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Presidential candidates can’t stop talking about insulin. At a campaign stop here on Sunday, Sen. Amy Klobuchar retold the now-familiar story of Alec Smith, whose highly publicized death from insulin rationing in 2017 sparked nationwide outrage. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has vowed to lower the drug’s price on her first day in office, lambasted Eli Lilly, one of just three U.S. insulin manufacturers, at an Iowa rally the day before. And since July, when Sen. Bernie Sanders joined a highly publicized “insulin caravan” seeking cheaper prices in Canada, he has flooded this state with television ads that picture him brandishing an insulin vial in outrage. Even in a primary dominated by broader health care issues, insulin has emerged as particularly alluring campaign fodder for Democrats. (Facher, 1/28)

The House Democrats' campaign arm will spend more than $1 million on national television ads hitting Republicans on the issue of high prescription drug prices. The digital and TV ads from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) argue that House Republicans and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are standing in the way of Congress passing legislation aimed at lowering drug prices. (Hellmann, 1/27)

Democratic presidential Michael Bloomberg would seek to reduce the cost of prescription drugs with a plan that includes limiting new brand-name drugs to a single patent to get lower-priced generics to the market faster. There have been unsuccessful efforts to limit so-called “evergreening,” or obtaining multiple patents to extend exclusivity in the past. But the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate said he would work with Congress to ensure only qualifying products get 20-year patent protection to stop manufacturers from slowing the introduction of generics. (Niquette, 1/27)

Martin Shkreli, a former pharmaceutical executive serving a seven-year prison sentence for defrauding investors, was accused on Monday of trying to maintain a monopoly over the lifesaving drug Daraprim through anticompetitive tactics. The Federal Trade Commission and the office of the New York attorney general, Letitia James, jointly sued Vyera Pharmaceuticals and the company’s owners, Mr. Shkreli and Kevin Mulleady, in a federal court in Manhattan. (Kang, 1/27)

More than four years after Martin Shkreli incensed Americans by raising the price of a life-saving medicine by more than 4,000%, the Federal Trade Commission and the New York attorney general sued the infamous “pharma bro” for trying to corner the market for such drugs. The joint action accused Shkreli and Vyera Pharmaceuticals, which was formerly known as Turing Pharmaceuticals, of scheming to “illegally” prevent would-be generic competitors from selling a version of Daraprim. Shortly after purchasing the decades-old drug, which is the only drug approved in the U.S. to treat a serious parasite infection that afflicts people with HIV, the list price was raised from $17.50 to $750 per tablet. (Silverman, 1/27)

Lowering health costs emerged as a major part of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 2020 agenda earlier this month when he unveiled plans to get state government in the business of selling prescription drugs. California would be the first state to create its own drug label, which would contract with existing manufacturers to produce lower-cost drugs. Newsom said he’s already in negotiations related to the plan. (Bollag, 1/27)

Following a two-year investigation, Roche (RHHBY) was fined $14 million by antitrust authorities in Romania for using different tactics to impede competition to a pair of its cancer medicines, the latest effort by European governments to crack down on anti-competitive practices. In one instance, Roche allegedly monopolized the market for Rituxan and Herceptin by undercutting rival bidders in auctions that were held to supply a national program for cancer medicines as well as hospitals. Specifically, the drug maker sold the medicines at higher wholesale prices to two distributors, which were also bidding, than to its own subsidiary, making it difficult for these companies to compete. (Silverman, 1/27)

Acceleron Pharma said Monday that a mid-stage clinical trial involving an experimental drug for pulmonary arterial hypertension achieved all its goals, potentially opening a new way to treat a rare and fatal disease that damages blood vessels in the lungs. The Cambridge, Mass.-based biotech secured U.S. approval in November for its first drug, but building on that initial success with a second medicine has been a struggle. Monday’s positive results will need to be confirmed in larger studies, but should help ease investor concerns about Acceleron’s pipeline. (Feuerstein, 1/27)