On Oct. 26, 2005, Alfred Caronia, a sales consultant for a little-known pharmaceutical company based in California, met with a doctor to discuss promotion of one of the firm’s drugs.

When the Republican-controlled Congress approved a landmark program in 2003 to help seniors buy prescription drugs, it slapped on an unusual restriction: The federal government was barred from negotiating cheaper prices for those medicines. Instead, the job of holding down costs was outsourced to the insurance companies delivering the subsidized new coverage, known as Medicare Part D.

Motion Industries, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Genuine Parts Company, recently entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Miller Bearings, Inc., headquartered in Orlando, Florida, in the first quarter of 2015.