Which rare disease treatments make it to patients? "The hidden kingmaker is not the drug company, it’s insurance," writes CNBC anchor Becky Quick, in setting up her conversation with RA Capital Managing Partner Peter Kolchinsky and Aradigm Health CEO Will Shrank at the network's Cures Summit last week.

Thanks to the relentless efforts of scientists at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, there will likely soon be a novel non-opioid pain medicine. How insurance plans, including Medicare, decide to cover this drug will make a world of difference to whether we get even better non-opioid options down the road — and whether this progress makes a dent in the ongoing opioid misuse crisis.

In covering how Egypt managed to eradicate hepatitis C, the New York Times rewrites a key bit of history that betrays its misunderstanding of global drug pricing. Egypt’s access to the life-saving Harvoni was a gift from Gilead, not a result of a bare knuckle negotiation. It’s important to understand and explain the increasingly vulnerable system that underpins that gift before bad policy dismantles it.

Medicare coverage of anti-obesity medicines would boost competition due to an expanded market, more investors in search of better drugs, and more competitors. This would result in a true weight-loss revolution that can save lives and dramatically drive down the cost of these drugs.