The FDA completed a draft guidance that would allow drugmakers to avoid paying rebates to pharmacy benefit managers and payers, according to BioCentury.

The FDA approved Oct. 8 the first treatment for a rare skin disease that causes pain when exposed to sunlight.

A small, private drugmaker in Massachusetts wants to bring a controversial arthritis drug back on the market after it was recalled in 2004 for leading to roughly 60,000 deaths, according to STAT. 

In recent years, major drugmakers like Johnson & Johnson and AbbVie have starkly increased donations to nonprofits with the power to influence legislation in favor of the pharmaceutical industry, according to Bloomberg Government.

A Philadelphia jury ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $8 billion in punitive damages in a case accusing the drugmaker of downplaying the risks associated with its antipsychotic drug, Risperdal, according to The New York Times.

Puma Biotechnology raised the price of its breast cancer drug, Nerlynx, by 20 percent this year, according to STAT.

GlaxoSmithKline is recalling prescription-only versions of its heartburn medicine Zantac globally after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found "unacceptable" levels of a potential carcinogen in the drug, according to Channel News Asia.

A consumer advocacy group filed a citizen's petition Oct. 8 asking the FDA to immediately withdraw Makena, a drug designed to prevent premature births, after it failed a confirmatory study.

MinuteClinic, CVS Health's retail medical clinic, launched telehealth programs in three more states.

An AIDS advocacy group is calling on Gilead to significantly lower the price of Descovy, its newest HIV-prevention drug approved Oct. 3.