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About 18 million Americans, or 7% of U.S. adults, say they were recently unable to pay for at least one prescription medication for their household, according to a new poll from Gallup. The finding shows in "stark terms" how high health-care costs and prescription drug prices are impacting households across the nation, the polling firm said. The situation is even worse for low-income households with annual income of less than $24,000, with almost 20% unable to pay for at least one prescription medication in the prior three months, Gallup found in its survey of almost 5,000 adults in June. About 1 in 10 adults say they've skipped a pill in the prior year as a way to save money. (Picchi, 9/21)

Health care advocates are making the case that the pieces of Democrats' legislative agenda that lower health care costs and expand coverage are the most popular with voters — and should thus be prioritized. Why it matters: Democrats are trying to figure out what topline spending number they have to work with for their reconciliation package. The lower that number goes, the more the party will have to cut from the package. (Owens, 9/21)

Penn’s Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics hosted a virtual seminar in which panelists discussed high drug prices and possibilities for reform in the present political climate. The seminar, entitled "Drug Pricing: Policy and Politics," featured American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Benedic Ippolito, Washington University law professor Rachel Sachs, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health scientist Mariana Socal. The event was moderated by Perelman School of Medicine and Wharton School professor Rachel Werner on Friday. (Dasgupta, 9/20)

The subject line on the email began with two words: “Cold pitch.” When Alex Oshmyansky hit send, he figured he’d never even get a reply from the recipient, Dallas billionaire Mark Cuban. After all, Cuban deletes most of the thousand or so emails he gets each day. And Oshmyansky’s message, like most of those that end up in Cuban’s trash folder, was asking for an investment—in a company called Osh’s Affordable Pharmaceuticals. But to Oshmyansky’s surprise, the Dallas Mavericks owner and Shark Tank host replied. Cuban told Oshmyansky, a bespectacled 36-year-old with an MD from Duke University, that he was intrigued by the concept, which had already attracted $1 million in funding. Osh’s Affordable Pharmaceuticals was set up to buy generic drugs from their manufacturers and sell them directly to pharmacies, undercutting pricing for a few important medications by leapfrogging what Oshmyansky has called the “monopolistic middlemen in the supply chain.” (Shinneman, 9/15)

A year ago this month, Santa Monica-based GoodRx Holdings Inc. and its prescription drug comparison price shopping app went public, making a splash as one of the few profitable companies to go through with an initial public offering. In the year since, GoodRx and its consumer-focused health care apps have managed to hold their own and even thrive despite an escalating threat from a prescription drug discount program launched by ecommerce giant Amazon.com Inc. late last year. (Fine, 9/20)