“If the hearing accomplished nothing in the way of policy, it did make one thing clear: the problem with Mylan is not just that it keeps raising prices. It’s that it has done so by, in effect, leveraging the power of the government to help its bottom line.” James Surowiecki explains how the maker of the Epipen made government its ally.

+ “One of the Abbott representatives showed up with a sheet cake box filled with doughnuts and snack cakes arranged to spell out the word OxyContin. The gambit worked. The surgeon listened to the sales talk, and every week after that, the Abbott sales personnel visited the doctor to ask him to switch at least three patients to OxyContin from other painkillers.” Stat’s David Armstrong on the secret trove that reveals a bold crusade to make OxyContin a blockbuster. (These two stories will tell you a lot about the way drugs get pushed in America.)