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California voters on Tuesday looked to be defeating a drug pricing control ballot proposition, a major victory for the pharmaceutical industry in its efforts to blunt attempts to drive down high drug prices if the trend holds as the rest of the votes are counted. Proposition 61 was losing with 54 percent of voters opposing it in preliminary results. The measure would have required some state health plans to reject drug prices that are higher than the discounted price the federal Department of Veterans Affairs pays. The change would have directly affected about 1 in 6 Californians. (Robbins, 11/9)

A California ballot initiative aimed at reining in rising prices for prescription drugs was headed for defeat on Tuesday after pharmaceutical companies spent more than $100 million to fight it.The California Drug Price Relief Act, also known as Proposition 61, sought to limit state health programs from paying more for medications than the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which receives the steepest discounts in the country. (Beasley, 11/9)

While only about 10 to 15 percent of California's 39 million residents would be affected by Proposition 61, supporters think passage would be a step toward broader price reductions elsewhere. Both sides recruited heavy-hitters for their causes. (Chang, 11/9)