Trending News Today: Lilly's Migraine Drug Tops Competitors in New Prescriptions

Weekly US prescription data from IQVIA showed that Eli Lilly’s migraine drug galcanezumab-gnlm (Emgality) was the most prescribed therapy for first-time patients, Reuters reported. According to the article, galcanezumab-gnlm, which claimed 37.7% of first-time patients, won out against Amgen’s erenumab-aooe (Aimovig), whose share dropped to 37.2%, as well as Teva, who came in at a 25.1% share. Lilly is the only manufacturer in the class currently covered by all 3 of the leading pharmacy benefit managers: Cigna’s Express Scripts, UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx, and CVS Health, the article reported.

Forty-four US states filed a lawsuit against 20 drug manufacturers, accusing the companies of inflating prices and working to stifle competition, The Hill reported. According to the article, the suit alleges that the drug companies illegally divided up the market to limit competition and coordinated to raise prices. The complaint also said that Teva allegedly conspired to increase prices of 86 drugs between July 2013 and January 2015, the article reported.

A recent study has identified a new target in the mitochondria of cancer cells that indicate the potential of a treatment class for certain blood cancers, The American Journal of Managed Care reported. According to the article, the target, caseinolytic protease P (ClpP) offers insight into how impiridones work by inducing cancer cell deaths in blood cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia. Overall, the findings support the clinical development of impiridones and other ClpP activators for human cancers, the article reported.