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When you get a bunch of pharma execs together to talk drug pricing, they're supposed to trade banal and mutually beneficial platitudes about unfair press coverage and the need to pay for innovation. What they're not supposed to do is get into a shouting match, which is exactly what happened between Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. CEO Leonard Schleifer and Pfizer Inc. CEO Ian Read at Forbes's Health Summit on Thursday. While Read defended the industry's price-hiking practices, Schleifer said he hated them, expressed understanding for pharma's radioactive reputation, and declared Pfizer wasn't "entitled to a fraction of GDP." (Max Nisen, 12/2)

Medications have their price, but as costs continue to rise, more people cannot afford to fill their prescriptions. Whether or not this trend of not taking prescribed medication affects overall morbidity and mortality remains to be seen. However, in the meantime, millions of Americans wonder why they are in the position of having to choose between their medication and food for their family. (Dana Connolly, 12/2)

One $80 billion-plus company is a pioneer. Two make a trend that can't be ignored. Novo Nordisk A/S announced on Monday it will no longer raise individual drug prices by more than 10 percent within a year. It joins another pharma giant, Allergan plc, which made a similar pledge in September. The Danish diabetes drugmaker also plans to link the costs of its drugs to the results they deliver for patients. (Max Nisen, 12/5)

Its the world’s largest producer of insulin and diabetes treatments. Danish pharma and diabetes drug giant Novo Nordisk is joining a nascent biopharma industry movement to voluntarily limit its hikes on prescription drug prices. (Sy Mukherjee, 12/6)

Like many Americans, I was surprised by the results of the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Many fully expected a Hillary Clinton victory. With that expectation was the belief that drug pricing would remain a key focus of the political debate. With the election of Donald Trump as our next President, is the focus off drug prices? Will things go back to business as usual? Will changes to the Affordable Care Act, the economy, jobs and immigration consume all of the political oxygen in the room, leaving no room for anything else? (Brent Saunders, 12/6)

Health insurers are as big as whole countries. ... So why are they unable to negotiate lower drug prices? Medicare may be prohibited from doing this, but private insurers aren't. Are insurers hemmed in by rules requiring them to offer any "medically necessary" drug? Are they, ironically, limited by competition—afraid of losing customers if they don't cover everything? Are they just lousy negotiators because they don't really care? After all, high prices are going to get passed along anyway, so it doesn't hurt them as long as their competitors are in the same boat. Alternatively, do I completely misunderstand how the process works? (Kevin Drum, 12/2)