Top news
* The U.K.'s price watchdog, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, published draft guidance recommending the use of Pfizer Inc.'s Xalkori through the Cancer Drugs Fund for treating ROS1-positive advanced non-small cell lung cancer. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently granted breakthrough designation to Xalkori in two additional uses.
Meanwhile, the U.S. FDA also expanded the approved usage of Pfizer's arthritis drug Xeljanz, making it the first oral therapy for treating moderately to severely ulcerative colitis, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease affecting the colon, or large intestine.
* U.S. President Donald Trump said he has a commitment from some of the nation's largest drugmakers to voluntarily reduce the prices of their medicines and that the administration plans to give more details in a couple of weeks.
The president said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told him a day earlier that "we're seeing a big, tremendous improvement" in drug prices already because of the administration's plan, which was unveiled earlier this month, to lower the costs of Americans' prescription medicines.
On the policy front
* President Trump designated Peter O'Rourke, chief of staff of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to serve as acting head of the agency while the president's nominee awaits confirmation from the Senate, the Associated Press reported. Trump picked Acting Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie to permanently lead the agency.
* The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is considering resuming a program, paused in April 2017, that required home health agencies in five states to get prior authorization to provide services before being reimbursed by Medicare in order to cut down on fraud in the program for older Americans.
* India's Central Drug Standard Control Organization is planning to finalize new rules that aim to shorten the review time for clinical trials and boost clinical research in the Asian country, Reuters reported.
M&A and capital markets
* Allergan PLC is selling its women's health and infectious disease businesses after completing a strategic review, CNBC reported, citing sources familiar with the matter. The Botox maker was reportedly weighing the sale of its women's health unit in April following confirmation that the company was undergoing a strategic review process.
* German seed seller KWS Saat SE is abandoning its bid to acquire Bayer AG's vegetable seed business, Reuters reported. KWS, which had renewed the bid earlier this week, said it accepts a decision by European Commission that BASF SE is the most suitable buyer for the business.
* Denali Therapeutics Inc. agreed to exercise an option to buy the U.K.-based F-star Gamma Ltd. for $24 million, plus any net cash held by the privately held company.
Drug and product pipeline
* The U.S. FDA granted priority review status to Eisai Co. Ltd.'s antiepileptic drug Fycompa. The Japanese drugmaker filed a supplemental new drug application to expand the use of the therapy to include treating children ages two to 12 with partial onset seizures or primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures.
* Sage Therapeutics Inc. said the U.S. FDA granted priority review to its new drug application for brexanolone as a treatment for postpartum depression, a major depressive disorder associated with childbirth.
* Elite Pharmaceuticals Inc. filed an abbreviated new drug application with the U.S. FDA for a generic version of an extended-release central nervous system stimulant.
* The U.S. FDA placed a clinical hold on CRISPR Therapeutics AG and Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s investigational new drug application for CTX001 to treat sickle cell disease. The hold will remain until the resolution of certain questions that will be provided by the agency as part of its review of the application.
* Gilead Sciences Inc. and Galapagos NV's potential psoriatic arthritis treatment filgotinib showed an improvement in the signs and symptoms of the disease in a phase 2 trial.
Operational activity
* Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson and the Minnesota Board of Pharmacy sued Insys Therapeutics Inc. over the alleged illegal marketing of its opioid painkiller Subsys. The Chandler, Ariz.-based company is also alleged to have paid kickbacks to doctors in theh form of "speaker fees" to incentivize them to prescribe Subsys.
* Braeburn Pharmaceuticals Inc. is terminating a 2012 license agreement that granted it the rights to market Titan Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s opioid addiction treatment Probuphine in the U.S. and Canada. Titan will regain all rights to the commercialization and clinical development of Probuphine in the U.S. and Canada.
Our features
Convenience, cost savings drive hospitals' interest in telehealth: More hospitals and health systems are allowing patients to see a doctor from their homes instead of going to overcrowded emergency rooms with conditions such as the flu — a practice known as telehealth.

Georgia hospitals experiment with telemedicine to ease critical care shortage: A group of hospitals in the U.S. state of Georgia is using video conferencing and remote monitoring of vital signs to treat intensive care patients — all the way from Australia.
Other features
* Reuters has a feature about the World Health Organization's plans to assess the quality of biosimilars — copies of drugs sold by other companies — in order to correct a lopsided market caused by uneven regulation.
* The American Cancer Society recommends getting screening tests for colon and rectal cancers as early as 45 years old instead of 50, CNBC writes in a feature.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng was up 1.37% to 30,468.56, while the Nikkei 225 rose 0.41% to 22,109.22.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 rose 0.13% to 7,699.53, and the Euronext 100 gained 0.27% to 1,056.77.
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