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In a sign of growing government interest in rising prescription-drug costs, federal officials on Thursday said state Medicaid programs may be violating federal law by denying patients expensive hepatitis C medications. They also asked drug makers to provide information on their pricing arrangements with health insurers, which officials said could help ease the financial burden on state budgets. (Walker, 11/5)

Confronting the consequences of high-priced drugs, the Obama administration Thursday pointedly reminded states that they cannot legally restrict access by low-income people to revolutionary cures for liver-wasting hepatitis C infection. The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also sent letters to several drug manufacturers, requesting details of what they are doing to make their medications more affordable. Among the companies getting federal letters was California based Gilead Sciences, maker of market-leading Harvoni. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 11/5)

Drugmakers including Gilead Sciences Inc. and AbbVie Inc. were contacted by the U.S. government’s Medicaid agency to discuss options for how to pay for hepatitis C cures whose costs have eaten into state budgets. The companies, along with Johnson & Johnson and Merck & Co., were asked in letters from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide information on arrangements they make with health insurers to link payments to the outcomes of their treatments. Such arrangements may affect the prices that drugmakers are required to offer under the Medicaid program, the agency said Thursday. (Tracer, 11/5)

Not long ago, it would have been almost unimaginable for PhRMA — short for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — to criticize any company in its field. But faced with nationwide rebukes and attacks from presidential candidates over drug prices, the industry group is confronting a public storm unlike any in years. In response, according to lobbyists, congressional aides, and pharmaceutical executives, PhRMA is not only aggressively criticizing what it perceives as bad actors but also deliberating internally how to rehabilitate the industry’s image. (Scott, 11/6)

Pfizer, the biggest U.S.-based drugmaker, is increasing its financial assistance to patients, doubling the allowable income level for people to receive dozens of Pfizer medicines for free. The move comes amid fierce criticism by patients and politicians, as well as government investigations, of soaring prices for new medications and even old ones with little or no competition. (Johnson, 11/5)

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. dropped below $80 a share for the first time in more than two years as investors grappled with the drugmaker’s mounting challenges and a top shareholder, Bill Ackman, discussed how his confidence in the company’s leadership had briefly wavered. Valeant has been under pressure over how it prices its drugs and its relationship with Philidor Rx Services, a mail-order pharmacy that it cut ties with on Oct. 30. Members of Congress said Wednesday that they want to investigate Valeant’s pricing practices. (Bloomfield, 11/5)