Street Journal, Joseph Walker attempts to understand why Americans pay so much for healthcare by examining a number of charts. The short version of his conclusion is that Americans aren't buying much more healthcare than other OECD consumers, but they are paying more for what they get. He writes: The U.S. spends more per capita on health care than any other developed nation. It will soon spend close to 20% of its GDP on health—significantly more than the percentage spent by major Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development nations. What is driving costs so … [Read more...]

I've discussed my Bezos Law before. It's my theory that any industry Jeff Bezos enters will see lower prices. Now, Bezos' Amazon.com and consortium of investors including JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway is about to enter the employee health care market. What does this mean for the future of health care? David Marino-Nachison writes in Barron's Next: When Amazon.com takes concrete, public steps into huge industries—which it did Tuesday, announcing a joint venture to tackle employee health care with JPMorgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway—it should make investors blink. But what else … [Read more...]

Four nonprofit hospital systems are applying to the FDA for approval to produce and market their own line of generic drugs. The hospitals are looking to produce generics for which there currently isn't much competition. Melanie Evans writes in The Wall Street Journal: The hospitals said they would prioritize production of generic drugs for which the market lacks competition, though they declined to specify which drugs they would produce first. “We have no designs on being a major pharmaceutical power,” Intermountain President and Chief Executive Marc Harrison said. “This is a very specific … [Read more...]