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In a fast-paced financial version of musical chairs, health care companies of all kinds — drug makers, hospital groups and insurers — have been frantically circling to be sure they are not left out of the latest frenzy of deal making. Mergers and acquisitions worth about $270 billion have been announced in the first nine months of 2015 in the United States, easily outpacing the activity in recent years, according to a tally by Mergermarket. On Thursday, Allergan, itself the product of a recent merger, said it was in talks to be bought by Pfizer in a deal that could easily become the year’s biggest deal. Allergan’s current market value is $113 billion. (Abelson, 10/29)

Drug giant Pfizer Inc. and Botox maker Allergan confirmed Thursday that they're in early talks to merge in a blockbuster deal that, if completed, would cap a remarkable consolidation wave roiling the U.S. healthcare industry. A deal between the companies — with an expected price tag well above Allergan's current stock market valuation of about $120 billion — would be the largest corporate merger this year. (Peltz and Masunaga, 10/29)

A merger could enable Viagra maker Pfizer, the world’s second-biggest drugmaker by revenue, to surpass Switzerland’s Novartis AG and regain the industry’s top spot. In separate statements, both companies on Thursday said they were in “preliminary friendly discussions.” Allergan Plc said there’s no certainty that the talks with Pfizer Inc. will lead to a deal. (Johnson, 10/29)

In a rare move against a pharmaceutical executive, federal agents arrested the former president of an Allergan PLC division Thursday on a charge of conspiring to pay kickbacks to physicians to induce them to prescribe the company’s drugs. (Loftus, 10/29)