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As drug makers issue more coupons to help consumers lower their costs, a new study finds that the companies providing prescription coverage are fighting back by refusing to cover more medicines. And the tactics underscore the jockeying for profits in the lucrative pharmaceutical industry. Consider coupons. Over the past several years, drug makers have used these to entice consumers to fill their prescriptions, since coupons defray or eliminate copay costs. In 2009, coupons were available for fewer than 100 prescription medicines, but the number exceeded 700 by last year, according to the analysis by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. The study was funded by Pfizer. Drug makers contend coupons help consumers who might otherwise have difficulty affording their medicines as insurance requires them to shoulder a greater share of the cost. (Silverman, 5/13)

A battle for profits between two arms of the health-care industry has made privately insured patients into pawns, offering them a growing number of discounts on their drug co-pays while ultimately leaving them with fewer drug options overall, according to a new analysis. The research, funded by Pfizer, found that the number of coupons that drug companies offer to help defray the portion that insured patients pay for their drugs has exploded. At the same time, the companies that provide prescription coverage have increased the number of drugs they refuse to cover, in an effort to gain leverage with drug companies in price negotiations. (Johnson, 5/12)

As health care costs overall have continued to rise, medicines are driving a good share of that trend. We'll look at some of the factors at play, including advertising, patents, and government programs and regulations -- also, plans underway on Capitol Hill to address the issue. (5/17)

The price of a life-saving drug that can reverse an opioid overdose is soaring, just as the Obama administration and Congress are pushing to make it more available. The rising price for naloxone is causing some emergency response departments to run out of the drug, while many public health groups are growing short of the cash needed to buy it and must rely on donations. It also means two public health crises are colliding — the politically charged debate about high drug prices and the growing concern about lethal addiction. (Karlin-Smith, 5/16)

Doctors who receive payments or gifts from pharmaceutical companies are more likely to prescribe brand name medications, a new study suggests. The rate at which doctors prescribed brand name drugs increased with the amount of money or gifts like dinners they received from drug companies, researchers found. (Seaman, 5/13)

Vermont is poised to become the first state requiring drug companies to explain their price increases, and Bob and Deborah Messing think that's a good idea. The Messings live in Montpelier and are in their early 70s. She's on Orencia, a Bristol-Myers Squibb product, for rheumatoid arthritis. He recently finished a course of Harvoni, made by Gilead Sciences Inc., to treat hepatitis C. (Gram, 5/14)

In the latest fracas over pharmaceutical pricing, several large drug makers are objecting to the value assigned to their multiple myeloma treatments by a controversial nonprofit, which is increasingly influencing coverage decisions made by insurers. In a recent report, the value of three medications was determined to be significantly below their list prices, which run from $8,000 to $14,000 a month. And the findings may cause a showdown at a May 26 meeting that the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review is holding to review its analysis. (Silverman, 5/16)

If any stock group has the winning market formula, it's the pharmaceuticals. So why have drug companies' stocks, which romped since 2011, done so poorly recently? Drugmakers, especially biotech firms, have ridden so high for so long due to innovations and an aging population -- and neither of those two influences has waned. Over five years through 2015, according to a Boston Consulting Group survey, four of the best-performing large-capitalization stocks were in the pharma industry, with Regeneron Pharmaceuticals (REGN) at the very top. (Light, 5/17)

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, is joining forces with McKesson Corp., the largest U.S. pharmaceutical distributor, to purchase generic drugs, allowing the two companies to use their collective size to get better prices. The move reflects growing consolidation in the pharmaceutical supply chain, as drugstores, drugmakers and the companies that manage pharmacy benefits are collaborating more closely -- in some cases merging -- to wring costs out of the process. (Cortez and Pettypiece, 5/16)

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Chief Executive Leonard Schleifer on Thursday took aim at an influential drug pricing watchdog, saying a critique of the company's new cholesterol lowering therapy was non-scientific. The Boston-based Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) last fall reviewed two new potent cholesterol drugs called PCSK9 inhibitors. It concluded that the treatments should cost about 67 percent less than the list prices set by Regeneron with partner Sanofi, and by Amgen Inc. (Humer, 5/12)

With Congress unwilling to act, U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett is marshaling Democrats to pressure the Obama administration to stem the soaring costs of prescription drugs. Doggett, D-San Antonio, has stepped up efforts to persuade the National Institutes of Health to take the unprecedented step of breaking patents on high-priced pharmaceuticals developed with taxpayer assistance. Doggett also is pressing a lavishly funded entity created by the Affordable Care Act to spend more of its money on studying which drugs work best and making those findings widely known. (Bill Lambrecht, 5/15)

A multibillion-dollar cancer drug may be hampering U.S.-Colombia relations — or at least the Colombian government seems afraid that it is. Colombia is concerned that the United States will cut off funding for the country’s peace negotiations if it allows production of cheaper copies of a best-selling drug from Novartis, cancer medication Gleevec. Novartis reported $4.7 billion in worldwide Gleevec sales in 2015. (Karlin-Smith, 5/12)