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The nation’s biggest pharmacy benefits manager is muscling back into the debate over soaring drug costs by promoting a less-expensive alternative to a life-saving medicine with a list price of $750 per pill.

Express Scripts Holding Co. said Tuesday that it will make a treatment for the rare infection toxoplasmosis that costs $1 per pill available on its biggest formulary, or list of covered drugs.

Daraprim, the drug that costs $750 per pill, comes from Turing Pharmaceuticals, which stirred outrage among doctors, patients and politicians when it bought rights to the pill earlier this year and then subsequently jacked up the price. The 62-year-old drug had been priced at $13.50 per pill before that.

Other drugmakers have also recently purchased the rights to old, cheap medicines that are the only treatment for serious diseases and then hiked prices. The practice has triggered government investigations, politicians’ proposals to fight “price gouging,” and heavy media scrutiny.

The Express Scripts decision means that a cheaper alternative to Daraprim created by Imprimis Pharmaceuticals will now be available to about 25 million customers through its formulary. What those customers pay will depend on their insurance coverage. That could mean prescriptions that come with a co-payment as low as $10 or $20 for the whole bottle of pills.

Express Scripts manages pharmacy benefits for customers like insurers and employers. It makes recommendations on drug coverage, and those customers can then customize the guidelines.

Leaders of the HIV Medicine Association and The Infectious Diseases Society of America said in an email that they are urging other pharmacy benefits managers and health insurers to make the Imprimis option available as well. They noted that care providers have faced “significant challenges” in obtaining the treatment for patients since Turing raised the price in August.

A Turing Pharmaceuticals representative did not immediately return a call Tuesday morning from The Associated Press seeking comment on the Express Scripts decision.

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic infection that mainly threatens people with weak immune systems, such as HIV and organ transplant patients, and pregnant women, because it can kill their baby. Express Scripts says only a few hundred of its customers were treated last year for the infection, but the company is always looking to remove wasteful spending from the health care system.

“We believe we now have a safe, high-quality and extremely cost-effective way to provide access to a Daraprim alternative,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Steve Miller said in a statement from the company.

Imprimis, a 3 ½-year-old drug-compounding firm based in San Diego, had said in October that it will supply capsules containing the ingredients pyrimethamine and leucovorin as an alternative to Daraprim.

Mass-produced drugs must be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Imprimis, like other compounding pharmacies, instead makes up individual prescriptions using drug ingredients already approved. In this case, that involves combining pyrimethamine, Daraprim’s active ingredient, with leucovorin to limit pyrimethamine’s side effects.

Express Scripts and Imprimis said Tuesday that prescriptions for the Imprimis compound will be processed starting later this week.

Express Scripts, which manages prescription drug benefits for about 85 million people, has long been a vocal critic of rising drug prices.

Last year, the St. Louis company threw its weight into the debate over new hepatitis C drugs that cost nearly $100,000 for a course of treatment by choosing AbbVie Inc.’s Viekira Pak as its preferred treatment for patients with the most common form of the condition over alternatives Sovaldi and Harvoni. That exclusive deal brought Express Scripts a huge price discount.

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The Paris climate talks, which began Monday and bring together more than 150 world leaders, are aimed at finding solutions to curb the rising levels of pollution, cut dependency on fossil fuel, and halt the ensuing rise in temperatures. 

The talks are facing protests on multiple fronts. One vibrant series comes from the London-based anti-advertising campaign Brandalism, which has denounced the “corporate takeover of the COP21 climate talks.”

Brandalism is displaying its displeasure with the talks by inundating the French capital with more than 600 “fake” advertisements that were installed in advertising spaces all over the city.

The campaign claims it “has worked with Parisians to insert unauthorized artworks” across the city and that the fake ads were placed in spaces owned by JC Decaux, the biggest outdoor advertising company in the world. The artworks were created by over 80 artists from 19 countries. 

Brandalism’s Joe Elan explained in a statement that the campaign was targeting companies sponsoring the talks that it believed were actually “part of the problem.”

“By sponsoring the climate talks, major polluters such as Air France and GDF-Suez-Engie can promote themselves as part of the solution – when actually they are part of the problem,” he said. 

The fake advertisements parody different companies and sponsors, such as Volkswagen and Air France, and also feature different heads of state.

One of the artists taking part said in a statement, “We are taking their spaces back because we want to challenge the role advertising plays in promoting unsustainable consumerism.”

The group also takes issue with the state of emergency the French government installed after terrorist attacks in Paris last month, which left 130 people dead. The state of emergency cracked down on big civil mobilizations, something the group sees as an attempt to silence climate activists. 

Over the weekend, protesters clashed with police in Paris, where people had gathered despite the ban to protest. Some posters also invited people to take part in different protests.

“We call on people to take to the streets during the COP21 to confront the fossil fuel industry. We cannot leave the climate talks in the hands of politicians and corporate lobbyists who created this mess in the first place,” Brandalism’s Bill Posters said in a statement. 

SEE ALSO: Obama invokes MLK to urge action on climate change: ‘There is such a thing as being too late’

Artist Millo designed this poster, which shows two doctors checking the earth’s temperature.

