The battle between CVS and Express Scripts for ownership of Caremark has made little impact on drug-company executives. But there is an important implication for pricing in the Medicare Part D world: CVS wants to use Caremark to help it get higher payments for providing pharmacy services. But in the zero-sum game of reimbursement, any additional profits for chains will likely come from reduced prices on drugs.

Just three years after its founding, Chinese cell therapy developer IASO Bio already has two assets in clinical development and the Nanjing firm has recently attracted $60m in financing. In an exclusive interview, its R&D head told Scrip that speed and partnerships are propelling Chinese developers on a trajectory to quickly catch up with the west in the emerging cell-therapy arena.

Updated guidance from England’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence says two neurostimulation systems for treatment-resistant depression and epilepsy should only be used under special conditions. See what LivaNova’s VP of difficult-to-treat depression, Jonathan Walker, said about it here.