TOP STORIES
People are starting to talk nightmare scenarios after the latest Theranos news: Walgreens has, at the least, hit pause on opening more blood-testing centers. From Dan Munro: “I am not an attorney, and while I’m not aware of any pending litigation, it’s getting harder to imagine how the growing controversy surrounding Theranos has any concrete resolution outside a court of law.” (Reminder: Elizabeth Holmes speaks at Cleveland Clinic’s innovation conference this evening. We’ll liveblog the talk) – Wall Street Journal, Forbes
Valeant has made a flurry of moves this morning. It’s brought back former board member G. Mason Morfit, appointing him to a new committee to probe the company’s relationship with Philidor. Valeant says it is in “full compliance with applicable law.” But now it gets to wade through anecdotes like this:
Around the Phoenix-area offices of mail-order pharmacy Philidor Rx Services LLC, employees said they often ran into a friendly colleague named Bijal Patel who tracked prescriptions. But when the employees got an email from the colleague, they say he used a different name: Peter Parker, the alter ego of Spider-Man.
Shares of Valeant stumbled early Monday. – Bloomberg, CNBC, Wall Street Journal
LIFE SCIENCES
Put this in the “ewwww gross” department. Martin Shkreli did a Reddit AMA and shared the full fallout of Daraprim (which includes new dating opportunities). – TechCrunch, Reddit
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.
There are a lot of factors in this report on biotech M&A that you’ll be familiar with. But how long will the two short-term factors – low interest rates and Obamacare fallout – be around? – BioSpace
Belbuca, BioDelivery Sciences chronic pain treatment, has won FDA approval. – Reuters
PAYERS-PROVIDERS
Confessions of a Red Blanket Doctor: “On the record, doctors say that they treat all of their patients equally. Off the record, they reveal a range of answers. I, too, have been guilty of giving special treatment to red blanket patients.” – The New York Times
VMG Health, which provides healthcare acquisition and related advisory services, has been acquired by the private equity firm Quad-C Management. – Business Wire
TECHNOLOGY
A new cloud powerhouse on the horizon? Read this behind-the-scenes story about how and why Intel and Oracle are teaming up to take on IBM. – Business Insider
POLITICS
The Planned Parenthood controversy has crossed a new threshold. Texas state investigators are seeking data that include patient records. – The New York Times
A LITTLE BIT EXTRA
This is a great look at how the tech industry keeps trying to transform education – and what it will almost always fail: “The tech industry fetishizes failure—the millions of eggs that must be broken on the way to making a unicorn omelet. That may be fine for business models or user interfaces, but not so great when those eggs are your kids.” – WIRED
