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Consumer Group Sues Over Health Insurance Increases
Podcast: March 8, 2010

Anthem Blue Cross, California’s biggest for-profit health insurance company, has been on the hot seat lately. Its plan to raise premiums for individuals by as much as 39 percent landed the CEO of its parent company, Wellpoint, in front of a Congressional committee and reignighted efforts in Washington to pass healthcare reform legislation. Now the advocacy group ConsumerWatchdog has filed a class-action lawsuit against Anthem over the rate increases saying they violate California law. We spoke to Jerry Flanagan, healthcare policy director for ConsumerWatchdog, about his group’s lawsuit, what Anthem’s actions mean for reform, and why the proposed healthcare legislation wouldn’t have prevented Anthem from instituting the rate increases in the first place. Read More Here

Surprise and Disappointment for Medivation and Pfizer over Alzheimer’s Drug Failure
The weekly round-up of failed trials, missed targets and other business mishaps.
Pfizer and Medivation said dimebon, their experimental drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease, failed in two late-stage clinical trials. Medivation’s stock, which had been trading at an all time high of $40.49 right before the news tumbled nearly 70 percent to $13.04. In one trial, dimebon did not show statistical significance compared to placebo in measures of cognition and global function – the primary endpoints for the study. The results were surprising because early studies had produced promising results of the drug as a treatment for the neurodegenerative disease. Read More Here

Merck KgaA Outbids Thermo
German pharmaceutical and chemical giant snaps up Millipore for $7.2 billion in a bid to diversify its revenue stream.
Germany’s Merck KgaA agreed to pay $7.2 billion for lab supplier Millipore on March 1, shutting out Thermo Fisher Scientific's $6 billion bid for the company and surprising analysts who saw a good fit between Thermo and Millipore. Merck will pay $107 per share for Millipore, nearly a 50 percent premium to the cost of Millipore's shares before takeover speculation took hold. Both company's boards have approved the transaction, which will result in Millipore becoming a Merck subsidiary. Read More Here

A Humble Start for Anthera
Anthera Pharmaceuticals IPO gets done, but at just more than half of its $70 million target.
Freshly minted shares of Anthera Pharmaceuticals sold for just half their original target price during the company's March 1 IPO, raising merely $42 million instead of the anticipated $70 million. Concurrently, the company completed a private placement of about 2.6 million shares, raising an additional $17.1 million, for a total of approximately $53.8 million. Read More Here

Archimedes Does Some Math
Biopharma’s funding round is the largest private European financing in 15 years.
Archimedes Pharma, a U.K.-based specialty pharma raised about $98 million and appointed a new CEO ahead of establishing U.S. commercial operations. Novo Growth Equity, funded by Novo A/S, debuted on the venture scene by leading the round, which was announced March 2. Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm also participated. Archimedes says the funding is the largest raised by a private European biopharma company in the last 15 years. Read More Here

Astellas Turns Up the Heat
Suitor sues OSI, adding pressure to its hostile bid.
Astellas Pharma's $3.5 billion hostile takeover bid for OSI Pharmaceuticals grew a little more bitter March 2, as Astellas sued OSI to keep it from using a poison pill to fend off its advances. The suit seeks an injunction against any action that would block Astellas’ tender offer for Melville, New York-based OSI's shares “in a manner inconsistent with the directors’ fiduciary duties.” The prize Astellas is after: OSI's treatment for advanced non-small cell lung cancer and advanced pancreatic cancer, Tarceva, which could be just the edge the Japanese pharma needs to compensate for Japan's increasing shift toward cheaper generics. Read More Here

Keeping a Beat
Coffee associated with reduced risk of hospitalization for heart rhythm disturbances.
Coffee drinkers may be less likely to be hospitalized for heart rhythm disturbances, according to a new study by the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research. The researchers, who note the findings may be surprising because patients frequently report palpitations after drinking coffee, presented the study at the American Heart Association's 50th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention in San Francisco on March 5. Read More Here

Can’t Read You
Parkinson's disease makes it harder to figure out how other people feel. Deep brain stimulation seems to make it worse.
Scientists are beginning to find out why people with Parkinson's disease often feel socially awkward. Parkinson's patients find it harder to recognize expressions of emotion in other people's faces and voices, according to two studies in the journal Neuropsychology.One of the studies raises questions about how deep brain stimulation, the best available treatment for patients who no longer respond to medication, more strongly affects the recognition of fear and sadness. The other study finds that people with Parkinson's disease, compared with matched controls, often have difficulty discerning how others are feeling. Read More Here

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