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After Regeneron and Sanofi got FDA approval for their cholesterol drug last month, today is Amgen's turn. CNBC's Meg Tirrell reports. (video)

Wal-Mart Stores surprised everyone by highlighting reduced profits from its pharmacy business. In corporate-speak, these were called "headwinds from pharmacy reimbursements" on its quarterly and annual earnings. Investors took note, especially since Walmart usually discloses nothing about its pharmacy business. Walmart didn’t provide many details about what caused the margin reduction, but I believe two factors played a key role:

1. lower margins from newly insured consumers (compared with cash-pay consumers)
2. Walmart’s aggressive participation in preferred networks

…widely reported slowdown in sales in China noted across most multinational pharma companies deserves a harder look,…sales for the biggest firms…increased by about 5.5% for the year ended the second quarter well below a 9% average in the previous four quarters… slowdown…was blamed on tighter terms and competition in tenders and a shift in the way sales channels work at big hospitals and via doctors.. trends were compounded.. when China…revalued the yuan..

On the flip side, AstraZeneca, GSK and J&J stock prices contracted… The first half of the year has provided a good ride for Big Pharma and its investors with indices up in the U.S. and Europe. Even Japanese drugmakers avoided the side effects of China's stock market meltdown and saw values rise 23%. But, of course, averages come from the highs and the lows and some players have actually seen share price declines during this bull market.

Novo Nordisk plans to invest an estimated 2 billion..dollars over the next five years in new production facilities in Clayton, North Carolina,..and Måløv, Denmark…expansions will help…meet the increasing worldwide demand for its diabetes medicines… a new production facility in Måløv,… for tableting and packaging of oral semaglutide …"We decided to place the new API facilities in the US for strategic reasons,"…"The US is by far our largest market and there are many logistical and economic advantages of having a larger part of our manufacturing in our main market.

No one wants to talk about constipation. Except AstraZeneca. On national television. To the tune of almost $10 million in media spending… AZ's new TV campaign around OIC, or opioid-induced constipation, has two parts…One is a general awareness…The other effort is branded advertising for Movantik (naloxegol)…

It could be worse. A lot worse. Biotech and pharma stocks crashed early amidst a global market sell off but are recovering mid-day. Some sentinel stocks -- Gilead Sciences, Celgene, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Vertex Pharma -- are actually trading a tiny bit higher or down fractionally…The iShares Nasdaq Biotechnology Index (IBB), the most closely followed biotech sector index, is down less than 1% to 339.61. That's an almost miraculous recovery considering the IBB plunged briefly to 283 at the start of trading Monday -- erasing all the gains made this year and then some.

Swedish drugmaker Meda AB is exploring options including a sale of its U.S. operations amid a boom in health care deals,...Meda is working with advisers at Rothschild on the potential sale process, which may start as early as September,...deal could be worth about $1 billion and may attract interest from pharmaceutical companies with an interest in respiratory treatments,...

Analysts and investors may have been ready for Gilead Sciences to make an M&A (merger and acquisition) move before now. But with stocks on a slide, they might be glad Gilead hasn't yet… company is sitting on almost $15 billion in liquidity… biotech's stock losses mean deals are lots cheaper now than they were…the company is eyeing all sorts of deals…

Rivals Sarepta Therapeutics and BioMarin ​Pharmaceutical are in line to become the next recipients of an FDA coupon for a fast review, each potentially picking up a sellable asset...The two companies separately received the FDA's rare pediatric disease designation for their in-development treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. And if they can win approval for the drugs next year--by no means guaranteed--each will receive a voucher that promises...a 6-month FDA review for any drug, truncating the standard 10-month process. Such vouchers can be sold to the highest bidder, and their market value has skyrocketed over the past year…