On May 21, 2024, The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking in the Federal Register (FR) to reschedule marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). This announcement comes nearly a year after the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) August 29, 2023 letter…

Pharmaceutical drug pricing and reimbursement remains a bipartisan focus as we draw closer to the November presidential elections, with politicians remaining steadfast in their efforts to turn up the heat on pharmaceutical manufacturers. Politicians and other groups from across the political spectrum have coalesced around a 40-year-old statute known as the Bayh-Dole Act—intended to facilitate…

FDA recently issued a revised draft guidance titled Promotional Labeling and Advertising Considerations for Prescription Biological Reference Products, Biosimilar Products, and Interchangeable Biosimilar Products . This guidance provides specific recommendations for all three classes of products—biologics approved under 351(a) of the Public Health Service Act (PHS Act), and biosimilar products and interchangeable biosimilar products approved…

The development of psychedelic drugs for medicinal uses has substantially expanded since 2020, as evidenced by an exponential growth in Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) production quotas for both psilocybin and psilocin. In 2024, these quotas grew to 20,000 g and 24,000 g, respectively, from just 30 g and 50 g in 2020.

Earlier this year, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) published new draft guidance substantially revising the agency’s previous guidance on the Establishment and Operation of Clinical Trial Data Monitoring Committees (DMCs). Since the original guidance was published in 2006, the agency has noticed an uptick in not only DMC usage but also broader DMC…

2024 is shaping up to be a big year for prescription drug affordability boards (PDABs). Like state price transparency reporting laws, state legislation establishing PDABs continues expansion. In response to rising prescription costs and overall state-level health care spending, numerous states have established PDABs to review certain high-cost prescription drugs and determine if states should…

Effective April 1, 2024, California will expand its existing prescription drug price transparency requirements by enacting legislation to amend and clarify requirements on wholesale acquisition cost increase reporting and notice submissions as well implement further processes for manufacturer penalty hearings.