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The article explores the business practices of Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc., maker of the drug Soliris used to treat patients with rare conditions such as the blood disorder atypical hemolytic-uremic syndrome. Emphasis is given to topics such as the ethics of the drugmaker's sales culture, the business aspects and profitability of treatment for rare diseases, and the provision of federal grants and tax incentives for drug research under the U.S. Orphan Drug Act. Other topics include the use of nurses and medical personnel to advise and aid sales efforts, the lobbying efforts of the National Organization for Rare Disorders, and the investigation of grants made by Alexion to overseas patient groups.

The article looks at the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, focusing on the possible impact of incoming U.S. President Donald Trump's call for a policy change to have the U.S. government be able to negotiate over drug prices in the Medicare and Medicaid government health insurance programs. It says that Republicans in the U.S. Congress may oppose the change and discusses the large number of lobbyists employed by the pharmaceutical industry.

The article discusses the efforts of pharmaceutical companies, startups, and equipment manufacturers to make laboratories more efficient through the use of technology. Topics include the risk of error associated with data entry by researchers, the collaboration of pharmaceutical companies through the nonprofit Allotrope Foundation to develop common standards for laboratory data, and the startup Synthace's development of an operating system for laboratory equipment called Antha.

The article focuses on investments by the Alaska Permanent Fund (APF) into biotechnology (biotech) startup companies. It states the APF, which manages Alaska's oil wealth, has invested 129 million dollars in Juno Therapeutics, 80 million dollars in Codiak BioSciences, and 153 million dollars in Denali Therapeutics. It mentions Alaska's stake in Juno is now worth 1.04 billion dollars. It reports APF works with investment specialist Arch Venture Partners and vetted the deals with outside experts.

The article looks at drug prices and competition in the pharmaceutical industry, focusing on the availability of the hepatitis C drug sofosbuvir, sold under the name Sovaldi by drug company Gilead Sciences, at low prices in India following Gilead's decision to license the drug to several Indian drug companies for production on a generic basis. Topics include the price difference for the drug between India and the U.S. and the prevalence of hepatitis C in India.

The article discusses how the drug industry in the U.S. does business, citing the case of former executive Martin Shkreli, who was arrested and indicted on December 17, 2015. Topics discussed include the way Shkreli ran his drug companies in which federal prosecutors described as Ponzi-like scheme which led them to charge him with fraud, his reason for increasing the prices of drugs, and the noted expensive medicine in the country than in Canada and Europe.

(Bloomberg) -- The Trade Deal Formerly Known as NAFTA Then Bloomberg Opinion Columnist Shira Ovide came on to talk about why Amazon hiking their minimum wage for all workers in the U.S. and the U.K was a small price to pay for their reputation. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- Why Crypto and Cannabis Are the Perfect Post-Crisis Bubbles This year, President Trump tried out a good cop, bad cop routine with Iran. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- Is Unlimited Soup, Salad and Breadsticks the Key to Quarterly Gr Then Bloomberg Opinion columnist Sarah Halzack came on to talk about why unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks could be the secret recipe for quarterly growth. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- Why Erdogan's "Peculiar Politics" Makes for Bad Economics On What'd You Miss this Week, Scarlet Fu and Joe Weisenthal spoke with Adam Tooze, a history professor at Columbia University. Tooze, who has made an academic specialty out of studying financial collapses, offered his take on the ongoing economic crisis in Turkey and explained why President Erdogan's "peculiar politics" have made for bad economics. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- MoviePass CEO Defends Everyone's Favorite Embattled Company On What'd You Miss this Week, Scarlet Fu and Joe Weisenthal spoke with Rett Wallace, the CEO of Triton Research, about Elon Musk taking to twitter to tease the possibility of taking Tesla private. Mitch Lowe, the CEO of MoviePass, came on to make the case for his embattled, seemingly too good to be true company. [Extracted from the article]

Yale's Center for Ecosystems in Architecture and New Haven, Connecticut-based Gray Organschi Architecture collaborated with UN environmental organizations to design, build and install the house, called an Ecological Living Module. AttributionChristine Maurus: editor primaryDaniel Taub: editor responsible secondaryDoni Holloway: by reporterRob Urban: by reporter. [Extracted from the article]

The article reports on revenue from the use of state subsidies for biotechnology (biotech) startups in Massachusetts. It mentions the 201 million dollars in seed stage venture capital funding raised by tenants of the non-profit organization and shared laboratory facility LabCentral in Cambridge, the five million-dollar investment of taxpayer money in the nonprofit under the 2008 Life Sciences Act of the U.S. and the move by the state to tap into the commercial potential of existing research.

The article discusses how data miners such as DigitizeIQ are using the social networking site Facebook and public records to search for plaintiffs for lawsuits against drug manufacturers. Topics covered include DigitizeIQ chief executive officer Tim Burd's combination of data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Facebook's marketing tools and drug manufacturers' efforts to cast doubt on the legitimacy of plaintiffs discovered through lead generators.

The article focuses on the plan by U.S. legislators to tighten laws that allow parents to skip vaccinating their children following an outbreak of measles, mumps and pertussis. Topics covered include the creation by Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward of a bill to scrap religious or personal reasons for opting out of mandatory inoculations, the introduction by Senator Martin Malave of a bill to create a philosophical exemption and the states that refuse exemptions to vaccination.

The article discusses the building of walk-in medical clinics in vacant spaces within U.S. malls and shopping centers. Topics include the growth of the mall clinic industry and medical clinic companies such as City Practice Group of New York and Concentra, benefits for clinics and mall owners such as longer-term leases, high foot traffic, visibility, and space availability, and increases in health care demand due to the U.S. Affordable Care Act health care legislation.

