Top news
* Sanofi and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s cholesterol medicine Praluent reduced the risk of heart attacks and other major acute heart events by 15% in a more than 18,000-patient trial dubbed Odyssey.
The companies said they plan to work to make the drug more affordable to high-risk patients. A U.S. price watchdog said that based on the study, the therapies should retail for $4,500 to $8,000 a year for the high-risk set and $2,300 to $3,400 a year for other patients.
As Sanofi and Regeneron promise lower costs for Praluent, executives of the companies say it is now up to the payers to improve access to the medicine.
* Biogen Inc. is acquiring a Pfizer Inc. drug that is being studied as a treatment for cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia. The company will pay $75 million in upfront plus up to an additional $515 million tied to the achievement of certain milestones.
* AstraZeneca PLC said it now expects the highly anticipated results of its phase 3 Mystic study of Imfinzi in the second half of 2018, instead of the first half. The study is evaluating Imfinzi as single therapy and in combination with tremelimumab, in previously untreated patients with stage 4 non-small cell lung cancer.
On the policy front
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U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb previously said the legislation "gives terminal patients [a] chance to access promising treatments as part of our commitment to promote public health options." But critics have argued the legislation would cut the FDA out as a gatekeeper, leaving desperately ill patients potentially exposed to "snake oil" salesmen peddling false hopes.
* A proposal in Utah that would have moved the state toward allowing the importation of cheaper Canadian prescription drugs died March 8 after the state's legislature wrapped up its work for the year without passing the bill.
Utah is also seeking permission to become the latest state to expand Medicaid. Under a bill passed by the state's Senate on March 8, after being approved by the House, the state would seek a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to expand coverage to about 72,000 more people by letting individuals who are below 95% of the federal poverty level qualify for the anti-poverty program.
M&A and capital markets
* Cigna Corp.'s $67 billion bid to acquire Express Scripts Holding Co. includes a reverse termination fee of $2.1 billion. The fee is payable to Express Scripts if the deal fails to close due to lack of regulatory approval.
Drug and product pipeline
* After a large-scale analysis, Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Pfizer said patients on their blood thinner Eliquis had lower rates of stroke, heart attack and major bleeding in a real-world environment than patients on Johnson & Johnson's Xarelto and Boehringer Ingelheim's Pradaxa.
* Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC was unable to convince the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve its generic asthma medicine. The London-based drugmaker was looking to market a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline PLC's blockbuster asthma treatment Advair Diskus.
* Aradigm Corp. is seeking European Medicines Agency approval for its drug Linhaliq to treat non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis in patients with a chronic lung infection.
Operational activity
* A U.S. court in New York sentenced former Retrophin Inc. CEO Martin Shkreli to seven years in prison on charges of securities fraud. Prosecutors had asked for at least 15 years in prison for Shkreli, who is known for raising the price of the anti-infection drug Daraprim by 5,000% in 2015 as the CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals.
* Impax Laboratories Inc. agreed to pay $35 million to settle certain claims under an antitrust lawsuit related to Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc.'s acne medication Solodyn.
* Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. said the U.S. FDA observed five violations at its plant in the Medak district of the Telangana state of India.
* Jerrold Rosenberg, who received kickbacks from INSYS Therapeutics Inc. officials for prescribing an addictive liquid version of Fentanyl, an opioid painkiller, was sentenced to over four years in prison, Bloomberg News reported.
Other features
* The Financial Times has a feature on Ghanaian entrepreneur Gregory Rockson's startup, mPharma.
* The Financial Times also has a series on dementia, including special reports on the condition's financial burden, treatment market and alternative therapies. Meanwhile, The New York Times carries a feature on the U.K.'s National Museums Liverpool that is working to help patients with dementia.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng was up 1.93% to 31,594.33, while the Nikkei 225 gained 1.65% to 21,824.03.
In Europe as of midday, the FTSE 100 rose 0.02% to 7,225.86, and the Euronext 100 was up 0.41% to 1,034.55.
The Daily Dose is updated as of 6:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription.
