Patients and payers in South Carolina will save $10.3 billion over 10 years thanks to pharmacy benefit managers, writes Edmund Pezalla, a scholar-in-residence at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy.

The HHS Office of Inspector General is investigating the FDA's enforcement of the risk evaluation and mitigation strategy program as it relates to opioid drugs.

Trump administration officials are struggling to develop an emergency declaration on the nation's opioid abuse crisis after the president said he would make the declaration next week. Administration officials say agencies were not prepared for President Donald Trump's statement and there is no consensus how the emergency declaration should be implemented.

President Donald Trump's nominee to serve as chairman of the Federal Trade Commission will be Joseph Simons, an antitrust lawyer with Washington law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, the White House said. Simons worked in the FTC's Bureau of Competition from 2001 to 2003.

Senate health committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., announced Thursday that 12 Republicans and 12 Democrats signed on to co-sponsor their bipartisan deal aimed at stabilizing the Affordable Care Act markets. Alexander expects the proposal to "become law in some fashion before the end of the year," despite a lack of commitment by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to bring it to the Senate floor for a vote.

Imprimis Pharmaceuticals will market a customizable topical formulation of cyclosporine, the active ingredient in Allergan's Restasis dry-eye drug, for $0.99 for the first month's supply with refills priced at least $79 a month.

Roche Holding's Rituxan, Herceptin and Avastin face competition from biosimilars and newer treatments, with revenue for Rituxan falling 16% in Europe last quarter on top of a 3% decline the previous quarter.

A Phase III trial of mongersen, or GED-0301, for the treatment of Crohn's disease was suspended by Celgene after an independent committee conducted an interim futility analysis and benefit-risk assessment of the drug. Celgene said it will decide what is next for the drug candidate after data from a midstage trial evaluating it for an ulcerative colitis indication is available.