| Editor's Note: FierceLifeSci will not publish next week, November 29, for the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday, but will return to your inboxes Dec. 6. Multibillion-dollar settlements used to be rare in the pharma industry—but that could be changing. In the past weeks alone, we’ve seen Teva’s $23 billion deal to end thousands of opioid lawsuits, as well as a $4 billion opioid-related pact for Johnson & Johnson, though both have yet to be approved. If they are, they would buck the trends seen in recent years, with state and federal settlements staying relatively flat compared to the boom seen in 2012 and 2013, where 117 deals totaled $9.8 billion. Our top ten since 2018 and the most-read stories of the week are below.. | |
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Featured Story | | | Saturday, November 16, 2019 Another candidate for Novartis' future blockbuster club is here. Now armed with an early FDA approval for Adakveo, the Swiss drugmaker will launch the first targeted therapy to prevent painful vaso-occlusive crises in sickle cell disease patients. |
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Top Stories Of The Week Friday, November 15, 2019 Roche is spending up to $1.4 billion to snap up a scarring-focused biotech, nabbing an FDA breakthrough-tagged therapy in the process. Tuesday, November 19, 2019 A number of high-dollar settlements could be on the way as drugmakers look to bail on federal opioid suits. But the past two years have been thick with other deals to wrap up government investigations and lawsuits, from Medicaid fraud to False Claims Act actions. Monday, November 18, 2019 The FDA has approved its first contact lens designed to effectively slow the progression of nearsightedness in children, starting in ages 8 to 12. CooperVision’s MiSight lens is a soft, single-use and disposable contact, made to be discarded at the end of each day. Sunday, November 17, 2019 PHILADELPHIA—Amgen's Repatha may already be far ahead in the PCSK9 field, but new competition is on its way. A new analysis in high-risk heart attack patients could give it some more ammo for that fight. Tuesday, November 19, 2019 The Medicines Company, fresh from its turn at the American Heart Association this weekend, has seen its shares jump on growing rumors that Swiss major Novartis may be interested in buying it out. Tuesday, November 19, 2019 While new multiple sclerosis drugs from Novartis, Merck KGaA and Biogen have hit the market this year, all bearing blockbuster hopes, one group of doctors wasn't all that interested in them. Instead, a repurposed therapy not yet approved for MS attracted “unanimous excitement,” an analyst said. Tuesday, November 19, 2019 Major CRO player Pharmaceutical Product Development is set to go back on the public markets after announcing its IPO plans. Friday, November 15, 2019 GlaxoSmithKline has been laboring to boost supplies of next-gen shingles vaccine Shingrix, thanks to a speedy launch that bested all expectations. While it's planning a slight increase next year, the real "step change" will come in 2024 with a brand-new facility, CEO Emma Walmsley recently said. Wednesday, November 20, 2019 Scientists from Gladstone Institutes and Boston University used machine learning and CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing tools to control the patterns stem cells form in lab dishes, which they suggest is an important step to create functional organs for research or therapeutic purposes. Wednesday, November 20, 2019 Eli Lilly faced critics of rising insulin prices this year by introducing a generic version of its popular Humalog priced at half the cost. Now the drugmaker is investing $400 million in its Indianapolis production site so it can make more diabetes treatments and prepare for pipeline products. 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