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Walgreens is kicking off its year much as it ended its last, with a big earnings plunge. First-quarter net income tumbled about 25% as the drugstore chain filled fewer prescriptions than expected and continued to work through a cost-cutting program geared to produce billions in future savings. (Murphy, 1/8)

The company sought to reassure investors, saying it would meet its adjusted full-year profit forecast of roughly flat growth, betting on cost cuts and a harsh flu season. But shares fell nearly 7% to $55, dragging down those of CVS 2%, as investors worried that the pressure on reimbursement rates from insurers was likely to hurt profits further. (Mishra and Roy, 1/8)

Walgreens, which also owns the Boots drugstore chain in Europe, is getting squeezed in U.S. negotiations with pharmacy-benefit managers, which serve insurers and other clients by choosing which medicines to cover and pushing for lower prices from drugmakers and sellers. Prices that pharmacies pay for generic drugs have been falling, but insurers’ reimbursement rates are declining more. At the same time, competition from Amazon.com Inc. and other retailers has hurt the company’s retail business. (Terlep and Prang, 1/8)

A top Republican lawmaker on Wednesday hinted that the Senate stagnation of a bipartisan drug pricing bill has a high-profile culprit: President Trump. The comments mark the second time in as many months that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, has suggested Republican Party leadership must act more forcefully on the issue of drug pricing. (Facher, 1/8)

Biotech is celebrating a platinum anniversary next week: 20 years since J.P. Morgan took over the industry’s biggest conference, an annual ritual of brokered mergers, broken promises, and breakthrough science. The J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference is more than a venue for deals. It’s a place where fierce arguments break out, where industry memes get made, and where biotech examines its warts and wrinkles. (Herper, Garde, Robbins and Feuerstein, 1/9)

Drug-price inflation, a source of profit and headaches alike for the pharmaceutical industry, is slowing down. That might be better news for investors than it seems. As has become customary, drug manufacturers raised the sticker price on many medicines as the calendar turned to 2020. Analysts at Morgan Stanley found 2,167 price increases in the first week of January, up 17% from the same period a year earlier. (Grant, 1/8)