(Photo credit: Marc Nozell/Creative Commons)
1. Vice President Joe Biden will lead President Obama’s “moonshot” to cure cancer, in part by pushing for more R&D funding. Biden said that it includes increasing both public and private resources and should involve breaking down barriers that prevent researchers from working together. (USA Today)
2. Pfizer CEO Ian Read said a combined Pfizer/Allergan will have the “best pipeline in the industry.” But if the deal goes through plans to separate Pfizer’s brand-name drug business from its off-patent drug business will be pushed back until 2018. (AP)
3. The American Medical Association invested $15 million to form Health2047, a new San Francisco-based company that aims to bring health technology for physicians to market faster. (MedPage Today)
4. Gilead Sciences President John Milligan reportedly described the drug-pricing debate as “more of a campaign issue than an actual issue” at the JP Morgan healthcare conference in San Francisco this week. Activists had been protesting Gilead’s drug pricing at the event. (San Francisco Business Times)
5. Patients with diabetes and depression may more easily maintain blood sugar levels if they are taking a drug for depression or stress, research has found. Diabetes patients with depression are 95% more likely to have controlled blood sugar if they are taking an antidepressant. (Reuters)
