1. Valeant brought in investment banks to weigh selling some of its assets to improve its financial position. Unnamed sources told Reuters that Xifaxan, the IBS drug that the company promoted during the Super Bowl, is one of its more coveted assets. (Reuters)
2. More than a third of advanced melanoma patients treated with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo survived at least five years, according to researchers. All patients had failed to see their condition improve on other drugs. (WSJ)
3. AstraZeneca is considering a $7 billion acquisition of cancer drugmaker Medivation. The San Francisco-based company is believed to have rejected a hostile bid from Sanofi last week. (The Telegraph)
4. The New York state attorney general has subpoenaed every health insurer in the state as part of a broad investigation into the coverage of hepatitis-C drugs. One of the complaints filed against CDPHP — one of New York’s largest nonprofit insurers — is examining the insurer’s criteria for covering Gilead Sciences’ Harvoni. (Albany Business Review)
5. MM&M is debuting Watson Week, a new weeklong editorial series. The series will explore IBM’s Watson Health unit $4 billion acquisitions as well as its partnerships with healthcare giants like Medtronic, Teva, CVS, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