Thalomid, Revlimid, and Celgene's latest successor drug, Pomalyst, accounted for $8.4 billion, or about 75 percent, of Celgene's revenue last year and made the company one of the fastest-growing U.S. biotech firms. Brown alleged that while Celgene initially got U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval in 1998 for Thalomid to be used on leprosy patients, the company hired more than 100 salespeople to hype the drug to cancer doctors. [Extracted from the article]

Biogen Inc. said its interactions with health-care providers in Italy are under investigation by a prosecutor in Milan. AttributionCecile Daurat: editor primaryJohn Lauerman: editor secondaryDoni Bloomfield: by reporterDrew Armstrong: editor responsible. [Extracted from the article]

On Thursday, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from Bloomberg News to the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General, the OIG said that there was an "open and ongoing investigation" into the rare disease drugmaker. The Office of Inspector General conducts audits and investigations related to fraud, waste and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid and other government health programs. [Extracted from the article]

The Republican health-care bill that's already encountering stiff opposition from hospitals, doctors, and patients now has another group worried: rare-disease drugmakers and the patients who need those high-priced treatments. Last year, there were 16 drugs that cost more than $200,000 a year per U.S. patient, including blockbusters like Shire Plc's hemophilia therapy Advate and Jazz Pharmaceuticals Plc's narcolepsy drug Xyrem, according to Evaluate. [Extracted from the article]

Prothena Corp. dropped after short seller Muddy Waters Capital said that the drugmaker's lead compound doesn't help patients much more than existing therapies. Muddy Waters alleges that Prothena's lead experimental drug, called NEOD001, isn't effective for a rare protein disease beyond standard chemotherapy treatment. [Extracted from the article]

Chris Collins is biggest shareholder in Australia's Innate Some of Collins' colleagues also got into the company, buying shares in early 2017, near the stock's peak. Collins owned 37.9 million Innate shares as of December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, with his children holding 5.2 million shares each. [Extracted from the article]

Contract research organizations -- the science-for-hire firms that handle clinical trials, medical-lab testing and other services for pharmaceutical companies -- are all the talk of the health-care M&A world. KPMG estimates that 10 firms account for just over half of the $30 billion contract research industry. [Extracted from the article]

Infection rates rise in young adults, thanks to drug abuse Even with the new surveillance efforts, hepatitis C detection can be difficult, particularly among younger patients who may be using drugs and are less likely get regular medical care. [Extracted from the article]

Law enforcement officials have found evidence that some of the lawsuits were fraudulent, according to the request, and used alleged fake diagnoses and a partnership between Alexion and the association to attract potential patients. Patient lawsuits helped Alexion bring in 1.29 billion reais ($400 million) from the Brazilian government in the last six years, according to the search warrant request. [Extracted from the article]

Lenders are skeptical of vitamin seller's turnaround effort Investors remain wary of GNC's challenges since it took out the loan and amid the struggles of the wider retail sector. [Extracted from the article]

Nearly 80 percent of health care in Saudi Arabia is provided by the government, Al-Rabiah said in an interview in Boston. Saudi Arabia hasn't stopped or slowed orders for medical devices, Al-Rabiah added. [Extracted from the article]

On Tuesday, Merck & Co. became the latest drugmaker to report a slowdown for diabetes drugs, after Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Plc both blamed price pressures for hurting sales in the first quarter. Payer pushback has limited its ability to raise the price of its biggest drug, the arthritis treatment Enbrel. [Extracted from the article]

Valeant Hopes Move Past "Valeant" Can Put Struggles in Past (2) Chief Executive Officer Joe Papa said that Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. is considering a name change after a two-year stretch that has seen the company lose more than 95 percent of its value amid harsh criticism of its business practices and future prospects. Valeant is attempting a turnaround under Papa, who took over last year after ex-CEO Mike Pearson left. [Extracted from the article]

Biogen's Spinraza, a treatment for spinal muscular atrophy, had $47 million in sales, the company said Tuesday in a statement, more than three times the $15.1 million average estimate of analysts. Only 25 percent of Spinraza vials dispensed so far have been through Biogen's free drug program, according to company slides posted Tuesday, suggesting that the therapy is winning speedy reimbursement from payers. [Extracted from the article]

Biogen Says It's Back, Ready for "Highly Active" Dealmaking (1) Betting heavily on treatments for severe brain and nerve diseases, Biogen is running several late-stage trials in Alzheimer's disease. Biogen acquired the rights to it through a co-development deal with Ionis Pharmaceuticals Inc., which Ehlers sees as a template. [Extracted from the article]

(Bloomberg) -- Medicine Targeting DNA Shows Promise With Hemophilia Patients This week, Bloomberg's Doni Bloomfield visits the scientists behind this treatment and a patient who has actually tried it. Attribution Pia Gadkari: editor Doni Bloomfield: author Brad Stone: author Magnus Henriksson: editor Liz Smith: editor. [Extracted from the article]

Spark Therapeutics developing gene-based hemophilia treatment UniQure NV is also working on gene therapy for hemophilia B, and BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. is developing a treatment for the more common hemophilia A. The current global market for hemophilia is worth more than $8 billion a year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence. One hemophilia patient covered by Express Scripts Holding Co. used $6 million worth of factor protein replacement in a single year, according to the drug benefit manager. [Extracted from the article]

Valeant is now back to its 2009 levels, way below its August 2015 peak of $262.52 a share. AttributionCecile Daurat: editor primaryJohn Lauerman: editor secondaryCynthia Koons: assistDoni Bloomfield: by reporterDrew Armstrong: editor responsible. [Extracted from the article]