Top news
* Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis AG said the European Commission approved the use of the company's Zessly — a biosimilar version of Johnson & Johnson's Remicade that treats diseases related to the immune system.
* The U.S. Congressional Budget Office said premiums for benchmark insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act will rise 15% in 2019, with an additional 5 million people below the age of 65 to be left uninsured by 2027. The nonpartisan agency in 2017 estimated that repealing the so-called individual mandate of ACA would result in 13 million fewer Americans with healthcare insurance by 2027.
* The U.S. has ramped up efforts to help respond to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — mobilizing epidemiologists and other public health workers, providing new funding, and testing a new medicine aimed at killing the highly contagious and deadly hemorrhage fever virus.
The U.S. National Institutes of Health is preparing to send a new experimental drug, which is being tested in a U.S. clinical trial, to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC, the agency's top disease expert said.
On the policy front
* The death toll from the Nipah virus rose to 11 from 10 in India's southern state of Kerala, with 13 confirmed cases of infection, The Economic Times of India reported.
* The U.S. Senate passed a bill 92-5 to revamp the veterans healthcare system that would combine seven Veterans Affairs Department health programs into one, The New York Times reported. The bill was passed 347-70 by the House and is expected to be signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump.
* The worldwide quality of and access to healthcare improved from 2000 to 2016 but some countries saw progress slow or stall over the period, a study published in The Lancet medical journal showed. In 2016, the five countries with the highest levels of healthcare quality and access were Iceland, Norway, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Finland and Australia tied for the fifth spot. The U.S. was ranked 29th on the list.
* China Grand Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Holdings Ltd said it would participate in CDH Investments' offer to buy Australia's Sirtex Medical Ltd. The Hong Kong-based company agreed to provide CDH Investments 49% of the equity funding for the transaction, representing about A$473.9 million.
* Bermuda-based Kiniksa Pharmaceuticals Ltd. priced its IPO of 8,477,777 class A common shares at $18 each.
* Aptinyx Inc. filed for an IPO of up to $80 million to list its shares on the Nasdaq under the symbol APTX.
* Celgene Corp. said it would buy back an additional $3 billion of its common shares, adding to its $5 billion repurchase program authorized in February. The Summit, N.J.-based drugmaker will implement $2 billion of buyback under an accelerated share repurchase agreement.
* The Israeli generic-drug maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration extended the target action date of its biologics license application for migraine drug fremanezumab.
* Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Esperion Therapeutics Inc. said its cholesterol-lowering medicine cleared a phase 3 study designed to establish its safety and effectiveness in patients at a high risk of having a heart attack.
* Montreal-based Clementia Pharmaceuticals Inc. said the phase 2 trial of palovarotene showed that patients with a certain rare bone disorder saw meaningful improvements when given the therapy.
Operational activity
* Spark Therapeutics Inc. has sold a rare pediatric disease priority review voucher to Jazz Pharmaceuticals PLC for $110 million.
* Mylan NV is pressuring its contract manufacturer Pfizer Inc. to fix manufacturing issues at the factory that makes EpiPens and has recently sent its own team of managers to help resolve the shortage issue, The Financial Times reported.
* Privately held Epigen Biosciences Inc. entered into a collaboration agreement with Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk A/S to develop treatments for diabetic and chronic kidney disease, among other conditions. Under the agreement, Epigen will receive upfront and potential milestone payments upon the achievement of specific development goals up to $200 million.
* Vifor Fresenius Medical Care Renal Pharma Ltd. and Cara Therapeutics Inc. entered a licensing deal for Korsuva, which is being investigated as a therapy for itching in certain kidney disease patients. Stamford, Conn.-based Cara Therapeutics will receive an up-front payment of $50 million and an equity investment of $20 million.
* Johnson & Johnson and its talc suppliers were ordered by a Los Angeles jury to pay $27.1 million in compensatory damages in a case over the cancer risks of its talc products, Reuters reported.
Our features
Of Mice Not Men: Cutting cancer at the root, stitching cells into new materials: In this week's column on early stage studies, researchers have found a potential new pathway for immune-based cancer drugs; scientists are building tissuelike material with synthetic cells; others are looking to treat eczema with bacteria.

Other features
* Reuters wrote about the need for more Ebola vaccines to complement Merck & Co. Inc.'s vaccine, highlighting ongoing development of therapies by Johnson & Johnson and GlaxoSmithKline PLC.
* The price hikes by drugmakers flagged by the Trump administration for slowing generic competition, including Johnson & Johnson unit Actelion Pharmaceuticals and Celgene Corp., increased Medicare and Medicaid costs by nearly $12 billion in 2016, Kaiser Health News wrote.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a mixed opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Nikkei 225 dropped 1.11% to 22,437.01, while the Hang Seng was up 0.31% to 30,760.41.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 slid 0.01% to 7,787.43, and the Euronext 100 rose 0.44% to 1,080.45.
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