Investment group Elliott Management made an all-cash deal of $160 per share for AthenaHealth that could be worth $7 billion in total, including debt. Elliott, led by investor Paul Singer, took a 9.2% stake in the healthcare tech company last May. (CNBC)
Johnson & Johnson has released data from the first of two late-stage trials for esketamine, a drug for treatment-resistant cases of major depression. The results were mixed, but promising enough that the company said it expects to file with the FDA in a few months. If approved, it would be the first medication available for patients with hard-to-treat depression in decades. (Endpoints News)
Roche has won a fast review from the FDA for its Tecentriq combination to treat metastatic non-squamous non-small-cell lung cancer. A late comer to the immunotherapy space, Roche’s Tecentriq is lagging behind Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo in sales. (Reuters)
Geisinger Health said it will include DNA sequencing as part of routine clinical care for 1,000 patients in a pilot program. “Understanding the genome warning signals of every patient will be an essential part of wellness planning and health management,” Geisinger Health CEO David Feinberg said in a statement. (Geisinger)
President Donald Trump is expected to give a speech outlining his plan to lower drug prices this week. While most experts predict that he won’t get into specific policy proposals, the president has been known to go off-script. (STAT)
