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The vast majority of Americans believe that drug prices are unreasonably high, and point to pharmaceuticals firms’ outsized profits as the reason, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Health Tracking Poll. The poll also found that one in five Americans on prescription medications say that they find it difficult to pay for their drugs, and that nearly three quarters of Americans know little or nothing about a pending Supreme Court ruling on Obamacare. (Garver, 6/16)

Drug spending shot up by 13 percent to hit $374 billion in 2014, as the breakthrough hepatitis C cure Sovaldi — at $84,000 for a 12-week treatment — put the spotlight on the eye-popping costs of some new drugs. Facing a pipeline full of pricey new cholesterol, cancer and anti-inflammatory drugs, a national conversation is swirling around what, if anything, can or should be done to restrain prices. (6/16)

Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of the department of medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania, is not afraid of delivering difficult news. Speaking to biotech and health executives at an invitation-only event Monday in Philadelphia, he said he was invited as a counter balance to other speakers, whom he described as "techno utopians," people who are gung-ho on medical technology and are less vocal on the costs to the entire health care system. (Sell, 6/16)

Pharmaceutical companies could face a fine of as much as $5,000 each time that they are found to have overcharged hospitals and other participants in a federal drug discount program under a rule expected to be proposed in the Federal Register on Wednesday. The proposed rule regards prices and penalties for the 340B program. The Office of Management and Budget is continuing to review a broader guidance document regarding the the program, named for the section of federal public health law under which it was created in 1992. There have been strong calls for greater clarity from both drugmakers that lose revenue through the 340B program and the hospitals and other organizations that benefit from its discounts. With about $7 billion in purchases made through the program annually, it represents about 2 percent of the nation’s total prescription drug market, according to the Health Resources and Services Administration, which oversees the 340B program. “We want to make sure that federal officials can efficiently and responsibly exercise their power to impose monetary penalties against drug companies that charge above statutorily defined 340B ceiling prices,” said Randy Barrett, a spokesman for 340B Health, a group that represents hospitals enrolled in the program. “Today's proposed rule is a welcome first step in putting a process in place to guarantee that safety-net providers receive the lower prices to which they are legally entitled.” (Young, 6/16)