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Controversy surrounding drug pricing has reached an all-time high…So what's a drugmaker to do? Take a hard look at the data…Higher prices often attract lower-cost competitors and eliminate the short-term price increase benefit…public backlash to price hikes can trigger executive firings and other actions that impact the market…"While price hikes often represent both the recouping of historical investments and funding investments in new research to develop better treatments, companies should not descend into opportunistic 'price gouging,"…Leveraging pricing data can make a big difference in helping drugmakers stay abreast of the competition, especially for companies with off-patent products…Companies can use pricing data to gauge threats from generics or biosimilars, and identify trends in therapeutic areas or even specific indications. They can borrow from rivals' price-negotiation strategies to make the best case for their own meds. "If companies are able to actively and effectively analyze the trends and see how the market reacts, they'll be in a lot better position moving forward,"…

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc, seeking to allay investor concerns about its business practices, said Friday it is cutting ties with a specialty pharmacy called Philidor Rx Services accused of helping it inflate revenue…The news failed to stem Valeant's sliding share price, which lost another 12 percent on Friday even after Bill Ackman…told investors the shares were "tremendously undervalued."…three top U.S. drug benefit managers...said they would no longer work with the pharmacy (Philidor). Express Scripts, CVS Health and OptumRx…said they made the decision after conducting audits of the pharmacy…Valeant shares have lost more than half their value since September as the company has come under attack on several fronts. U.S. prosecutors are also investigating the company over drug pricing…

..Humira's dominance as the best-selling drug in the world expected to come to an end in the coming years, look for these drugs to potentially take its spot…Last year global pharmaceutical sales topped the $1 trillion mark for the first time ever. By 2018…predicts sales will rise by another 30% to $1.3 trillion. This is a major growth opportunity for investors, but only if they understand what blockbuster drugs are on their ascent, and which ones could be on the decline…I'd keep my eye on a handful of therapies to step up as the best-selling drugs in the world by 2020.

• Harvoni (ledipasvir/sofosbuvir)
• Revlimid (lenalidomide)
• Aducanumab (investigational, BIIB037)

...Senate panel on Wednesday launched a bipartisan probe into pharmaceutical pricing, seeking documents from four drugmakers including Valeant Pharmaceuticals and Turing Pharmaceuticals, companies embroiled in controversy over price hikes on lifesaving drugs…Senate's Special Committee on Aging also requested information from Retrophin Inc and Rodelis Therapeutics…Drugmakers and their defenders say drugs are priced to help enable discovery and development of innovative new treatments…House...could authorize an investigation…

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.’s deal to acquire Rite Aid Corp. is expected to draw antitrust scrutiny not only because the company would grow to 12,700 locations, but because of what goes on behind the scenes with drug payments…Federal Trade Commission…will look closely at whether the merging of the No. 1 and No. 3 pharmacy chains in the U.S. will lead to higher prices for prescription drugs...the FTC will probably review the approximately $9.4 billion deal market-by-market instead of on a national basis, since CVS, Walgreens, Wal-Mart and Rite Aid together control only about half of the U.S. retail pharmacy market...The rest is held by independent stores, smaller chains and mail-order companies. Walgreens is likely to sell or shutter some stores...

..big worries on growth hanging over the pharmaceuticals industry are poles apart…Pressure on U.S. drug pricing is casting a shadow over the sector’s most lucrative market. But slowing emerging-market growth, notably in China, shouldn’t be ignored…Emerging-market sales for the big pharmaceuticals firms…increased by about 5.5%, year over year, in the second quarter, well below the 9% average of the prior four quarters. Macroeconomic pressures are increasing. Weaker currencies hurt sales, a factor put into clear focus by China’s devaluation of the yuan.

Late last week, Walgreens Boots Alliance filed an 8-K with the full text of its merger agreement with Rite Aid….The document containing the Agreement and Plan of Merger weighs in at a hefty 137 pages. Below, I highlight four fun facts about the deal’s timing, its termination fees, and what the companies will do to achieve antitrust approval.

1. The deal must be completed before Halloween 2016.
2. If Rite Aid backs out of the deal, then it owes as much as $370 million to Walgreens Boots Alliance.
3. WBA could owe Rite Aid a termination fee as large as $650 million.
4. To get the deal approved, WBA is willing to dump as many as 1,000 stores.

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…