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Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? We are doing just fine, thank you. Given that this is already the middle of the week and we have survived this far, no reason not to continue, yes? Just consider the alternatives. In fact, this modest accomplishment calls for celebration. So please join us in quaffing a ritual cup of needed stimulation. Our choice today is glazed doughnut. Yum. Meanwhile, here are a few items of interest to help you along. Once again, we hope you have a meaningful and productive day. And, of course, keep in touch. We enjoy receiving your postcards and telegrams. …

The Biden administration signaled it will require health plans on federal exchanges to cover more of the costs of generic drugs, a small tweak that nevertheless has industry groups divided on how best to manage drug costs, STAT reports. The proposal, laid out in a regulation, would direct plans offered through the Affordable Care Act marketplace to put all generic drugs in their lowest cost-sharing tier, which typically translates to little to no out-of-pocket spending for patients. While that category is referred to as the generic drug tier, an increasing number of generics are not included in the preferred list and instead sent to higher, “non-preferred” coverage tiers.

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Takeda Pharmaceuticals will spend $4 billion and offer another $2 billion in milestones for an experimental anti-inflammatory pill from Nimbus Therapeutics, the largest deal yet for a new target that has already yielded one approved drug and sparked multiple startups, STAT tells us. Takeda will acquire a molecule that blocks TYK2, a signaling protein that affects how cells respond to common inflammatory molecules in the blood. Over the last few years, drugmakers have honed in on it as a new way to tamp down the inflammation that contributes to various autoimmune diseases.

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