Top news
* China is expanding its drug bulk-buying program to most of the country, Reuters reported, citing state news agency Xinhua. The program, initially implemented last year in 11 Chinese cities, will now see 25 provinces and regions collectively seeking suppliers for 25 types of medicines, including generic versions of off-patent blockbuster drugs such as Eli Lilly and Co.'s lung cancer therapy Alimta and Novartis AG's leukemia treatment Gleevec, with the help of a tender process.
* Dechra Pharmaceuticals PLC said it has transferred the ownership of all U.K. marketing authorizations to a new Netherlands-based unit as part of preparations for a potential hard Brexit. The U.K.-based veterinary drugmaker also transferred all analytical testing methods for products manufactured in its Skipton, Yorkshire, facility to a new laboratory in Zagreb, Croatia, and to an existing site in Bladel, Netherlands.
* The U.S. Patent Office's Patent Trial and Appeal Board will review Amgen Inc.'s challenge of patents covering Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s flagship rare disease drug Soliris, surprising some analysts who had been tracking the dispute. Amgen, which is evaluating a biosimilar version of Soliris in late-stage trials, is challenging all three of Alexion's key Soliris patents and filed petitions to PTAB in February. The petitions were granted Aug. 30, meaning the PTAB will institute an inter partes review to evaluate the validity of certain patents.
On the policy front
* Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to halt or delay an October trial that charges opioid manufacturers with using aggressive marketing tactics to sell their products. Yost argued that the cases to be tried, which some experts say are a bellwether for the nationwide legal battle, only represent two of Ohio's 88 counties, and the trials should instead proceed with the matter as one unified state.
M&A and capital markets
* North Chicago, Ill.-based biotechnology company AbbVie Inc. negotiated a $1 billion increase in a credit facility provided by lenders represented by JPMorgan Chase Bank NA. The company, which is acquiring Botox-maker Allergan PLC for $63 billion, can now borrow up to $4 billion under the facility, which is unsecured, up from $3 billion previously.
Drug and product pipeline
* Physicians are more inclined to prescribe opioids to patients later in the day and when appointments are running behind schedule, STAT News reported, citing a study published in JAMA Network Open.
* The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said 215 possible cases of respiratory illness linked to e-cigarette use have been reported across 25 states.
Operational activity
* Retail giant Walmart Inc. is opening a new Walmart Health clinic in Georgia as it further expands into the primary care and mental health sector, a company spokesperson confirmed to S&P Global Market Intelligence. The Dallas, Ga.-based facility will open in September and is set to offer low, transparent pricing for medical services, the spokesperson added.
* Greece's corruption prosecutor, Eleni Touloupaki, dismissed an investigation of the country's central bank chief for allegedly receiving bribes from Novartis AG, making him the seventh of 10 top government officials to be cleared, FiercePharma reported. The allegations claim that the Swiss drugmaker paid bribes to boost the sale and prices of its products in Greece, though Novartis said it had not made any inappropriate payments to the country's officials.
* Fitch Ratings affirmed Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.'s long-term issuer default rating at BBB. The rating takes into account Thermo Fisher's favorable business profile, with significant scale, good end-market diversification and favorable product mix, Fitch said.
* London's Financial Times has a report on Alphabet Inc. unit Verily Life Sciences LLC, a 4-year-old startup that is looking to revolutionize healthcare, though questions remain on how soon it can generate returns for investors.
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