Top news
* The White House dropped plans to cut $252 million in leftover funding appropriated to fight Ebola in 2015, The Hill reported. The ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has already killed 27 people, led the Trump administration to rethink the clawback.
* AbbVie Inc. said its experimental rheumatoid arthritis drug upadacitinib met the main goal of significantly reducing symptoms of the disease in a late-stage study. The phase 3 trial, called Select-Early, enrolled adult patients with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis who had not been treated with chemotherapy agent methotrexate.
* U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that although the Medicare Hospital Insurance program is on track to meet its obligations to beneficiaries well into the next decade, long-term issues such as lackluster economic growth and an aging population contributed to projected shortages for both Social Security and Medicare. A report from program trustees said Medicare would become insolvent in 2026, three years ahead of the previous forecast, the Associated Press noted.
ASCO Conference
* NewLink Genetics Corp. said indoximod failed to meet the main goal of a phase 2 study in pancreatic cancer that has spread to other parts of the body. Results from the study showed indoximod, in combination with chemotherapy, did not meet the main goal of a 30% decrease in the risk of death compared with historical controls.
* Kite Pharma Inc., a part of Gilead Sciences Inc., said its experimental T cell receptor therapy Kite-439 helped shrink the tumors of patients with solid tumor cancers caused by HPV.
* Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc. said its drug cerdulatinib showed potential in treating lymphoma — a group of blood cancers that develop in the lymphatic system, which is part of the immune system. According to interim results from an ongoing phase 2a study, the drug helped reduce the disease in 47% of 101 patients evaluated in the trial.
![]() |
* Verastem Inc. said its investigational drug duvelisib showed positive results in an extension of a previous phase 3 study among patients with a certain form of blood cancer. The original study, also called Duo, compared duvelisib with Genmab A/S and Novartis AG's Arzerra, or ofatumumab, in treating relapsed or therapy-resistant chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or CLL, and small lymphocytic lymphoma, or SLL.
Verastem also reported data from a phase 1 study testing its investigational drug defactinib in combination with Merck & Co. Inc.'s Keytruda and chemotherapy drug gemcitabine, sold as Gemzar by Eli Lilly and Co., in patients with advanced solid tumors. Of the 15 evaluable patients with various tumor types, one achieved a partial response and eight achieved stable disease, meaning the tumors stopped growing.
* Agios Pharmaceuticals Inc. said the medicines ivosidenib or enasidenib, in combination with Celgene Corp.'s Vidaza, helped shrink tumors in certain patients with isocitrate dehydrogenase mutant acute myeloid leukemia, a type of blood cancer, in a phase 1/2 study. Researchers found that 78% of 23 patients who took the experimental ivosidenib in combination with Vidaza, also known as azacitidine, had an overall response, or some reduction in the cancer.
* SELLAS Life Sciences Group Inc. said a combination of its lead product candidate galinpepimut-S and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s Opdivo slowed disease progression by a year in patients with ovarian cancer. Based on interim data from a phase 1 study, 70% of the 10 patients who were treated with at least three doses of the combination were alive for a year without their disease worsening.
On the policy front
* The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned the operators of 53 websites to stop selling illicit opioids, such as tramadol and oxycodone, or face seizure or an injunction to shut them down. FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb sent warning letters to the nine online networks — AnonShop, Eassybuyonline, Instabill ECS-Rx, Medstore.biz, One Stop Pharma, RemedyMart, RxCash.Biz, TramadolHub and XLPharmacy — that run the targeted sites to let them know that their illegal activity would "not go unchallenged."
* Using a mixture of data, officials from the FDA estimated Americans could save up to $16 billion over one year from the generic drugs approved by the agency in 2017. As of March 1, Americans had already saved as much as $11.8 billion from those lower-cost versions of brand-name medicines approved in 2017, with $8.8 billion of those savings occurring last year, the officials estimated.
* A number of managed care insurers in two states have asked regulators to approve double-digit rate increases for 2019 Affordable Care Act individual plans. Insurers in New York requested a weighted-average rate increase for 2019 ACA individual plans of 24%, while those in Washington requested an average 19.08% rate increase.
M&A and capital markets
* The Recordati family is considering selling its stake in Recordati SpA to private equity firms, including Cinven Ltd. and Bain Capital LP, Bloomberg News reported. The family, which owns about 51% of the Milan-based drugmaker, is in early stages of discussions with financial advisers and could opt for a partial sale as well, people close to the matter told Bloomberg.
* Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. entered an amended credit and guaranty agreement that will result in the full refinancing of its secured revolving and term loan credit facilities. The Canadian drugmaker also closed an offering of 8.500% senior notes due 2027 by its unit Valeant Pharmaceuticals International.
* Eli Lilly recommended that shareholders reject an unsolicited mini-tender offer from Canadian investor TRC Capital Corp. The investment manager offered to buy up to 1.5 million common shares of Eli Lilly — less than 0.14% of the Indianapolis-based pharmaceutical giant's outstanding shares — at $81 per share.
* Tricida Inc. plans to raise $150 million with the sale of its common shares in an IPO. The California-based biopharmaceutical company applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol TCDA.
* Translate Bio Inc. plans to raise up to $115 million in an IPO of its common stock. The company, which is focused on treating genetic disorders, applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol TBIO.
Drug and product pipeline
* Eli Lilly said the U.S. FDA approved its Alimta tumor-fighting medicine for a new use in a lung cancer combination treatment. Alimta now may be marketed to patients in combination with carboplatin chemotherapy and Merck & Co.'s Keytruda for the initial treatment of nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, regardless of patients' levels of a protein known as PD-L1 that is found on the surface of cancer cells.
![]() |
* Lilly's bowel disease drug mirikizumab helped patients reach significantly greater rates of clinical remission, compared to placebo, in a phase 2 trial. The study enrolled patients with moderate-to-severe ulcerative colitis who previously failed conventional or biologic therapy.
* Clovis Oncology Inc. submitted an application with the European Medicines Agency, seeking approval to expand the indication of its drug Rubraca. Specifically, the company wants its drug to be used as a so-called maintenance therapy to improve the effectiveness of chemotherapy in adult patients with certain types of ovarian cancer.
Operational activity
* California's Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc. closed an expanded collaboration with Biogen Inc., after receiving clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Massachusetts-based Biogen paid $1 billion in cash for the deal — $375 million up front and $625 million to buy 11,501,153 Ionis common shares at $54.34 each.
* Axovant Sciences Ltd. licensed the exclusive worldwide rights to develop and sell Oxford BioMedica PLC's AXO-Lenti-PD, an experimental gene therapy for Parkinson's disease for an initial payment of $30 million in cash. Oxford BioMedica is also eligible to receive over $812 million in milestone payments, plus royalties on the sales of the therapy once it is commercialized.
* In a letter addressed to the board of Allergan PLC, investors Appaloosa LP and Senator Investment Group LP suggested that the company split the chairman and CEO roles and drop its M&A strategy. In response, Allergan said the conclusion of its recently completed strategic review is to create a more focused company, and its board has been active in "board refreshment" with the addition of three new directors over the past 16 months.
* Fitch Ratings downgraded German agrochemical and pharma giant Bayer AG's long- and short-term issuer default ratings by one notch to A-/F2. The ratings action follows Bayer's announcement regarding the expected closure of its $62.5 billion acquisition of Monsanto Co., the world's top seed supplier. S&P Global Ratings and Moody's also previously downgraded Bayer's ratings in relation to the deal.
Our features
Novartis deploys digital therapies in bid for new schizophrenia medicines: Despite working on pioneering neuroscience research, the company's global head of neuroscience says the availability of an on-call digital therapist is as important to the development of new drugs as it is in the management of psychiatric disorders like schizophrenia.
HHS' $25M health security accelerator launches in 'pro-investment environment': The U.S. agency will put $25 million toward combating health security threats, with hopes of significantly more funding next year, according to Robert Kadlec, assistant secretary for preparedness and response.
Other features
* A study by researchers at the Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia showed that breast cancer patients are relieved of some stress from chemotherapy by receiving automated text messages that answer questions about their treatment, Reuters reported.
* Reuters highlighted a new analysis by Sector & Sovereign that showed so-called "copay accumulator" programs introduced by pharmacy benefit managers, which limit direct financial support by drugmakers to consumers for prescription drugs, contribute to the decline in real U.S. medicine prices.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a mixed lower opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng was up 0.53% to 31,259.10, while the Nikkei 225 rose 0.38% to 22,625.73.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 rose 0.37% to 7,716.06, and the Euronext 100 shed 0.14% to 1,061.64.
The Daily Dose has an editorial deadline of 6:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription. Links are current as of publication time, and we are not responsible if those links are unavailable later.


