Business and Finance

Combined company will have revenues of $3.2 billion and a market cap of $7.4 billion

Trade association is now big companies with big R&D spending

Takes reins with prior experience at both FDA and HHS

Latest QuintilesIMS report sees 5.8% growth in 2016; more emphasis on ‘net-price’ spending

EMD Serono Specialty Digest finds they struggle over 'ensuring clinically appropriate use'

Acquisition of PharmaMetrics adds payer analytics to Integrichain’s channel, pharmacy intelligence

‘Why fund your competitors?’ asks the company, in a pitch to independents served by the Big 3 wholesalers

$6.1-billion acquisition of Medtronic assets for patient care consumables

Reimbursement is just one of the issues facing biosimilar commercialization in the US

GPhA rebrands and aligns more closely with biosimilars

PhRMA is critical of basing coinsurance or deductibles on drugs’ list prices

5.4-million-member BCBS Federal Employee Program (FEP) is moving

Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA and CMS executive, brings an experienced hand

Initial plans include having a ‘seat at the table’ in PBM formulary discussions

Rare-disease drug also garnered a valuable pediatric review voucher

GPhA rebrands and aligns more closely with biosimilars

Humana-Aetna merger is off; Anthem-Cigna likely to follow

'Rebates do not raise drug prices, drug makers do,' says the PBM

Trump suggests a ‘streamlined’ FDA will accelerate industry growth

Brand manufacturers retain 47% of net expenditures for drugs

Thumbs up for J&J-Actelion; thumbs down for Aetna-Humana; Walgreens, McKesson actions

Watch for Washington tax policy reform to affect 2017 business

Shorter elapsed time in recent years shows encouraging improvement

Only 20 new molecular entities passed muster this year, less than half of 2015’s total

New consumer-education campaign led by Alliance for Safe Online Pharmacies

A preamble for a next round of legislating drug pricing?

Action is expected to meet FTC objections to the merged chains announced in 2015