Drug pric­ing watch­dog ICER on Thurs­day re­leased its fi­nal re­port on drug price in­creas­es in Cal­i­for­nia that were un­sup­port­ed by new clin­i­cal ev­i­dence, point­ing to three out­liers — Bris­tol My­ers Squibb’s can­cer drugs Revlim­id and Spry­cel, and Eli Lil­ly’s mi­graine drug Em­gal­i­ty.

The re­port builds on a price trans­paren­cy law passed in Cal­i­for­nia in 2017, which re­quires man­u­fac­tur­ers to re­port year-over-year spend­ing in­creas­es to pre­scrip­tion drugs’ WAC prices, but does not in­clude net prices, which ICER took is­sue with.

The non­prof­it watch­dog said it win­nowed down lists of the most ex­pen­sive drugs in Cal­i­for­nia from 2020, seek­ing in­put as to whether its fig­ures on net prices, if avail­able, were cor­rect. While con­ver­sa­tions with man­u­fac­tur­ers on net prices can­celed out many of the top ones list­ed, ICER said in all three of these cas­es, the price in­creas­es were high and un­jus­ti­fied by new clin­i­cal ev­i­dence.

In the case of BMS’ Revlim­id (lenalido­mide), which be­gan fac­ing gener­ic com­pe­ti­tion this year, ICER said it was ranked 14th on Cal­i­for­nia’s 2020 list of spe­cial­ty drugs with the high­est year-over-year in­creas­es in to­tal spend­ing, with the WAC in­creas­ing by about 6% in 2020, al­though the net price in­crease was un­known.

BMS’ Spry­cel (dasa­tinib) sim­i­lar­ly saw a 6% WAC price spike in 2020, un­sup­port­ed by new da­ta, and ICER said its change in net price in 2020 amount­ed to about 10%.

More in­creas­es may have oc­curred in the in­ter­ven­ing years too as In­dia-based gener­ic man­u­fac­tur­er Apo­tex set­tled with BMS in 2013 and agreed to not launch its gener­ic ver­sion of Spry­cel un­til Sept. 2024.

In the case of Lil­ly’s Em­gal­i­ty (gal­canezum­ab), which the com­pa­ny says is pro­tect­ed from gener­ics with patents through 2033, the WAC in­creased by about 5%. The net price in­crease in the same pe­ri­od for Em­gal­i­ty re­mains un­known, ICER said, not­ing that SSR Health con­sid­ered its es­ti­mates of change in net price over the same 12-month pe­ri­od to be po­ten­tial­ly not re­li­able and the man­u­fac­tur­er did not pro­vide new in­fo.

All in all, ICER, which re­ceived fund­ing from the Cal­i­for­nia Health­Care Foun­da­tion to pro­duce this re­port, called on states to en­sure net price in­fo is in­clud­ed in any fu­ture drug price trans­paren­cy laws.

“States seek­ing to iden­ti­fy drugs for which in­creas­es in spend­ing may be in­ap­pro­pri­ate should in­cor­po­rate a re­quire­ment for re­port­ing of net price in­creas­es at the state lev­el across all pay­ers,” the re­port con­cludes.

A California judge will allow a plaintiff in a state court case to introduce expert testimony connecting a potential carcinogen in former blockbuster medicine Zantac to cancer.

The order was handed down on Thursday from state judge Evelio Grillo, who is now allowing both parties to introduce expert testimony in an upcoming trial after what’s known as a Sargon hearing, where a judge determines the admissibility of expert witnesses and expert opinions.

Abbott is renewing its concussion awareness campaign, weeks after the company received FDA clearance for its lab-based traumatic brain injury (TBI) blood test.

The unbranded campaign features three generations of the Melon family — animated talking melons who slip on toys or take a spill while playing pickleball.

“Don’t mess with your melon. If you hit it, get it checked,” a narrator says.