Trending News Today: CVS Caremark Launches Program Aimed at Expensive New Drugs

CVS Caremark has launched a new program that will allow its clients to exclude coverage of drugs with extremely high launch prices, The Hill reported. According to the article, the new program will use specific methods of comparing the cost and efficacy of certain medications. CVS said the program will focus on expensive drugs that are not cost effective, so “breakthrough” therapies will be excluded from the program, the article reported.

GlaxoSmithKline’s ViiV Healthcare unit announced positive results from a phase 3 study comparing a dual HIV therapy with conventional triple therapy, Reuters reported. According to the article, the experimental 2-drug injection of cabotegravir and rilpivirine maintained similar rates of viral suppression compared with a standard 3-drug regimen after 48 weeks of a clinical trial. The results follow recent positive data from combining 2 oral drugs, the article reported.

The Democratic Republic of Congo deployed the experimental mAb114 Ebola treatment in response to the latest outbreak of the virus, Reuters reported. According to the article, the treatment was developed in the United States by the National Institutes of Health using the antibodies of a survivor from an Ebola outbreak in 1995. Health officials stated that this is the first time it has been used against an active outbreak, the article reported.