Sunday, the U.S. Senate passed the landmark drug pricing bill. While the pharmaceutical industry favors the bill’s Medicare out-of-pocket cap for patients, the industry has also put up a major fight against Medicare pricing negotiations, in fact deeming them "price controls." The bill’s passage marked a loss for the industry, but analysts aren’t sure how much the legislation will actually cut drug prices. 
Pfizer is riding high on its COVID-19 windfall. And with all that money in the bank, the Big Pharma has been busy scouring the biopharma landscape for new assets and companies to bring into its fold. The latest in its buying spree is a $5.4 billion acquisition of Global Blood Therapeutics and its marketed sickle cell disease drug.
To learn more about the topics in this episode: 

Lilly, AZ, AbbVie and J&J face big potential hit from Medicare pricing bill: analysts
'Litany of false promises': Pharma bemoans drug pricing bill as patient advocates celebrate
VC firms, biotechs push back on drug pricing bill that would render small molecule drugs 'uninvestable' 
Pfizer, riding high on COVID windfall, strikes $5.4B buyout of Global Blood Therapeutics
In historic FDA nod, AstraZeneca, Daiichi’s Enhertu snags ultrafast approval in broad HER2-low breast cancer use 
Struggling Novavax halves its sales forecast as COVID shot launch sputters
Amid COVID vaccine demand slump, Moderna recorded $800M-plus in charges for unused inventory and more
With COVID vaccine demand in free fall, BioNTech's revenue plummets nearly 40% in second quarter 
GSK bets $1.3B on Mersana’s preclinical ADC and chance to expand portfolio beyond Blenrep 
Merck is back in Alzheimer's saddle with $1B+ Cerevance pact, years after dropping the BACE
BMS bites at GentiBio’s next-gen regulatory T cells, betting $1.9B on 3 programs
In warranty program, Pfizer will refund up to $50K for patients who discontinue use of rare disease drug 
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