Health Care

Endo International PLC has agreed to buy Par Pharmaceutical Holdings Inc. from private-equity firm TPG for about $8 billion in cash and stock, a deal that will help boost its generics business.

The government says drug and medical device companies paid doctors and leading hospitals nearly $6.5 billion last year, from research grants to free lunches and junkets.

Get ready for another round of battles over medical coverage and payment systems between the government, health care providers, and consumers – or is it really just one continuous battle?

Anthem said it will buy rival Cigna in a deal valued at $54.2 billion, creating the largest U.S. health insurer by membership. The deal comes amid consolidation in the health-care industry following the rollout of Obamacare.

Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is in advanced talks to buy Rite Aid Corp. in a deal that would unite the nation's second- and third-largest drugstore chains.

A specialty drugmaker said it would sell for less than $1 a version of Daraprim, an anti-infective drug at the heart of allegations of "price gouging" involving Turing Pharmaceuticals after it hiked the price by over 5,000 percent to $750 a pill.

AstraZeneca said on Monday it was in talks with privately held cancer drug developer Acerta Pharma, after the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday it was looking to acquire the business for more than $5 billion.