drug prices

The goal is to rein in drug price increases while increasing the chance that patients will get the medication that works best for them. It's an idea that's getting increasing private-sector traction.

Patients switching to generic medicines and hard bargaining with drugmakers helped moderate spending on prescription drugs in 2015, according to Express Scripts, a manager of drug benefits.

The agency plans to reduce the incentive for doctors to use the most expensive drugs and link prices to patient outcomes, perhaps paying less when patients have to be admitted to a hospital.

A cystic fibrosis drug that is expected to be taken by only a few hundred people may drain almost $36 million from California's general fund over two fiscal years.

The former pharmaceutical executive appeared before a House committee hearing on drug prices, and for once tried to stay silent.

Congressional investigators have pried loose emails showing how the company's executives anticipated huge profits from a 5,000 percent drug price increase. They were blindsided by the blowback.

The drug company denies a report that it artificially-inflated revenue.