TOP STORIES
Drug distributor AmerisourceBergen Corp has agreed to buy PharMEDium Healthcare Holdings Inc for $2.58 billion from private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.
— Reuters
Peyton Manning, of all people, will officially be one of the keynote speakers at HIMSS in 2016. “During his Q&A, he will answer questions about his injuries, subsequent treatments, his personal journey with healthcare and technology in the NFL, and other topics.”
— HIMSS
LIFE SCIENCES
Pharma currently has an edge when it comes to consumer health, according to CEO of GlaxoSmithKline.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Sarepta Therapeutics Inc. raised $126.8 million through the sale of 3.3 million shares at $39 in a follow-on.
PAYERS-PROVIDERS
Quartet Health announced the appointment of Patrick Kennedy to its Board of Directors.
— Quartet Health
Clinic wait times are longer for racial minorities and unemployed people, according to a study from Harvard Medical School in Boston and the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
TECH
HelpAround, creator of the popular Diabetes Helpers peer-to-peer support network and the Alert app for iOS, is announcing the release of Alert for Apple Watch watchOS 2.
— HelpAround
Sickweather has developed the world’s first real-time map of illness and more recently the world’s first real-time field detector for illness with the launch of their Apple Watch app.
POLITICS
The New Jersey Supreme Court has now restricted medical malpractice actions against uninsured doctors, but it has expanded potential liability of hospitals and other facilities.
The first lawsuit against DuPont by a cancer patient who claims her disease was linked to a chemical used in the making of Teflon went to jurors at a U.S. federal court in Ohio on Tuesday after three weeks of testimony.
— Reuters
A LITTLE BIT EXTRA
Sweden is planning to be the first fossil fuel-free country in the world – a demonstration of adapting to the effects we have and will continue to see with climate change.
Photo: Flickr user spablab
