Top news
* Johnson & Johnson said Platinum Equity, a private investment firm, offered to buy the New Jersey-based drugmaker's blood glucose monitoring business, LifeScan Inc., for about $2.1 billion.
* Denmark-based drugmaker H. Lundbeck A/S agreed to acquire Prexton Therapeutics SA for €100 million up front as well as €805 million upon the attainment of development and sales milestones. With the acquisition, Lundbeck gains the global rights to foliglurax, a drug in development to treat Parkinson's disease.
* House Republican leaders have set a March 19 hearing for the right-to-try legislation at the Rules Committee, hoping they could advance the bill at the second try. The House previously rejected the bill, which aims to give critically ill patients greater access to experimental drugs, in a 259-140 vote.
The President Donald Trump-backed bill has been subject to criticism, including from Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who argued that the legislation delivers "false hope" that patients and families will receive a cure. Critics have also argued
* The U.S. FDA is planning to adjust the product standards for cigarettes by lowering their nicotine levels in an effort to make them less addictive, Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement.
On the policy front
* A drug discount program that benefits nonprofit hospitals and clinics came under fire yesterday as Republican senators pressed for more disclosure on whether the savings are really being used to help low-income patients. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also said the issue was being pushed by drug companies to distract attention from their pricing practices.
Meanwhile, America's Essential Hospitals head Bruce Siegel, under questioning at the hearing, said if the hospitals are being required to disclose more information, drug companies should also be required to disclose why prices are so high.
* The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission rebuked the Quality Payment Program under Medicare, calling it "profoundly flawed" and recommended that Congress scrap it "as soon as possible." The new program gives clinicians the choice of being paid under an advanced alternative reimbursement model, through which they could receive bonuses for better care and be penalized for poor treatment.
* Billionaire Bill Gates said the key to convincing U.S. President Donald Trump to put money into areas he is inclined to reject, including biomedical research and foreign aid, may be to play to his desire to look presidential.
M&A and capital markets
* The U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division wants Bayer AG to sell more assets before it can clear the German drug and crop chemical maker's $62.5 billion acquisition of Monsanto Co., Bloomberg News reported, citing anonymous sources.
* Ideaya Biosciences Inc., which develops therapies for cancer, raised $94 million in a series B financing from investors including Roche Holding AG and Celgene Corp.
Drug and product pipeline
* Adaptimmune Therapeutics PLC said its NY-ESO SPEAR T cell therapy decreased the size of tumors in three patients with a type of liposarcoma, a cancer arising in fat cells. The therapy previously showed efficacy in treating patients with multiple myeloma, a tumor of the brain marrow.
Operational activity
* GlaxoSmithKline PLC's costs related to the U.K.'s withdrawal from the EU could be up to £70 million over the next two to three years and subsequent ongoing additional costs of about £50 million per year, including additional customs duties and transaction or administration costs.
Meanwhile, the drugmaker's CEO, Emma Walmsley, received about £4.9 million in total remuneration in 2017.
* Pfizer Inc. Chairman and CEO Ian Read's total compensation in 2017 of $27.90 million was 313x as much as the company's median employee.
* Corcept Therapeutics Inc. filed a lawsuit against Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., alleging the company infringed on its patents covering the use of Korlym as a treatment for the Cushing's syndrome.
* MiMedx Group Inc. disclosed that the U.S. Justice Department is investigating the company's sales and distribution practices. The company previously denied a Bloomberg News report that the investigators were looking into its distribution procedures and investigating whether it overcharged the government for its tissue repair products.
Our features
Heartbeat-tracking patch from iRhythm may spot signs of stroke risk: study: The U.S. company's wearable patch has the potential to detect silent heart abnormalities before they trigger strokes and other events, garnering interest from health insurers and pharma companies.
Other features
* CNBC has a feature on Verb Surgical, a robotic surgery startup that has attracted the interest of Alphabet Inc. and Johnson & Johnson.
* Mothers who take probiotics during pregnancy and while breastfeeding could be less likely to have children with eczema compared to women who do not, Reuters reported, citing a research review.
* The New York Times has a feature about inherited, or Mendelian, diseases, which are caused by genetic mutations and often go undetected in patients.
* STAT has a feature on a technology developed by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic to trick the brain into sensing the movement of a prosthetic.
The day ahead
Early morning futures indicators pointed to a mixed opening for the U.S. market.
In Asia, the Hang Seng decreased 0.12% to 31,501.97, and the Nikkei 225 declined 0.58% to 21,676.51.
In Europe, around midday, the FTSE 100 was up 0.23% to 7,156.01, and the Euronext 100 was up 0.31% to 1,029.58.
The Daily Dose is updated as of 6:30 a.m. ET. Some external links may require a subscription.
