Most popular news headlines for Tuesday, August 5 2014

The most-clicked news item for Tuesday was “Pfizer Megadeal Still in Sight After Astra: Real M&A.”  Apparently, there are other probable targets that would allow Pfizer to move headquarters overseas for tax advantages - namely Actavis and GSK.  The article discusses the potential pros and cons of these potential deals.

The second-most clicked item was “Novo Nordisk Leapfrogs Glaxo as U.K. Drug Giant Declines.”  The latest earnings reports have shown Novo Nordisk to displace GSK and become Europe’s fourth-biggest drug company by market value.

Once again, the Ebola virus was a hot topic, as the third most popular news item was “Ebola Drug Provided for Two Americans by Nine-Employee Company,” about a yet-to-be-approved treatment that has been given to two infected Americans that had contracted the disease doing aid work in Liberia.

Note to Big Pharma: Discounts work. GSK price cuts score Advair a payer boost” was the fourth most popular news item Tuesday.  This Fierce Pharma piece indicates that the reason that Express Scripts has agreed to start paying for the GSK’s lung drug Advair again came down to price discounts.