Pharma

Morning Read: Mylan acquires Sweden’s Meda for $9.9B, pharmacists fight opioid addiction

Also, medical journals, NGOs and research funders to share Zika data, while Humana considers exiting the Obamacare marketplace.

Teva is making a play for The generic drugmaker Mylan (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images)

TOP STORIES

Three months after being spurned by Perrigo, generic drug giant Mylan is acquiring specialty pharma company Meda, of Solna, Sweden, for $9.9 billion. About $5.7 billion of the sum is in cash; the rest is in assumption of debt. — Reuters

Pharmacists have become de facto “drug cops” in the fight against opioid abuse. Some are actually comfortable with the role. — STAT

A global coalition of nearly three dozen medical journals, NGOs and research funders (think NIH, the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation) has agreed to share data and research related to the Zika virus and future public health emergencies. They are encouraging others to join the effort. — Wellcome Trust

LIFE SCIENCES

Stryker is buying the neurology portfolio of Synergetics for an undisclosed amount. — MassDevice

Depression-focused personalized medicine startup Genomind, of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, has raised $3.5 million in new capital. — Philadelphia Business Journal

Biogen has donated $5 million to the Target ALS Foundation and will offer a 50 percent match to other biotech and pharma companies that support the foundation’s new research fund for the next two years. — Business Wire

PAYERS-PROVIDERS

Humana is the latest to consider leaving the Obamacare marketplace, as its overall profits fell 30 percent in the fourth quarter. — HNGN

Johns Hopkins will become the first in the U.S. to transplant organs from an HIV-positive donor to an HIV-positive recipient. — The New York Times

A new study from the UK found that hospitals with patient-to-nurse ratios of 10:1 or more had 20 percent higher mortality rates than those with six or fewer patients per nurse. — The Telegraph

Miami Cancer Institute at Baptist Health South Florida is the latest to join the New York-based Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance. — Business Wire

Carolinas HealthCare System might name a new CEO on Thursday. — Triad Business Journal

TECHNOLOGY

The FDA has cleared YuGo, a Microsoft Kinect-based physical therapy system from Israeli startup BioGaming. — MobiHealthNews

British health IT vendor Capita Healthcare Decisions has released a Zika triage tool. — PR Newswire

Cerner gave a sneak peek via Periscope into its new, $4.5 billion campus. — Kansas City Business Journal

McKesson Health Solutions is partnering with analytics software maker HealthQX to help payers design and scale value-based reimbursement programs. — Business Wire

Celgene will use the Medidata Clinical Cloud to manage all of its clinical trials worldwide. — Medidata

POLITICS

It may be impossible for the Affordable Care Act to get the number of uninsured Americans much below 30 million. — Healthcare Dive

Go figure: The home health industry is opposed to the return of a Medicare copayment for new beneficiaries, as proposed in the president’s 2017 budget. — PR Newswire

That same budget, already called DOA by the Republican Congress, asks for an additional $22 million for ONC to promote health IT interoperability. — Healthcare IT News

A LITTLE BIT EXTRA

Hard to believe, but 8.4 percent of women smoke during pregnancy, according to new data from the CDC. In West Virginia, more than a quarter pregnant women light up. — STAT

Photo: Jeff Swensen/Getty Images

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