1. Not-for-profit company Bioethics International ranked Gilead Sciences and Sanofi as the lowest-scoring drugmakers in terms of clinical trial transparency, according to a report in BMJ Open. Bioethics International publishes Good Pharma Scorecard, which ranks drugmakers on “key ethics, human rights [and] public health criteria, beginning with R&D and clinical trial transparency.”
2. Perrigo shareholders will vote on Mylan’s nearly $26 billion takeover proposal by Friday. The deal is one of the biggest hostile bids ever settled by a shareholder vote, The Wall Street Journal writes. Since Perrigo is based in Dublin, it lacks some of the typical defenses companies use to thwart hostile bids based on Irish takeover law.
3. Valeant can’t seem to stay out of the news. The embroiled drugmaker and one of its largest investors, Bill Ackman of hedge fund Pershing Square, now face an insider-trading lawsuit. A US District Court judge rejected arguments by Valeant, Ackman and Pershing Square that the lawsuit should be dismissed. The suit alleges that they violated securities laws by not disclosing legally required information regarding their failed attempt to acquire Allergan.
4. A Reuters story says that Valeant employees were running the daily operations at specialty pharmacy Philidor RX Services. Philidor has come under fire for its billing practices. Valeant recently severed its ties with Philidor and said the pharmacy will cease operations by the end of January.
5. Express Scripts dropped mail-order pharmacy Linden Care from its network. The pharmacy benefit manager found that Linden Care did not fulfill its contractual agreements and represented itself as a retail provider when “they are almost exclusively mail order,” Express Scripts told Bloomberg Business.
