Author: Peter

Actelion Ltd said…it has initiated preliminary discussions with …biotech company ZS Pharma Inc…reported earlier in the day that Actelion had offered to buy ZS Pharma last month in a deal valued at $2.5 billion…both issued statements confirming that the two companies had held preliminary discussions, but did not specifically mention if the talks were related to a buyout…. ZS Pharma's shares had spiked nearly 46 percent…a record high of $84.85…closed up 28.4 percent, valuing the company at $1.9 billion

..latest wonder drug to make headlines sounds like a dream for ambitious workers: Modafinil, a narcolepsy pill, has been shown to make you a sharper thinker, a better decision maker, and generally more alert – whether or not you have a sleep disorder, researchers found few safety concerns or side effects from the drug…main problem…no long-term studies of safety and efficacy in healthy people,..Without safety studies,. .."we do not know that modafinil is safe in the long-term for people to use."

…it’s time to dole out some grades to drug companies. …I give each company a letter grade, just like the ones you got in school. An A+ requires changing the face of medicine and making a ton of money. An F means a drug safety crisis and a financial failure – or a severe ethical breach. Everything else is in-between. I do not believe in grade inflation.

Top of the Class

1. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ..... A-
2. Valeant Pharmaceuticals ..... B+
3. Gilead Sciences, Inc ..... B+
4. Novo Nordisk ..... B
5. Eli Lilly and Company ..... B
6. Allergan plc ..... B
7. Vertex Pharmaceuticals Incorporated ..... B
8. Illumina ..... B
9. Novartis ..... B
10. Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ..... B-
11. Sanofi ..... B-
12. Celgene Corporation ..... B-
13. Pfizer Inc. ..... B-
14. Bristol-Myers Squibb ..... B-
15. Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. ..... B-
16. Merck & Co., Inc. ..... B-
17. Shire PLC Sponsored ADR ..... C+
18. Roche Holding ..... C+
19. Amgen Inc. ..... C+
20. AbbVie, Inc. ..... C+
21. Johnson & Johnson ..... C+
22. GlaxoSmithKline ..... C
23. Astrazeneca PLC Sponsored ADR ..... C
24. Biogen Inc. ..... C

During the month of September, Rite Aid associates nationwide will honor 274 students who have been named recipients of Folds of Honor educational scholarships provided by the Rite Aid Foundation’s KidCents program…Folds of Honor,..dedicated to providing educational scholarships to children of fallen or disabled veterans…

..Department of Health and Human Services is making it easier for patients with shoulder injury related to vaccine administration to be compensated for their pain….In order to capture the broader array of potential injuries,… the Secretary (Sylvia Mathews Burwell) proposes to add SIRVA for all tetanus toxoid-containing vaccines that are administered intramuscularly through percutaneous injection into the upper arm.. more individuals receiving immunizations may be contributing to…rise in patient claims. SIRVA is the first condition compensated by the government that relates to vaccine technique instead of the substance within the vaccine…

Smart medicines that tell doctors when their patients have taken them moved a step closer to reality after a company developing the first "digital pill" had its drug application accepted…the pill, produced by Proteus Digital Health, will help ensure patients stick to their prescriptions…Food and Drug Administration had agreed to review its device which is embedded in a schizophrenia medicine (aripiprazole)…new regulatory pathway that allows the pharmaceuticals industry to combine its medical innovation with innovation in software.."smart pill" contains a tiny ingestible sensor that detects when the drug has reached the stomach…It communicates with a wearable patch…then transmits the information to a mobile device.

A growing number of evolving health needs means the proliferation of many models,…there are six big themes that will drive new business models in health care. Those themes include:

1. scalability
2. decision support
3. process change
4. customization
5. integration
6. services to enhance product delivery

Food and Drug Administration is working to develop regulatory systems for diagnostics using next generation sequencing technologies…will cover "analytic performance evaluation standards" and "challenges in clinical validation of NGS tests."...We aim to ensure that these tests provide accurate, reproducible, and meaningful results relevant to a person's medical condition while continuing to foster innovation so that people who have access to the best available results generated by the most cutting-edge medical technologies."

Amy Grogg, PharmD, senior vice president of Strategy and Commercialization at AmerisourceBergen Specialty Group, discusses the projected ramifications from the launch of biosimilars in the United States.

An article citing the positive impact of prescription drugs on reducing other medical costs in the Medicaid program was published Wednesday by the journal Health Affairs' September issue. "Proper use of prescription medications is paramount in helping to improve patient health, especially for those with chronic conditions,"… "This research is further evidence of the impact of taking medications as prescribed – both in helping patients manage their chronic conditions and reducing emergency or catastrophic medical costs associated with medication non-adherence."