Amgen to buy Celgene's psoriasis drug Otezla for $13.4B

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(Reuters) – Celgene Corp will sell its psoriasis drug Otezla for $13.4 billion in cash to Amgen Inc, taking Celgene a step closer to a $74-billion takeover by Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.

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Bristol-Myers said on Monday it expects the deal to close by 2019 end. The company in June offered to sell Otezla to allay concerns raised by U.S. antitrust regulators, with an analyst valuing a deal for the drug at about $9 billion at the time.

The psoriasis drug brought in sales of $1.61 billion last year. Amgen said it expected Otezla sales to grow at least in the low double digits over the next five years.

The deal for Otezla and certain related assets and liabilities is valued at $11.2 billion, net of the present value of $2.2 billion in future cash tax benefits.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb said it was increasing a previously planned $5 billion accelerated share buyback to $7 billion.

Its shares rose 5.2% and those of Celgene gained 3.7% in trading before the opening bell, while Amgen fell about 1 percent.

(Reporting by Manas Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Arun Koyyur)

Pitney Bowes To Sell Software Solutions Business; Updates Guidance – Quick Facts

Pitney Bowes Inc. (PBI) has agreed to sell its Software Solutions unit to Syncsort for $700 million. Pitney Bowes plans to use the majority of the proceeds to pay down near-term debt maturities. The company has decided to further streamline its operations and reduce spend.

Pitney Bowes updated its annual adjusted EPS guidance to reflect the impact of the sale of Software Solutions, and due to the impact from the higher level of tariffs. For 2019, the company now projects adjusted EPS to be in the range of $0.65 to $0.75. Revenue growth guidance was updated to a range of 1 to 2 percent on a constant currency basis.

TREASURIES-U.S. yields little changed after durable goods data

NEW YORK, Aug 26 (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury yields were little changed on Monday as domestic orders for durable goods unexpectedly rose in July but shipments fell by the most in nearly three years, suggesting capital investments remained sluggish.

At 8:36 a.m. (1236 GMT), the yields on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were 1.533%, virtually unchanged from late on Friday. They touched 1.443% earlier Monday, their lowest level since July 2016, prompted by worries about escalating trade tensions between China and the United States. (Reporting by Richard Leong)

Kraft Heinz CFO to return to 3G Capital

Kraft Heinz Co. KHC, -1.13% said Monday that David Knopf, the company’s chief financial officer, will leave the company to return to private-equity firm 3G Capital. Knopf has been a partner at 3G since 2015; he’s been with Kraft Heinz for four years. Kraft Heinz will move Paulo Basilio back into the CFO role, effective September 1. In October 2017, Basilio was named president of U.S. commercial business, and since July 2019, he has been chief business planning and development officer. Basilio joined Kraft Heinz as CFO in June 2013. The company says it has not determined whether to change Basilio’s compensation with the shifting role. Kraft Heinz is in the midst of a restructuring and has had to restate financial statements going back to 2016. Kraft Heinz stock has sunk more than 57% over the past year while the S&P 500 index SPX, -2.59% has lost 1% for the period.

Biotech Stocks Facing FDA Decision In September 2019

The month of August saw some important decisions and a couple of firsts happening on the regulatory front.

In order to promote greater public understanding of the full scope of serious negative health consequences of cigarette smoking, the FDA on August 15, 2019, proposed new required health warnings with color images for cigarette packages and advertisements. The proposed rule is open for public comments for 60 days through October 15, 2019.

Turalio, the first therapy for symptomatic tenosynovial giant cell tumor, a rare joint tumor, received FDA approval on August 2, 2019. Developed by Daiichi Sankyo, the drug sports a boxed warning about the risk of serious and potentially fatal liver injury.

The first of its kind device to treat pediatric patients with progressive idiopathic scoliosis, the most common type of spinal deformity, also received the regulatory nod this month. The device, called The Tether – Vertebral Body Tethering System, is developed by Zimmer Biomet Spine.

As of this writing, 25 novel drugs have been approved year-to-date compared to 35 during the same period last year. It should be noted that 59 novel drugs were approved in full-year 2018, an all-time high for new drug approvals.

Now, let’s take a look at the companies that await a ruling from the FDA in September 2019.

Tesla plans to raise prices in China amid trade war

US electric vehicle maker Tesla will raise prices in China on Friday, earlier than planned, and is considering increasing prices again in December should Chinese tariffs on US-made cars take effect, people familiar with the matter said.

The people declined to be identified as the plan has not been made public. A Tesla representative did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on Monday.

The company is among many impacted by Sino-US trade friction. It currently imports all the cars it sells in China and has had to adjust prices multiple times over the past year due to tariff changes.

Reuters reported this month that Tesla was considering to lift prices in China from September after the yuan weakened significantly against the US dollar. One person told Reuters on Monday that the automaker was bringing forward these plans to Aug. 30.

Both people said the automaker is now also mulling another price hike in December after China’s commerce ministry last week announced it would reinstitute tariffs of 25 percent on vehicles and 5 percent on auto parts which it suspended in December, in the latest tit-for-tat escalation of the trade war.

“Tesla will also try to ship more cars to China before December, before the tariff hikes,” said one of the people.