Artist Eubé // KC designed this one about a different state of emergency.

Artist Bill Posters is behind this piece showing a slightly altered picture of President Obama swimming in the sea with one of his daughters.

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In just a matter of years, the American “energy renaissance” has made the region a leader in global oil.

Joseph P. Quinlan, the chief market strategist at US Trust, attributes the US’s energy boom to three factors:

One, pro-market policies at the state and local level. Two, revolutionary technologies. And three, “good old American entrepreneurship/risk-taking.”

“By combining all three, the United States has upended the global energy markets,” he wrote in a recent note to clients. “However, and unfortunately, the boom has also turned a virtue (soaring oil/gas production and the attendant positive effects) into a vice (oversupply and ensuing negative knock-on effects).”

Oil prices have been depressed since crashing in the second half of 2014, and that’s had huge implications for the industry. With that in mind, US Trust put together the following 10 charts that show exactly where American energy is right now — and what it might mean for the future.

The number of active rigs drilling for oil keeps dropping, but production is still going strong.

Production peaked around July at 9.6 million bpd, and is currently around 9.2 million bpd. Much of this has gone into storage.

“The declining rig count, coupled with a sharp drop in oil-related infrastructure among major oil producers, portends slowing or declining US oil production over the medium term, and a bottoming out of oil prices over the next year,” writes Quinlan. “Supply cutbacks in the US and overseas, coupled with stronger global growth in 2016, could boost world oil prices back into the range of $50-65 per barrel over the next twelve months.”

Source: US Trust

A few “super” oil fields emerged in the shale basins in the last few years.

“Super” oil fields, or those that produce over 1 million barrels a day, are pretty rare around the world. But over the last two years, two “new” ones emerged in the US: the Eagle Ford in South Texas and the Bakken in North Dakota and Montana.

Although the production of both super oil fields has declined in the past few years, they still “lie at the core of America’s energy revolution,” writes Quinlan.

Source: US Trust

US oil production skyrocketed in the years after the financial crisis.

By 2014, daily oil production topped 9 million barrels a day.

Moreover, production increased by 2.2 million bpd in the past two years — which, to put it in perspective, is greater than the entire production of Brazil.

Source: US Trust

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HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Thousands of people lined Harare’s roads and welcomed Chinese president Xi Jinping, whose visit has raised hopes that China will help stabilize Zimbabwe’s faltering economy.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe greeted Xi at the airport, where some immigration signs are in Chinese, indicating China’s importance to this southern African country.

Xi inspected a guard of honor at the airport but did not speak on his arrival. He is expected to address a joint press conference with Mugabe after signing economic deals later on Tuesday.

China is Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign investor, pumping in $600 million in 2013, according to Chinese ambassador to Harare Huang Ping. Mugabe and Xi are expected to sign several “mega deals,” said Ping.

Chinese nationals, Zimbabwean schoolchildren and people wearing shirts of Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party held Zimbabwe and Chinese flags for up to 10 kilometers (6 miles) along the road to Harare International Airport. Others wore T-shirts praising the friendship between Zimbabwe and China.

Xi is in Zimbabwe until Wednesday before heading to South Africa for a forum on cooperation between Africa and China as he works to strengthen ties with this continent that is a key supplier to Beijing of oil, minerals, tobacco and cotton.

China’s growth in Africa has slowed over the past two years as the weakening Chinese economy demands fewer of Africa’s resources, although overall trade topped $200 billion last year.

Mugabe, whose country is struggling with mass company closures, high unemployment, low liquidity and foreign direct investment and food shortages, has said he and the Chinese leader will discuss “some of the projects and programs we want China to assist us in undertaking.”

China’s imports from Zimbabwe include gold, diamonds, platinum, tobacco, nickel and chrome. China has invested in construction, energy and telecommunications projects in Zimbabwe.

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PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — The South African prison cell where Oscar Pistorius stayed for a year for killing girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp is furnished with a single mattress on a metal frame, a basin, a small cabinet and a barred window whose view is blocked by a metal screen on the outside.

Journalists got a look Tuesday at the former cell of the double-amputee Olympian during a tour of a maximum security prison in Pretoria.

Pistorius, 29, was convicted of manslaughter for shooting Steenkamp on Valentine’s Day 2013. He was released from jail on Oct. 19 after serving one year of a 5-year sentence and is under house arrest. An appeals court is preparing to rule on whether Pistorius should be convicted of the more serious charge of murder and sent back to prison.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A Smithsonian museum is launching a new initiative exploring the ways giving is woven into American life, whether it’s a multimillion dollar school endowment, nights spent battling blazes by a volunteer firefighter or other contributions of time and money.

The National Museum of American History’s announcement of a plan to collect, research and exhibit artifacts documenting the nation’s legacy of philanthropy coincides with Giving Tuesday, a movement encouraging philanthropy in a season often associated with consumerism.

“Our goal is to help them understand what it means to be American, who we are as a people, and try to characterize what makes us distinctive,” said Associate Director for Curatorial Affairs David Allison.

