STAT+: We’re reading about drug pricing deals, a new cancer therapy approval, and more — SkimNews
Get the Health newsletter
Daily health & science — research, biotech, public health, the studies worth knowing. Free.
- The White House is expected Monday to announce new drug pricing deals involving Bayer, Takeda, CSL Behring, and several mid-sized drugmakers, per the Financial Times.
- The agreements extend a Trump administration pattern of extracting drug pricing concessions from major drugmakers in exchange for tariff relief — though the source notes it has been unclear how meaningful those concessions actually are.
- The FDA approved Mimrylo, a weekly injection co-developed by Takeda and Protagonist, to treat polycythemia vera, a slow-growing cancer marked by overproduction of red blood cells.
- Polycythemia vera thickens patients' blood and raises the risk of life-threatening heart attacks, strokes, and blood clots — and the companies did not disclose a price for Mimrylo at approval.
- Takeda sits at the center of both storylines: as a counterparty in the White House's tariff-relief pricing deal and as the developer of the newly approved Mimrylo injection.
Why it matters: The White House's Monday announcement is the latest in a string of tariff-for-pricing deals with major drugmakers, yet the FT flags that the meaningfulness of those concessions remains unclear — raising questions about whether patients will see real savings. Separately, Takeda's Mimrylo won FDA approval for a cancer with life-threatening complications, but no price was disclosed, leaving cost exposure for patients unanswered.
Ask SkimNews
