Top news
* An Oklahoma judge ruled that Johnson & Johnson must pay about $572.1 million in a suit brought by the state that accused the company of engaging in aggressive marketing of its painkillers, which contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic. Oklahoma attorneys had asked that the company pay $17.5 billion over the course of 30 years to assist the state in addressing addiction and prevention.
The New Brunswick, N.J.-based pharmaceutical giant said it would appeal the decision.
* Amgen Inc. CEO Bob Bradway said the company's acquisition of Celgene Corp.'s psoriasis drug Otezla was a way to take advantage of the recent biopharma megadeal frenzy. Celgene's divestiture of the drug — meant to help allay certain concerns raised by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in regards to its acquisition by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. — opens a window for Amgen to bolster its own line of anti-inflammatory drugs.
* Non-profit drug manufacturer Civica Rx is not worried about the competition. In fact, the company is hoping other organizations will adopt its disruptive model of trying to fix the problem of drug shortages, when Americans are left without the medicines they need, S&P Global Market Intelligence reports.
* A global group of biotech companies issued a declaration on human gene editing, saying the DNA must not be changed in a way that passes genetic alterations to future generations, The Financial Times reported.
* China said the U.S. can do more to reduce demand for fentanyl — a drug 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine — and should not shift the blame of the opioid crisis onto others, Reuters reported. A U.S. official had earlier said that certain Chinese "kingpins" were running an international drug trafficking operation that directly contributed to the U.S. opioid crisis.
* The U.S. recorded 12 new cases of measles in the week between Aug. 15-22, taking the total number of cases for the year to 1,215 spread across 30 states, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. This is the highest number of cases reported in the country since 1992 and since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.
* China relaxed regulations on imports of unapproved medicines via the revised drug administration law, which takes effect Dec. 1. With the revision, importing a small amount of these drugs could be subject to a lesser charge than before, or could even be exempt from penalty.
* The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said it would lay down new guidelines which would allow more growers to produce cannabis for scientific and medical research, a sign that the Trump government's hostility towards the plant may be waning, Reuters reported.
M&A and capital markets
* Certain pockets of China's private hospitals are attracting investor attention — and money — but the country's hospital sector as a whole continues to remain under the investment radar. In particular, specialty hospitals are likely to continue to pull in investments, according to industry experts.
* Pharmaron Beijing Co. Ltd. filed for an IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. The life sciences company, which generated first half 2019 revenues of about 1.64 billion Chinese yuan, is already listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.
* Zogenix Inc. is acquiring rare disease therapy developer Modis Therapeutics Inc. for an upfront payment of $250 million. The deal gives Zogenix access to Modis' lead product candidate MT1621 to treat a rare genetic disease characterized by a deficiency in the Thymidine Kinase 2, or TK2d, protein in the body.
* Agilent Technologies Inc. closed the approximately $1.17 billion acquisition of fellow life sciences tools maker BioTek Instruments Inc. to expand its cell analysis capabilities, capitalizing on the growing field of immuno-oncology and immunotherapy.
Drug and product pipeline
* Eli Lilly and Co. said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted additional approval to Taltz injection, this time to treat adults with active ankylosing spondylitis — a type of arthritis that affects the pelvic joints and spine.
* A new draft guidance from the U.S. FDA is asking drug developers to include men in clinical trials of breast cancer medicines. The draft guidance, published Aug. 26, noted that the FDA will expect drug developers to provide scientific rationale when prospective clinical trials for breast cancer exclude male patients and that "low expected accrual rates of male patients with breast cancer" will not be a sufficient reason.
* The Medicines Co.'s drug inclisiran reduced cholesterol in patients who received the medicine every six months, meeting the main goals of a phase 3 trial dubbed Orion-11.
Operational activity
* FibroGen Inc. said Thomas Neff, its chairman and CEO, has died. The company will appoint board member James Schoeneck to be its CEO on an interim basis.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng fell 0.06% to 25,664.07, and the Nikkei 225 rose 0.96% to 20,456.08.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 was down 0.19% to 7,081.68, and the Euronext 100 was up 0.20% to 1,039.93.
Click here to read about today's financial markets, setting out the factors driving stocks, bonds and currencies around the world ahead of the New York open.
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