STAT+: Pharmalittle: U.S. Chamber sues over Medicare price negotiations; FDA seeks new supplier for scarce cancer drug
The FDA is seeking new suppliers to ease shortages of methotrexate, one of the most commonly used cancer drugs.
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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce sued the federal government over its new Medicare drug-price negotiation program on Friday, arguing that Congress tried to take too much power away from the courts, STAT reports. The lawsuit is the second to challenge the new program, enacted by Democrats last August in the Inflation Reduction Act, within a week’s time, but relies on different legal reasoning. Merck, which makes a diabetes drug that could be subject to negotiation, filed suit last week. Medicare is supposed to choose the first 10 drugs to be negotiated by the program by Sept. 1. The goal of the lawsuits is to slow down, or stop the process from going into effect.
Illumina chief executive officer Francis deSouza stepped down on Sunday, ending a battle between the gene-sequencing machine maker and activist investor Carl Icahn in which the company’s chairman left earlier this year, STAT notes. Illumina named Charles Dadswell, senior vice president and general counsel, as interim chief executive officer. Icahn had sought to remove deSouza as an integral part of his push to force the company to unravel its $7.1 billion acquisition of Grail, a cancer diagnostic test maker. U.S. and European antitrust regulators have ordered the company to unwind the deal but Illumina has gone to court in both regions to fight the move.
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