Top news
* A federal district judge in Texas who said the entire Affordable Care Act — former President Barack Obama's signature legislative achievement — was unconstitutional ruled in a new opinion that the law will remain in place while an appeal on his earlier decision is pursued.
* An American healthcare worker who was providing medical assistance in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and may have been exposed to the Ebola virus was flown to the U.S. on Dec. 29 for monitoring at a Nebraska hospital.
On the policy front
* A federal district judge ruled that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not have the authority to make the 2017 reduction to reimbursement rates for Medicare's 340B drug pricing program.
M&A and capital markets
* Stealth BioTherapeutics Inc. is planning an IPO of its American depositary shares on Nasdaq to raise up to $86.3 million. In July, Stealth had applied to list its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to raise up to $200 million.
* Immunotherapy company TCR2 Therapeutics Inc., formerly known as TCR2 Inc., plans to sell up to $100 million of its common shares in an IPO. The Cambridge, Mass.-based developer of T cell therapies for different types of cancer has applied to list its common stock on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol TCRR.
Drug and product pipeline
* Emergent BioSolutions Inc. is seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the emergency use of its experimental anthrax vaccine NuThrax.
Other features
* A study published in JAMA Internal Medicine said doctors continue to prescribe supplemental testosterone to men despite warnings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that it may raise the risk of stroke and heart attack, Reuters reported.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.
Most Asian markets were closed ahead of the New Year's holiday.
In Europe as of midday, FTSE 100 was down 0.14% to 6,724.79 and Euronext 100 climbed 0.18% to 914.56.
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.
S&P Global Market Intelligence will not publish the Healthcare Daily Dose on Jan. 1, 2019, and will resume publication Jan. 2, 2019.
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