Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Marketplace Roundup: Biotech Organogenesis To Go Public Again; Eyes On Esperion Cholesterol Trial
Organogenesis Inc., a Canton biotech that sells wound care and skin graft products, is going public again, 16 years after it went private amid financial problems. The biotech, founded in 1985 as a spinoff of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, announced it is merging with a special entity created by Avista Capital, a New York private equity firm. (Saltzman, 8/20)
Is a small company poised to shake up the multibillion-dollar market for cardiovascular drugs, or is it about to descend into irrelevance? That鈥檚 the question hanging over Esperion Therapeutics and its experimental cholesterol-cutting therapy. The drug is being developed as an option for patients who can鈥檛 get what they need from cheap, generic statins but who also don鈥檛 require pricey injectable medicines called PCSK9 inhibitors, which can cost more than $10,000 a year. (Garde, 8/21)
A development company that's owned by the corporate parent for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota has made two investments this year in health care startups, including a deal announced this month to back a sports medicine company based in Georgia. Stella Development, the Blue Cross affiliate, did not announce financial terms for either deal. (Snowbeck, 8/20)
Drugmaker AbbVie is donating $100 million to Ronald McDonald House Charities, which help provide housing to pediatric patients and their families throughout the U.S. The donation announced Monday is the single largest ever gift to Chicago-based charity network. The money will be used to build housing in at least 26 states and at 32 Ronald McDonald Houses. (8/20)