Top news
* Novo Nordisk A/S said its semaglutide tablet outperformed Eli Lilly and Co.'s Jardiance in treating adults with type 2 diabetes in a phase 3 study. The trial tested the oral version of semaglutide — sold by Novo Nordisk as an injectable called Ozempic — as a once-daily tablet, among diabetic patients not properly responding to treatment with metformin, a widely used antidiabetic.
* Bayer AG said the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division granted conditional approval for its $62.5 billion acquisition of Monsanto Co. The German agrochemical giant said the U.S. approval has given the company almost all of the clearances required to close the deal, which was signed in September 2016.
On the policy front
* The U.S. National Institutes of Health has shipped 10 treatment regimens of an experimental Ebola drug it developed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is prepared to send up to 100 regimens if needed in response to the current outbreak. The drug, dubbed mAb114, is a monoclonal antibody developed by a research team at the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organization expects that the current outbreak of Ebola virus will probably result in 100 to 300 cases, and the UN agency is preparing five experimental drugs for use, officials said at a press conference in Geneva yesterday.

M&A and capital markets
* Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals Ltd. closed its IPO of 8,477,777 class A common shares at $18 apiece with gross proceeds of $152.6 million.
Drug and product pipeline
* AstraZeneca PLC said the second of two phase 3 studies of Fasenra in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, failed to meet its main goal after the drug failed to significantly reduce exacerbations — a sudden worsening of COPD symptoms such as shortness of breath, quantity and color of phlegm.
* Gilead Sciences Inc. said the China Drug Administration approved its drug Epclusa for two hepatitis C virus indications. The drug was approved to treat adults with genotype 1-6 chronic hepatitis C virus infection, while a combination of Epclusa plus ribavirin was also approved to treat hepatitis C virus infection and decompensated cirrhosis, or complications related to scarring of the liver.
* Novartis AG said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted the supplemental new drug application for the company's anemia drug, Promacta, and granted it priority review status. The Swiss drugmaker is seeking approval for Promacta in combination with a standard immunosuppressive therapy as a first-line treatment for severe aplastic anemia.
* Catalyst Pharmaceuticals Inc. said the U.S. FDA granted priority review to its drug Firdapse as a treatment of Lambert-Eaton myasthenic syndrome, a rare autoimmune disorder characterized by muscle weakness of the limbs.
* Astellas Pharma Inc. said the U.S. FDA Administration accepted the new drug application for the company's blood cancer drug, gilteritinib, and granted it priority review status. The decision is based on the ongoing phase 3 Admiral study evaluating gilteritinib for treating adults with FLT3 mutation-positive acute myeloid leukemia that has relapsed or is unresponsive to treatment.
* The U.S. FDA also granted breakthrough therapy designation to Pfizer Inc.'s Xalkori for treating patients whose non-small cell lung cancer had the MET exon 14 gene alteration and patients with a rare type of blood cancer known as anaplastic large cell lymphoma who are also anaplastic lymphoma kinase positive.
* Clovis Oncology Inc. said the European Commission provided conditional authorization for its medicine Rubraca to treat women with BRCA mutated epithelial ovarian, fallopian tube, or primary peritoneal cancer who had been treated at least twice with chemotherapy and were unable to tolerate it any further.
Operational activity
* Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. of China Ltd. and Sanofi have agreed to collaborate on "smart healthcare" for China. Under the partnership, the two companies will use big data to explore new approaches to healthcare funding and provide improved services for doctors and patients.
Other features
* Purdue Pharma, maker of the opioid painkiller OxyContin, reportedly knew about the product's abuse in the initial years of the drug's production, The New York Times writes in a feature, citing a confidential U.S. Justice Department report. The company has long claimed it was not aware that OxyContin was being abused until years after the product hit the market.
* Bloomberg News has a feature about the race among drugmakers for a drug to treat nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH, an obesity-linked fatty liver disease. Madrigal Pharmaceuticals is expected to report data from a NASH study this week.
* The Wall Street Journal has a feature about how the advent of personalized medicine has researchers opting for smaller clinical trials that involve fewer patients compared to heavily funded larger studies with thousands of participants.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, Hang Seng lost 1.40% to 30,056.79, while the Nikkei 225 fell 1.52% to 22,018.52.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 rose 0.26% to 7,652.56, and the Euronext 100 gained 0.07% to 1,053.60.
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