After years of relentlessly attacking one another, leaders of the pharmaceutical industry and the health insurance lobby are considering — warily — cooperating to shape any federal legislation that emerges from the public outrage at the high cost of medications.
The two powerful lobbies remain fundamentally at odds in their agendas: In the most basic terms, drug makers want to make as much money as they can for their medicines, and insurance companies want to pay as little as possible.
But both lobbies have new leaders, who recently met for breakfast at a French bistro in what could turn out to be a tentative step toward an alliance. And both are under a lot of pressure from Congress and the Obama administration to figure out a unified response to high drug prices.
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