It's well known that drug prices matter a lot heading into the 2020 election, but Democratic candidates are making an especially big deal about insulin, STAT reports.
Between the lines: In some cases, there is arguably a justification for why a drug is very expensive. Insulin — which is a very old drug — is not one of those cases. That makes it easy political fodder.
Electronic health record company Practice Fusion will pay $145 million after federal prosectors said the vendor accepted $1 million in kickbacks from an unnamed opioid manufacturer, and in return, Practice Fusion engineered its software to encourage more prescriptions of that company's opioids.
Why it matters: Several Practice Fusion executives not only booked the kickbacks as revenue, but also agreed to help peddle more of the company's painkillers during the height of the country's opioid epidemic that has killed tens of thousands of people.
Federal officials and New York state have sued Martin Shkreli for allegedly violating antitrust law when he raised the price of Daraprim by 4,000%, Bloomberg reports. Shkreli is already in prison on a separate charge.
Why it matters: Shkreli and Vyera Pharmaceuticals, formerly Turing Pharmaceuticals, became the face of out-of-control drug pricing. The lawsuit suggests that such behavior could have been illegal.