Allison said philanthropy is one element of that and the exploration seems a natural fit for an institution created by the philanthropy of James Smithson. The British citizen left his estate to his nephew, but since the nephew died without an heir, the half million dollar estate went to the U.S. for the founding of “an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge,” according to the Smithsonian’s website.

“The Smithsonian only exists because of philanthropy,” Allison said, noting that Smithson’s legacy of giving has been carried on by many others. “That’s something that we as an institution should pay more attention to.”

A grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and a gift from David M. Rubenstein fund the Smithsonian’s Philanthropy Initiative, with an annual symposium, display space and the endowment of a curatorial position, but neither wanted to disclose the amounts contributed.

The idea for the initiative grew out of the museum delving into the history of business in America for its recently opened innovation wing, Allison said.

“The role of philanthropy kept coming up,” he said, but there wasn’t space to include it then. “It made us think that we should do more on that topic.”

Just as styles of giving have shifted from coins in a church collection plate to 10Ks and crowdfunding campaigns, so has the way museums engage their audiences, Allison said. This initiative embraces collaboration, putting out a call for artifacts of philanthropy, such as thermometers that organizations use to track progress toward a fundraising goal and inviting the public to share online their stories and photos about giving.

“The Smithsonian is really moving to a different relationship with its audience,” he said. It’s no longer a situation where the museum knows everything and tells you what you need to know, “those days are gone,” he said. New ways of engaging the public, such as social media, create a larger conversation about the topic being explored.

The museum will open a long-term exhibition in late November 2016. In the meantime, “Giving in America” will give a preview of ways giving has shaped civic culture both in the Gilded Age and the present day. Artifacts gathered for the initiative include a nurse’s cap from a Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing student circa 1945 and letters from signers of the Giving Pledge, a commitment by some of the world’s richest people to dedicate a majority of their wealth to philanthropy.

Items being donated on Tuesday include a firefighter’s boot used to collect money from motorists for the “Fill the Boot” campaign for muscular dystrophy and T-shirts, signs and a banner from the #BMoreGivesMore 2013 campaign in Baltimore.

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BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s counter-terrorism coordinator believes the Islamic State group is resorting to attacks abroad because it is hurting from coalition airstrikes.

Apart from the Nov. 13 massacres in Paris, the group has also launched attacks in Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt’s Sinai in recent weeks and De Kerchove says that it appears to be changing strategy.

Gilles De Kerchove told EU lawmakers on Tuesday that “the pressure of the coalition airstrikes … in Raqqa and around Raqqa maybe forced them to seek successes abroad.”

He said: “Is this a sign of weakness? I believe so.”

The city of Raqqa in northern Syria is the group’s headquarters and a focus of an air campaign by Russia and a U.S.-led coalition including France.

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The big carmakers are releasing their numbers on US auto sales throughout Tuesday.

The estimate is that domestic vehicle sales grew at an annualized pace of 18.10 million, according to Bloomberg.

Unless December’s numbers come in really bad, US auto sales are set for a record year. The previous record, set in 2000, was 17.4 million, and the pace of sales has crossed 18 million since then although we’ve never finished a year at that level. 

Business Insider’s Matt DeBord broke down the four main reasons why auto sales have been so strong in 2015.

In short, lots of people have lots of old cars (11 years old on average), gas is cheap, it’s easier to access credit, and there are plenty of jobs. 

“In recent years, we have seen automakers make greater use of Black Friday temporary deals to drive auto sales and we expect this trend to continue this year,” RBC Capital’s Joseph Spak said in a client preview. “The focus will be on VW sales following the “dieselgate” crisis, which we expect will be pressured.”

This post will be updated as the data roll in, refresh it for updates.

SEE ALSO: Automakers are about to do something in the US that’s never happened before

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NOW WATCH: We drove the fastest Tesla you can buy

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HAVANA (AP) — The Cuban government says it is reimposing a hated travel permit requirement on many doctors, requiring them to get permission to leave the country in an attempt to counter a brain drain that it publicly blames on the United States.

It is the first major reverse in Cuba’s policy of allowing unrestricted travel for its citizens, put in place in 2012 as President Raul Castro allowed new freedoms as part of a broad set of social and economic reforms.

The government announced on the front page of state media Tuesday that doctors in specialties that have been drained by large-scale emigration in recent years will now be required to get permission from Health Ministry officials in order to leave the country.

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MUNCIE, Ind. (AP) — Comedian and Ball State University graduate David Letterman is donating memorabilia from his career in television to his alma mater.

Ball State president Paul Ferguson made the announcement Monday night before Letterman spoke to a sold-out crowd at Emens Auditorium with filmmakers Spike Jonze and Bennett Miller. Ferguson said Letterman plans to donate Emmy Awards, a talk-show set, props and other items to create “The David Letterman Experience” at the Muncie school.

Letterman graduated from Ball State in 1969 and has since returned to the school for a lecture series with other celebrities.

He shared the stage at Emens Auditorium with Oprah Winfrey in 2012, Rachel Maddow in 2011 and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone in 2010.

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