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Swiss food company talks turkey with the FDA even as it researches conditions like Alzheimer's…If Big Pharma didn't already have enough to worry about, with patent cliffs, drug price investigations and reluctant payers, it now will have to face the onslaught of a large, well-funded company trying to create hybrid pharma and food products company that would treat conditions from stomach disorders to Alzheimer's disease…the four-year-old health-focused unit of Swiss food giant Nestlé is acting very much like a Big Pharma player these days. It is doing deals for pipeline projects, talking to the FDA about approvals on health-proven products and eyeing the same emerging markets that Big Pharma players have looked to improve their margins…

Cancer immunotherapy is one of the hottest areas of cancer research these days, and the market looks to be worth billions. Which big pharma do we think will be the biggest winner in the space?...the fight against cancer is the growing field of immunotherapy, which aims to harness the power of a patient's own immune system…Given the huge opportunity that exists for this new class of medicine, we asked our team of Motley Fool healthcare contributors to share with us the big pharma company they think has the best chance of grabbing a big piece of this emerging market.

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.

Reps. Rosa DeLauro...Jan Schakowsky..spoke out against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is being negotiated later this month, because of its propensity to restrict access to generic medicines…"That's less competition for big pharma, increased cost for Medicare and Medicaid, higher prices for families who are buying medicines and health insurance,"

Indian regulators are privately pressuring major drug firms to better police how they sell popular codeine-based cough syrups to tackle smuggling and addiction, a move that is reducing supplies of a medicine doctors say is an effective treatment…India's Cipla stopped making the product last year owing to regulatory demands, and Abbott Laboratories and Pfizer have had to reduce batch sizes...Regulators want to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to track cough syrup abuse in the country and bottles smuggled to neighboring Bangladesh...Abuse is... common in Bangladesh. At a treatment center…tales abound of ruined careers and family struggles. A 40-year-old former banker at the Bangladesh Rehabilitation and Assistance Center for Addicts said his addiction was so bad he felt he loved cough syrup more than his four-year-old son.

John Nosta – Digital Health Philosopher, with Nosta Lab returns to the Pharmacy Podcast Show to discuss Pharmacy, Digital Health, and Big Pharma. (32:55 minutes)

Developing countries like China, Brazil and India will drive nearly half of the growth in drug spending in the near future…pharmerging nations–developing countries…are expected to see the fastest growth in total drug spending over the next three years, making them attractive targets for drug makers…beware…reliance on lower-cost generics will make it a tricky opportunity to play...

California wants to cap drug prices, but Big Pharma isn't having it. Amid a growing backlash over drug pricing, companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb are funneling millions of dollars into stamping out a new proposal that would curb drug spending in the state…other companies including Pfizer, Eisai, Purdue Pharma, The Medicines Co., Sunovion Pharmaceuticals and Daiichi Sankyo contributed to a fund that would quash a state ballot initiative…The initiative, dubbed the California Drug Price Relief Act, would only allow government health programs to strike contracts with drugmakers at prices that are the same or lower than those paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which usually gets steep discounts on meds from manufacturers…

Here we go again. Another public opinion pool (poll) where Big Pharma shows up among the least likable industries or lands near the bottom when it comes to corporate industry reputation.This time it's the monthly Kaiser Family Foundation health tracking poll…While the core of the study focused on consumers' opinions about drug prices, several questions also tallied public sentiment regarding pharma. And it ain't good.

Merck's rVSV-ZEBOV recorded 100% protection in a Phase III trial, but in a New York Times article following the results, several officials said that the current process for developing vaccines of all types is flawed and delivers promising candidates too late during an outbreak. In addressing future public health crises, a group has called for a $2 billion vaccines fund to pay for research against conditions in which Big Pharma doesn't see a market.