Hello, everyone, and welcome to another working week. We hope the weekend respite was relaxing and refreshing, because that oh-so-familiar routine of meetings, deadlines, and conference calls has predictably returned. But you knew this would happen, yes? After all, the world keeps spinning. So what else to do but fire up the coffee kettle, brew a cup or three of stimulation, and dig in for another busy day. On that note, here are some items of interest to get you started. Hope you have a grand day and keep in touch. …
Pfizer (PFE) won Food and Drug Administration approval for an oral drug called tafamidis to treat a rare and fatal heart disease called transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, Reuters says. Pfizer, which has touted the drug as a potential blockbuster product, set a list price of $225,000 a year for the medicine, which would be sold under the brand name Vyndaqel. It is the first medicine approved for the disease in the U.S., and analysts are forecasting annual sales to exceed $1 billion in 2024. Pfizer believes about 100,000 people in the U.S. have the condition, but most are not diagnosed.
McKesson’s (MCK) $37 million settlement last week of an opioid lawsuit with West Virginia — the state with the highest U.S. rate of drug-overdose deaths — may encourage other states to seek quick cash to cope with the rising societal costs of addiction, Bloomberg News tells us. The deal settlement comes more than a month after Purdue Pharma agreed to pay $270 million to resolve a lawsuit filed by the Oklahoma attorney general alleging the drug maker fueled the opioid crisis in the state, which earmarked the money for research and treatment.
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