The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced plans to broadly cover a new class of Alzheimer’s drugs pending approval by the Food and Drug Administration. The new policy marks a sharp change from an earlier one, which required patients to be in clinical trials for coverage. (The Washington Post)
Sandoz said it plans to move to a new central Basel headquarters by mid-2024 following its proposed spin-off from Novartis. Sandoz CEO Richard Saynor said, “I’m delighted to confirm that we will continue to call Basel home. This is an important milestone on our way to becoming an independent company.”(MarketWatch)
Eikon Therapeutics announced three business development deals, effectively dropping in a pipeline of cancer drugs alongside more than $100 million in fresh funding. Roger Perlmutter’s company has become one of biotech’s richest startups since its 2019 founding, having raised nearly $775 million. (Endpoints News)
AstraZeneca and Merck’s Lynparza gained an expanded prostate cancer indication from the FDA. The companies wanted the expanded indication to include the Lynparza combo in those without the BRCA mutation, but an FDA advisory committee in April declined to endorse this. (Seeking Alpha)
The Supreme Court gave a boost to whistleblowers in their bid to revive lawsuits accusing pharmacy operators of knowingly overbilling government health insurance programs for prescription drugs at taxpayers’ expense. The justices in a 9-0 decision threw out a lower court’s ruling that the pharmacies could not be held responsible for fraud in whistleblower cases pursued against Safeway Inc., owned by Albertsons Companies Inc and SuperValu Inc., part of United Natural Foods. (Reuters)
