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AmerisourceBergen (ABC) announced a new $2.4 billion share repurchase program. This new program brings ABC’s total repurchases to more than $4 billion in less than two years…ABC’s multi-faceted deal with Walgreen Boots Alliance (WBA) is motivating these transactions…Under one crucial element of the deal, Walgreens Boots Alliance has the right to acquire up to a 23% ownership stake in ABC…they also have an option to buy an additional 5% …The agreement prevents WBA from owning more than 30% of ABC. Walgreens Boots Alliance will have the opportunity to add two directors to ABC’s board of directors… Is this a good deal?...We believe WBA may have cut the better deal initially, but ABC has been unusually shrewd with its hedging strategies.

Dozens of women urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration… to withdraw Bayer AG's permanent contraceptive device, Essure, saying not enough is known about its potential to harm users…complaints from thousands of women who said it had caused life-altering side effects from chronic pain and bleeding to autoimmune disorders such as psoriasis and lupus…. More than 5,000 adverse events have been reported to the FDA, though it is not always clear what role Essure played in the event…Mark Bell, a metals engineering consultant…, said he analyzed a number of Essure devices after they had been removed…believes there are latent manufacturing processing problems with the devices.

Drugmaker Novartis AG has begun a program in Kenya, Ethiopia and Vietnam to supply 15 low-cost medicines to fight chronic diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure…its scheme would supply drugs for just $1 per treatment per month to governments, aid groups and others for a range of conditions that also includes cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Novartis chose Kenya, Ethiopia and Vietnam because of the problems people there have in obtaining sophisticated medicines and because the company said it already has a strong presence and ties to non-governmental organizations…

Lower costs for newer medicines through subsidies are going begging in Australia as drug companies increasingly look to avoid putting products through regulation paces needed to qualify,… 9 in 10 big pharmaceutical companies say they have considered not applying for subsidies--which could lower costs for newer medicines… Cost and access in Australia's reimbursed drug program, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, is a central political issue with costs for newer medicines, particularly oncology therapies, a target for the Treasury...industry alleges the system that approves and sets reimbursement prices is broken...

Biotech stocks closed out their worst week in four years after Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton vowed to address 'price gouging'…Among the worst performers in trading Friday, Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and Celgene were all sharply lower.

A new analysis of pharma research and development data shows that drugmakers have become increasingly successful in identifying the right candidates for drug development and getting them to market in recent years…From 2010 to 2014, one out of every 13 drugs in phase-I development came to market—compared to one of 19 phase-I drug candidates making it from 2007 to 2011,…Developing a drug takes 10 years on average currently, which is 40% longer than it took 15 years ago…Drug discovery—defined as all the work leading up to human clinical trials—has remained steady, taking four years on average.

Apple stirred a long-simmering controversy into a raging debate:… ad blocking in its newest operating system…ad blocking technology is not new, Apple's considerable mainstream influence had publishers scrambling and advertisers worried… Pharma companies are affected mechanically in much the same way all advertisers are…ad blockers could have some specific effects for pharma. Some pharma companies,… rely more heavily on digital advertising than other media placements, especially for marketing smaller-reach specialized drugs...

European health regulators…conditionally approved Amgen Inc's rare blood cancer drug, Blincyto (blinatumomab), which is one of the world's most expensive cancer treatments…Food and Drug Administration in December approved Blincyto for acute lymphoblastic leukemia, which has few treatment options once a patient has relapsed…Blincyto is a so-called bispecific antibody, an emerging class of drugs that could prove more potent than conventional antibodies,…

…Food and Drug Administration's unapproved-drugs initiative,...program is well known to some physicians and hospitals and their patients, who blame it for huge increases in the price of drugs that have been in common use for decades…it underscores an enormous flaw in our drug-approval process that rewards a few clever manufacturers at the expense of patients. The agency's unapproved-drugs initiative has laudable aims…to bring grandfathered medications that were in use before the FDA instituted rigorous testing requirements for safety and efficacy into line with modern standards…federal law also allows the FDA to incentivize drug research and development by granting marketing exclusivity to manufacturers who demonstrate a new use for a drug, or even a new dosing regime

The red carpet may have finally seen it all. Toenail fungus and its nemesis, Big J, the animated big toe in a purple hat character showed up post-Emmy Awards on a fictional red carpet--but with real preshow co-host Mario Lopez…Valeant Pharmaceutical's TV spot for anti-fungal cream Jublia features Emmy co-host Mario Lopez calling out limousine stars on arrival, then zooms in on a woman's feet as he exclaimed, "Whoa, toenail fungus." Big J, the fungus-fighting character, proceeds to toss the offending fungus off the carpet.