1. Most health insurers cover opioid painkillers and very few of them require prior authorization for certain types of those drugs, according to an analysis of Medicare prescription drug data. (NYT, ProPublica)
2. A court of appeals ruled against a district judge’s decision on a lawsuit related to Pfizer’s Advil ads. The district judge had previously ruled for Johnson & Johnson in the case. (Law360)
3. New legislation in California aims to make prescription drug hikes more transparent, but some experts say transparency alone isn’t enough to address the price increases. (California Healthline)
4. Nabriva Therapeutics’ experimental antibiotic met the main goal in a late-stage study, setting the stage for FDA approval of the treatment for community-acquired bacterial pneumonia. The drug, lefamulin, was found to be as effective as another antibiotic, moxifloxacin. (Reuters)
5. Lawmakers are critical of a patent deal that Allergan made with a Native American tribe. The drugmaker said this month that it plans to transfer patents for its dry-eye medicine Restasis to the tribe in order to avoid competition. (Reuters)
