The court battle that could swing high drug prices

Vasopressin, a staple of ICUs around the country, has exponentially spiked in price. Could compounding — the process of creating drugs without FDA approval — be a solution?

STAT’s Nick Florko lays out that debate, which is currently raging both in the halls of Congress and D.C.’s district courthouse. Nick details the no fewer than three lawsuits over vasopressin, how compounding could impact FDA’s approval process, and why the hard questions have now been left to federal judges.

Athenex, a Buffalo, N.Y.-based company that is developing oral cancer drugs in addition to running a compounding facility, is at the center of that controversy. Athenex sued FDA last week after the agency said the company could not make its own version of vasopressin.

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