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After a year of drama for the health-care industry, ranging from the EpiPen pricing scandal to the collapse of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and Theranos to the unknown future of Obamacare to a series of mergers, it is easy to forget that the business of drug companies is actually to discover new drugs. That will change in the next two weeks, when Eli Lilly unveils late-stage data for its Alzheimer’s disease drug. (Grant, 11/22)

Pills used to treat a form of leukemia may be more effective and convenient than chemotherapy, but a new study suggests pricing is projected to raise the annual cost of care by 590 percent – to more than $5 billion – over the next decade, straining payer budgets and causing financial hardship for patients. Here’s why: The number of people in the US living with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, which is a rare blood and bone marrow disease, is forecast to reach 199,000 in 2025, up from 128,000 five years ago, thanks to more effective treatment. But a higher-priced pill, which is used as a first-line therapy and taken indefinitely, will also outpace the cost of chemotherapy, which has a fixed duration for treatment. (Silverman, 11/21)

When presidential candidate Hillary Clinton blasted Martin Shkreli on Twitter for hiking the price of an old drug called Daraprim by 5,000% in September 2015, biotech stocks plummeted. Clinton tweeted that such price hikes in the drug market were “outrageous” and that she planned to “take it on.” So when she unexpectedly lost the election, it’s little surprise that shares of drug companies rallied, with the Nasdaq Biotech Index jumping 9% the day after the election—its biggest one-day spike in 8 years. The biopharma sector enjoyed a further boost from the failure of California’s Proposition 61, an effort to control drug prices by requiring that state agencies pay no more for medicines than the Department of Veterans Affairs does. (Weintraub, 11/17)

In 2013, it looked as if AstraZeneca and Ranbaxy could face billions in damages in a lawsuit alleging they struck an illegal deal to block a generic of the blockbuster heartburn remedy Nexium. Now that cloud has lifted, thanks to a U.S. appeals court ruling in the companies’ favor. The legal battle over generic Nexium is a landmark case, because it was the first to go before a jury after a key U.S. Supreme Court ruling. In 2013, the high court determined that so-called pay-for-delay deals could violate antitrust laws, if only on a case-by-case basis. (Weintraub, 11/22)

As the generic drug industry braces for charges from a two-year U.S. Justice Department antitrust investigation, a union representing the sergeants of the New York Police Department is attempting to hit some companies with civil penalties as well. A pair of lawsuits filed by the Sergeants Benevolent Association Health & Welfare Fund against two groups of drugmakers, which include Switzerland-based Novartis AG’s generic drug unit, along with Ireland-based Perrigo Co., India’s Wockhardt Ltd. and Taro Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., allege the companies colluded to raise prices on two dermatological creams as much as 1,000 percent starting in 2013. (Altstedter, 11/17)

Pfizer has accused the Texas Health and Human Services Commission of violating federal law by handing over the company's drug pricing information to state legislators, and is suing the agency to ensure the data aren't leaked again. So far this year, the Texas agency has allegedly handed over Pfizer's drug pricing data to two Texas Senate committee heads, stoking Pfizer's fears that the information could get leaked and jeopardize their complex and secretive pricing and discount programs. (Teichert, 11/18)

Gary Tanner and Andrew Davenport stand accused of trying to defraud Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. But to hear their lawyers tell it, the two were just doing their jobs, in full view of sharp-minded Valeant executives. The two are the first to face charges after more than a year of rising scrutiny on Valeant and a federal investigation into the drug company’s relationship with mail-order pharmacy Philidor Rx Services LLC. The lawyers’ comments suggest this won’t be the end of troubles for Valeant or its former executives. (Berthelsen, Farrell and Hopkins, 11/22)

On the heels of Trinity Partners’ first medicines index, president John Corcoran said the biopharma industry can expect a continued focus on specialty drugs and drastically different drug launches in the years to come. Gone are the days of “brute force marketing” propelling new drugs to big sales, Corcoran told FiercePharma, with concepts such as “real-world evidence,” “outcomes,” “cost effectiveness,” and “health economics” expected to play a bigger role than ever moving forward. (Sagonowsky, 11/21)