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Pete Buttigieg has said he wants drug companies to “thrive.” Thriving under a Buttigieg administration, however, won’t be business as usual for the pharmaceutical industry. The former mayor of South Bend, Ind., has an expansive platform to lower drug prices that relies on aggressive planks including Medicare negotiation and, if need be, stripping monopolies from companies determined to have priced their drugs abusively. (Facher, 1/5)

President Donald Trump's call during his State of the Union address for bipartisan action to lower drug prices was welcomed, but reform advocates wonder whether it will be enough to "get a bill to my desk" for a promised signature. Federal legislation to rein in costs is winding its way through Congress, but despite broad support by both parties and the President for the concept of lower prices, disagreement on the best approach, the looming national election and push back from pharmaceutical companies lowered the odds ofsweeping reform this year. (O'Donnell, 2/6)