Good morning, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and invigorating, because that oh-so familiar routine of deadlines, online meetings and AI summaries has predictably returned. But what can you do? The world, such as it is, continues to spin. So time to give it a nudge in a better direction by brewing cups of stimulation. Our choice today is mint chocolate chip. Sweets for the sweet, yes? Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest to start you on your journey, which we hope is meaningful and productive. Best of luck and do keep in touch…
Some insurers spent more on prescription drugs in the first nine months of this year than they did in all of 2024, financial documents analyzed by STAT show. For many, drug expenses are up more than 20% in 2025. The proliferation of GLP-1s — the injectable drug blockbusters that lead to substantial weight loss — has played a leading role and led insurers and employers to consider whether they should stop covering them completely. The spikes in prescription drug spending have been striking across almost every company, with a majority witnessing drug expense growth of 15% or higher. The analysis focused on the expenses of 14 major health insurance subsidiaries that were reported for pharmaceuticals and hospital care in the first nine months of 2025, and then compared that to the same period in 2024.
Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson secured spots on China’s first innovative drug catalog, opening a new market channel and boosting sales prospects for costly, cutting-edge treatments, Bloomberg News says. In all, 19 medicines made the list — a formulary of drugs deemed too expensive for state insurance but recommended for commercial health coverage — compiled by China’s National Healthcare Security Administration. A steady transition to commercial insurance reimbursement is also expected to allow global and Chinese drugmakers to sell their drugs at a higher price, bolstering margins that have long been suppressed by deep price cuts required in the national program.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…
STAT Pharma: The science and business of new drug development
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