The pharmaceutical industry clinched a big — and expensive — victory in California, where voters rebuffed a ballot measure seeking to curb prescription drug prices paid by the state for millions of retirees, prisoners and poor people.

Health policy experts said the outcome won’t be the last word on the growing anger over rising drug costs.

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“When things are hard to figure out, it’s easy for people to pass on them,” said Michelle Mello, a law professor at Stanford University who specializes in health policy.