Drugstore chain Walgreens Boots Alliance is nearing a deal to be bought by private-equity firm Sycamore for roughly $10 billion, a report says. A deal price of between $11.30 and $11.40 a share in cash has been discussed and a deal could be reached as soon as Thursday, The Wall Street Journal reported late Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.
As a measles outbreak in Texas has grown to nearly 150 cases, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in an opinion piece on Fox News on Sunday that parents should consult with health-care providers "to understand their options to get the MMR vaccine" for their children. Kennedy did not explicitly recommend the vaccine, but said the outbreak was a "call to action for all of us to reaffirm our commitment to public health."
A new government report adds to evidence that the HPV vaccine, once called dangerous by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is preventing cervical cancer in young women. The report comes after Kennedy pledged to give a family member any fees he might earn from HPV vaccine litigation. In a 2019 video posted on the anti-vaccine nonprofit Children's Health Defense website, Kennedy called Gardasil "the most dangerous vaccine ever invented."
A FDA vaccine advisory committee meeting scheduled for March to select the strains to be included in next season's flu shot has been canceled. Federal health officials notified members of the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee of the cancelation in an email Wednesday afternoon, says committee member Dr. Paul Offit, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Eli Lilly is betting big on its experimental oral weight-loss drug even before reporting data from its late-stage trial by recording nearly $550 million in "pre-launch inventory" in its financial statements, a filing shows. The move is unusual as it comes more than a year before the drug, orforglipron, is expected to be launched. Most drugmakers include such inventories, or assets, in their financial statements to show how much drug product has been manufactured right before approval.
Current weight-loss methods such as lifestyle changes, surgery, and popular therapies like Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound result in both fat and muscle loss that can increase the risk of falls and decrease overall strength, which could be especially harmful for older patients. Now, several drugmakers are developing weight-loss treatments that help preserve or grow muscles while patients shed pounds.