| Mirati caps a month of positive news for biotech | | |  | FRI, NOV 01, 2019 | | | | Think a friend or colleague should be getting this newsletter? Share this link with them to sign up.
Johnson & Johnson defended its baby powder this week, saying independent lab tests showed it does not contain asbestos. The wrinkle? One of J&J's star witnesses runs the lab that found asbestos in a batch of baby powder. October was a big month for biotech. November kicks off with several big health-care earnings, including CVS Health, Mylan and Humana.
(Are there any stories we should be chasing? Email tips, ideas, suggestions to CNBC Health Editor Dawn Kopecki at dawn.kopecki@nbcuni.com.)
| | Johnson & Johnson says there's no asbestos in its baby powder | Johnson & Johnson, which recalled 33,000 bottles of Johnson's Baby Powder earlier this month, said this week that a "rigorous" retesting of the product found no signs of asbestos that prompted the recall. Wall Street loved the news, causing J&J's stock to spike as much as 4% in after-hours trading. However, the FDA stood by its original findings. Moreover, Reuters reported that in challenging the FDA's findings, J&J is casting doubt on its own experts. The lab that found asbestos in baby powder under a contract with the FDA is run by a paid expert witness for J&J, according to Reuters.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | | | | Mirati caps a month of positive news for biotech | October gave embattled biotech investors some welcome news on experimental drugs, from Biogen's resurrected Alzheimer's therapy to Vertex's cystic fibrosis triple combo gaining FDA approval five months early and Mirati's update this week on its cancer drug targeting the extremely in vogue KRAS mutation. All in, it was the sector's best month since January, led by a more than doubling in shares of Reata Pharma. But is the good news enough to offset the political drumbeat on drug prices? Probably not for long, unless drug companies can keep the positive clinical news coming.
-Meg Tirrell | | | | Juul hits the reset button | Embattled e-cigarette giant Juul is cutting about 500 jobs, or up to 15% of its workforce. A number of top executives "transitioned out" of the company and new CEO K.C. Crosthwaite shook up its corporate structure. Juul's largest investor, Marlboro maker Altria, wrote down more than a third of its $12.8 billion investment. As if that wasn't enough to deal with, Altria disclosed that federal antitrust regulators are scrutinizing Altria's role in replacing Juul's CEO with a longtime Altria executive.
-Angelica LaVito | | | | Amgen takes 20% stake in Chinese biotech BeiGene for $2.7 billion | Amgen is taking a 20.5% stake in Chinese biotech BeiGene, valuing it at roughly $13.5 billion. The deal gives both companies something they want. BeiGene will commercialize three of Amgen's chemotherapy drugs to be sold on the Chinese market, while Amgen works with BeiGene on developing 20 new drugs from its cancer pipeline in China and elsewhere. The deal, expected to close in early 2020, will increase Amgen's footprint in China's rapidly growing pharmaceutical market.
-Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | | | | UnitedHealth scoops up Vivify Health, a patient monitoring startup | UnitedHealth's Optum continued its acquisition spree by picking up a start-up called Vivify Space, which sits in a hot space known as remote patient monitoring. Vivify's founder started the business to use the consumer technologies, like the iPhone and wireless weight scales, to track patients' health at home and send those insights back to their providers. The hope is that fewer patients will end up in the emergency room, which is highly costly for a health plan. This is one of the first solid exits for a company in the space, which could be a signal to investors that larger health incumbents are thinking seriously about patient care outside of the doctor's office.
-Christina Farr | | | | FDA Takes next step on tech modernization | FDA Deputy Commissioner Amy Abernethy took the first step in the agency's plan to modernization its technology this week, putting out a proposal for drugmakers to submit safety data via the cloud within two years. Right now, submissions come through PDFs and regulators have to sift through all the unstructured data. I sat down and talked to the self-described "data girl" about what the FDA's Tech Modernization Plan means for stakeholders at this week HLTH conference in Las Vegas.
-Bertha Coombs | | @Work People + Machines
Technology, Talent and the Future of Work
In the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, CIOs and CTOs hold the key roles managing corporate digital transformation and leveraging new, game-changing technologies. This edition of CNBC's @Work series examines the human-machine interface, how to balance the needs of today with the possibilities of tomorrow, and the winning strategies of best-in-class companies.
| | @Work People + Machines November 4, 2019
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