Drug Giants’ Big Bets On Cancer Treatments Reflect Industry’s Intense Interest In Lucrative Market

The Wall Street Journal: Big Drugmakers Push Deeper Into Cancer Treatment
Two of the world’s biggest drugmakers struck multibillion-dollar deals on Monday aimed at bolstering their lineups in the fiercely competitive cancer-drugs market. Merck & Co. said it would acquire ArQule Inc. for about $2.7 billion, paying a 107% premium in a bid to diversify its cancer treatments beyond top-selling drug Keytruda. Meanwhile, Sanofi SA said it would spend $2.5 billion, a 172% premium, to acquire Synthorx Inc. in the French drugmaker’s own effort to catch up with oncology rivals. (Hopkins and Roland, 12/9)

Stat: Merck And Sanofi Buy Smaller Cancer Drug Firms At Big Premiums
The drug giants Merck and Sanofi (SNY) each said they would acquire a smaller drug maker for more than $2 billion Monday — in each case, more than double the smaller company’s market capitalization — cheering investors about large companies’ appetite to execute buyouts in the biotechnology sector. Merck, of Kenilworth, N.J., is purchasing ArQule (ARQL) of Burlington, Mass., a developer of pills aimed at treating multiple cancers, for $2.7 billion, or $20 per share, a 107% premium to the stock’s closing price Friday. (Herper, 12/9)

Stat: More Hospital Drug Spending Going Toward Cancer Immunotherapies 
Amid intense scrutiny over prescription drug costs, a new analysis finds some hospitals are spending a larger share of their budgets for new cancer and migraine treatments, as well as for a biosimilar version of a brand-name drug that is used to prevent white-cell depletion in patients given chemotherapy. Not surprisingly, the spending reflects a growing trend among hospitals to shell out more of their dollars for outpatient infusion treatments and, in particular, costly specialty drugs, according to Bonnie Lai, vice president of product management at Lumere, a research and analytics firm that focuses on hospitals and generated the data from 26 facilities across four hospitals systems. (Silverman, 12/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Sanofi, Maker Of World’s Top-Selling Insulin, To Exit Diabetes Research
The maker of the world’s top-selling insulin has given up on finding new diabetes drugs. Sanofi SA, which makes Lantus, said Monday it would stop investing in diabetes research after years of frustrated attempts to bring a fresh blockbuster to the market. The decision is part of a broader strategic overhaul by new Chief Executive Paul Hudson, who hopes to reinvigorate growth at the French health-care giant by focusing on fewer, more specialized disease areas such as cancer—mirroring a move being made across the drug industry. (Roland, 12/9)

Bloomberg: FDA Approving Drugs At Breakneck Speed, Raising Alarm 
The U.S. is approving new drugs so fast that companies are now preparing for a green light months in advance of the scheduled decision date, a pace that’s helping patients with rare or untreatable diseases but raising alarm among consumer advocates. Global Blood Therapeutics Inc., maker of a new sickle cell disease drug called Oxbryta, built a booth to showcase the medicine at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology that begins this weekend -- even though the Food and Drug Administration’s deadline for approval was Feb. 26. (Cortez and Flanagan, 12/6)

The New York Times: Two New Drugs Help Relieve Sickle-Cell Disease. But Who Will Pay?
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved two transformative new treatments for sickle-cell disease, the first in 20 years. But the drugs are wildly expensive, renewing troubling questions about access to cutting-edge medicines. Adakveo, made by Novartis, can prevent episodes of nearly unbearable pain that occur when malformed blood cells get stuck in blood vessels. Approved only for patients aged 16 and over, it is delivered as an infusion once a month. (Kolata, 12/7)

Politico Pro: Second Generic Drug Company Admits To Price Fixing
Generic drug manufacturer Rising Pharmaceuticals has admitted to conspiring to fix prices and allocate customers for a blood pressure drug, becoming the second company to admit wrongdoing in a sweeping federal probe into collusion among the makers of off-patent medicines. The New Jersey-based company agreed to cooperate with the Justice Department's criminal investigation in return for three years of deferred prosecution or until the company’s bankruptcy proceedings become final. (Karlin-Smith, 12/3)

Columbus Dispatch: Even After A Few Years Of Drug Price Reforms Across The US, PBMs Are Still Finding Ways Around Them
Since 2015 — and particularly in 2019 — state after state has passed scores of measures attempting to rein in middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers. But key players in Ohio and elsewhere say that, so far, the results are mixed at best. Critics say PBMs have used a lack of transparency to pocket excessive fees and rebates, under-reimburse pharmacies and steer the most profitable business to pharmacies they own themselves. A 2018 study paid for by the Ohio Department of Medicaid said that just one of those practices meant that in a single year two PBMs billed the state $244 million more for drugs than they paid the pharmacists who bought and dispensed them. (Schladen, 12/8)

Columbus Dispatch: Insulin Prices Double, Pinching Diabetics’ Budgets
In people with Type 1 diabetes, the pancreas can’t make insulin. Those with the condition require several doses of insulin a day and spent $5,705 per person on it in 2016, an increase of $2,841, or 99%, per person since 2012, according to the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute. Costs continue to rise, so much so that almost half of diabetics have temporarily skipped taking their insulin, according to a 2018 survey by UpWell Health, a Salt Lake City company that provides home delivery of medications and supplies for chronic conditions. (Henry, 12/9)

The Associated Press: West Virginians Head To Canada To Find Affordable Insulin
A group of West Virginians left the country Sunday in search of affordable insulin — they went to Canada, where insulin prices are reported to be about a tenth of what it costs people in the United States. Across the border, no prescription is even necessary to purchase the life-saving medication, The Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. State data says about 15% of West Virginians rely on insulin. The nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute says insulin cost a person with Type 1 diabetes about $6,000 in 2016, and prices have only increased since then, making it difficult for even insured people to afford it. (12/9)

Columbus Dispatch: State Senators Look To Eliminate ‘Fail First’ Step Therapy For Stage 4 Cancer Patients
An upcoming proposal in the Statehouse could give stage 4 cancer patients in Ohio a better chance at beating the odds, legislators and doctors say. The bipartisan bill would eliminate the need for people with late-stage cancer to go through what is commonly referred to as “step therapy.” Insurers now can require stage 4 cancer patients to “fail first” with a cheaper treatment specified by the health insurance company that might not be the best or latest treatment available. Patients must then fail on the treatment before they are allowed a “step up” to another medication that might be more expensive for the insurer. (Filby, 12/9)

Stat: Sanofi Aims To Make Dupixent A $10B Drug, Sell Cialis Over The Counter
The new CEO of Sanofi (SNY), the French drug giant, believes that its drug Dupixent, for the treatment of severe rashes and asthma, could surpass $10 billion in annual sales. Paul Hudson, who became CEO in September, said Monday that growing sales of Dupixent, which is sold with the U.S. biotech Regeneron, would be Sanofi’s top priority. It “has the chance to be one of the most successful medicines in the history of the industry, built on the back of patients with huge unmet need who are living horribly debilitated lives, who can reach, in many cases, normal lives,” Hudson said. (Herper, 12/9)

The Wall Street Journal: Sienna Biopharmaceuticals To Shut Down After Asset Sale Flops
Clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company Sienna Biopharmaceuticals Inc. will shut down by the end of the week and layoff its remaining employees after failing to sell itself out of bankruptcy. The publicly traded drugmaker had hoped to find a buyer to acquire it since before it filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September but didn’t receive any bids for the whole company. (Al-Muslim, 12/10)