Walgreens to be acquired in $10B take-private deal The struggling retail pharmacy chain entered an agreement to be purchased by private equity firm Sycamore Partners, which could end its nearly 100-year run as a public company.

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from STAT:

UnitedHealth continues making stealthy deals, pushing deeper into medical care as scrutiny mounts

Financial documents show the sprawling conglomerate acquired or created 250 subsidiaries in 2024 as it continues an ambitious vertical integration strategy.

from Endpoints News:

AbbVie’s move into the obesity market, at long last

One of the last Big Pharma holdouts in obesity is now in the game, as AbbVie partnered with the Danish biotech Gubra on an experimental medicine called GUBamy, also known as GUB014295. The program is not a GLP-1, but rather a long-acting amylin analog, which is a peptide-based drug that could be more complex to manufacture. It’s currently in the multiple ascending dose portion of Phase 1 testing, with interim results expected before July. There are multiple other companies in the amylin space, including Zealand, Metsera, Structure and AstraZeneca, among others. But recent attempts at amylin have not always succeeded. Novo Nordisk tested its GLP-1 drug Wegovy in combination with an amylin program and disappointed investors, while Zealand is still searching for a partner for its own amylin drug.