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Bristol-Myers' Opdivo gets price cut in Japan; Azar seeks pricing changes in US

Top news

* Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.'s cancer drug Opdivo is getting a 23.8% price cut in the Japanese market in April following a series of price reduction rules in the country, Pharma Japan Web reported.

* U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar is requesting price transparency from healthcare providers, insurers, pharmacies and drugmakers, and warned that the U.S. government has "plenty of levers to pull that would help drive this change" if they do not comply.

On the policy front

* Arkansas became the third state in the U.S., after Kentucky and Indiana, to gain a waiver of federal rules that will permit it to require Medicaid beneficiaries who meet certain criteria to work in exchange for receiving health benefits.

* Rep. Peter Roskam, chairman of the House Ways and Means health subcommittee, said lawmakers in the House are working to remove any unnecessary regulation on hospitals and other providers.

Drug and product pipeline

* Gilead Sciences Inc.'s Biktarvy, a single-tablet treatment for HIV-1, worked as well as a current treatment regimen of abacavir, dolutegravir and lamivudine in a phase 3 study. The study was conducted in 563 adults with HIV infection who had an undetectable level of the virus in the blood and were taking the three-drug regimen, also known as ABC/DTG/3TC.

Separately, Biktarvy also worked as well as certain antiviral and antiretroviral drugs in an ongoing phase 3 study of women with HIV.

* GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Pfizer Inc.'s ViiV Healthcare Ltd. said the company's HIV drug Tivicay, when combined with antiretroviral drugs, showed high levels of viral suppression in a late-stage study of certain HIV patients who have also had tuberculosis.

* Patients taking GlaxoSmithKline's Nucala experienced improved asthma control in a clinical trial. The study was testing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved asthma treatment in patients whose disease could not be managed with Novartis AG and Roche Holding AG's Xolair.

Meanwhile, GlaxoSmithKline's vaccine Fluarix Tetra was also shown to be effective against influenza A and B when administered to children six months to 35 months of age in a late-stage clinical trial.

* Sorrento Therapeutics, Inc. said its anti-carcinoembryonic antigen chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy showed positive effects in an ongoing trial among certain patients with cancers that had spread to the liver. The therapy was well-tolerated and reduced the patients' levels of CEA, a protein that can be found in high levels in patients with certain cancers.

Operational activity

* Greece's parliament created a committee to probe 10 politicians and their roles in alleged bribes by Switzerland-based pharma giant Novartis.

* Aurobindo Pharma Ltd. said the U.S. FDA raised concerns about one of the company's sterile formulations plant in India. In a letter outlining violations, the FDA listed nine observations, citing serious deficiencies in maintaining the manufacturing quality standards.

* Heidelberg Pharma AG and Magenta Therapeutics, Inc. agreed to develop therapies that can be used to improve bone marrow transplants.

Other features

* U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto ordered former Retrophin CEO Martin Shkreli to give up $7.4 million after he was convicted of defrauding investors, Reuters reported.

* Orchard Therapeutics, a small London startup, is gearing up to sell a treatment for bubble boy disease, a rare genetic illness, Bloomberg said in a feature. The new treatment will compete with GlaxoSmithKline's $730,000 gene therapy Strimvelis, and Orchard's therapy may reach more children who have the illness.

The day ahead

Early morning futures indicators pointed to a higher opening for the U.S. market.

In Asia, the Hang Seng rose 2.09% to 30,510.73, while the Nikkei 225 climbed 1.79% to 21,417.76.

In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 gained 0.94% to 7,182.87 and the Euronext 100 rose 0.83% to 1,014.58.

The Daily Dose is updated as of 6:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription.