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Bristol-Myers profit up; Pfizer unit attracts bids; Azar targets drug costs

Top news

* Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. said fourth-quarter 2017 earnings rose 8% year over year on a per share basis, with a 4% increase in revenue driven by cancer drug Opdivo and blood thinner Eliquis. The company booked 68 cents per share in fourth-quarter 2017 EPS, an increase from 63 cents in the corresponding period of 2016. Quarterly revenues of $5.45 billion were an increase from $5.24 billion in 2016.

* U.K.-based companies GlaxoSmithKline plc and Reckitt Benckiser Group plc submitted nonbinding bids for Pfizer Inc.'s consumer health business, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The consumer health unit, which produces pain drug Advil among other household names, could be sold for $15 billion to $20 billion.

* U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said he and President Donald Trump are working on an aggressive agenda focused on lowering list prices and costs to the system from prescription drugs.

Last Friday, Azar gave Indiana permission to begin requiring Medicaid patients to work or engage in a similar activity like volunteering in order to qualify for health coverage. Indiana is the second state allowed to impose a work requirement.

* The number of hospitalizations of Americans with the flu has reached the highest rates the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has ever recorded, Anne Schuchat, acting director of the agency, said in a media briefing. Schuchat also said there had been an additional 16 reports of children dying from the flu, bringing the total number of influenza-related pediatric deaths in the U.S. to 53.

M&A and capital markets

* Bayer AG offered concessions to the European Commission to resolve antitrust concerns regarding its $63.5 billion takeover of U.S.-based Monsanto Co., Reuters reported. The agency will also extend its investigation of the deal further to April 5.

* Nektar Therapeutics is weighing options, including a potential sale of the company, Bloomberg News reported, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The $15 billion San Francisco-based company does not have any drugs on the market but is developing medicine that can improve the effectiveness of a class of cancer treatments called checkpoint inhibitors, such as Bristol-Myers Squibb's Opdivo.

* Nestlé SA pulled out of the race to buy Merck KGaA's consumer health unit, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The Swiss company made an offer for the unit in November 2017 and was short-listed to submit its final bid this year but could not reach an agreement with Germany's Merck on price, the news outlet reported.

* U.K.-based Acacia Pharma Group Ltd is planning an initial global offering of its ordinary shares on Euronext Brussels.

* Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co. Ltd. unit Shanghai Henlius Biotech Inc. is considering an IPO in Hong Kong that could raise at least $500 million, Bloomberg News reported, citing anonymous sources.

Drug and product pipeline

* Bristol-Myers Squibb said a combination of its cancer treatments Opdivo and Yervoy in a first-line setting was better at containing the spread of tumor in non-small cell lung cancer patients when compared to chemotherapy.

* Shield Therapeutics plc's Feraccru missed its main goal in a phase 3 trial for treating iron deficiency anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease. After 16 weeks, the drug was unable to demonstrate a statistical difference in change of hemoglobin from baseline when compared to placebo.

Operational activity

* Lower corporate tax rates and the weaker dollar are motivating Denmark's Novo Nordisk A/S to invest and acquire assets in the U.S., the company's CFO Jesper Brandgaard said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

* AstraZeneca PLC CEO Pascal Soriot predicted that the company's sales in China will grow by at least 20% in 2018, boosted by the introduction of five fully reimbursed new drugs in the country. Soriot also announced a joint venture with China's Alibaba and Tencent intended to capture data and artificial intelligence initially to help with diabetes and asthma patients.

* While some of Merck & Co. Inc.'s medicines missed their sales mark in 2017, its cancer therapy Keytruda remains a focal point of both revenue and research efforts, according to executive comments on the company's fourth-quarter 2017 earnings call.

* Allergan plc plans to hire 200 additional staff in China in 2018 and will be eyeing potential acquisitions in the country, Reuters reported, citing Marc Princen, executive vice president in charge of international operations. The Dublin-based company is close to completing a restructuring that will result in cutting more than 5% of its workforce, or more than 1,000 jobs.

* Shionogi & Co. Ltd.'s profit attributable to owners in the nine months ended Dec. 31, 2017, came in at ¥79.73 billion, up 18% from ¥67.54 billion in the year-ago period. Diluted EPS for the April-December 2017 period was ¥246.30, up from ¥205.20 in the same period in 2016.

* Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp. booked profit attributable to owners of the company of ¥52.11 billion in the nine-month period ending Dec. 31, 2017, down from ¥60.20 billion in the year-ago period. Consolidated revenue for the nine-month period was ¥339.31 billion, up from ¥324.35 billion in the same period in the previous year.

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Hang Seng was down 1.09% to 32245.22. The Nikkei 225 slid 2.55% to 22,682.08.

In Europe as of midday, the FTSE 100 declined 1.19% to 7,354.66, and the Euronext 100 was down 1.27 % to 1,030.28.

The Daily Dose is updated as of 6:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription.