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1. Government and public pressure related to price increases may be finally taking its toll on drugmakers. Share prices of some drugmakers, pharmacy benefit managers, and distributors fell sharply on Friday as a number of pharma companies said that they would moderate price increases on their products going forward. (WSJ)
2. AstraZeneca executive Dr. Mene Pangalos said that drugmakers will start to leave the U.K. unless the government and the National Health Service start to pay for breakthrough drugs. “It’s depressing and demoralising that our latest drugs that are discovered here are not being used in the UK,” he said. (The Telegraph)
3. Merck KGAA is mulling the sale of its biosimilar unit. That unit includes an experimental drug in trials that could compete with AbbVie’s Humira. (Reuters)
4. An October tracking poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that voters care more about issues related to prescription drug prices and out-of-pocket spending than proposals to repeal requirements for the Affordable Care Act. (Kaiser Health News)
5. Astellas Pharma will acquire Ganymed Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth up $1.4 billion. Ganymed has a portfolio of experimental cancer drugs. (Chicago Tribune)
