Xphozah is used to lower high phosphate levels in patients with chronic kidney disease who are on dialysis.
Being moved into the bundle typically reduces pricing power and can slow adoption by dialysis providers compared with separate reimbursement.
Jefferies noted that the appellate court decision effectively resolves the long-running legal challenge.
Shares of Ardelyx (ARDX) fell 8% on Friday after a federal appellate court reaffirmed a lower court decision and dismissed the company's appeal regarding its drug Xphozah not being eligible for separate reimbursement under Medicare.
The stock clocked its worst day since late February on Friday.
Court Decision Ends Legal Challenge
The ruling clears the way for Xphozah to be included in Medicare's End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) bundled payment system. Under this system, dialysis centers receive a fixed payment that covers most services and medications for patients. As a result, Xphozah will no longer be reimbursed separately under Medicare Part D.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said federal law prevents judges from reviewing Medicare's decision to include certain kidney drugs in the dialysis payment bundle. As a result, the appeals court dismissed Ardelyx's case and upheld the lower court's ruling.
Xphozah is used to lower high phosphate levels in patients with chronic kidney disease who are on dialysis. Being moved into the bundle typically reduces pricing power and can slow adoption by dialysis providers compared with separate reimbursement.
Jefferies View
Jefferies noted that the appellate court decision this morning effectively resolves the long-running legal challenge. The firm had viewed the appeal as a "free call option" and said investors had not been heavily focused on it as a major catalyst.
"The loss shouldn't fundamentally change anything," Jefferies wrote in a research note.
However, the analyst flagged that second-quarter sales of Ardelyx's other product, IBSRELA, are likely to come in below consensus estimates. With the Medicare appeal now behind the company, Jefferies said shares could face some near-term pressure. The firm maintained its 'Buy' rating and $15 price target on Ardelyx, representing a potential upside of about 170% from the last closing price.
Ardelyx's two main products are IBSRELA, which treats irritable bowel syndrome with constipation and has shown strong growth, and Xphozah. The company has continued to report revenue growth from both drugs despite the reimbursement uncertainty surrounding Xphozah.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said on Friday that it will be impossible to implement theframework agreementreached between Israel and Lebanon without starting a civil war.
"This authority will not be able to impose its will on the Lebanese people. The fundamental factor is the field, and we control the field; we are the people of the land ... The authority has given a gift to the Israeli enemy, which will have no effect on the ground. Any action taken by the authority will be met with resistance, and we will cling to our resistance and our weapons even more," Fadlallah told Al-Mayadeen in an interview.
The Hezbollah lawmaker also stated that the actions by the Lebanese authorities will "only undermine the country and serve the interests of the Israeli enemy," emphasizing that the deal "risks creating dangerous internal divisions."
The United States Central Command (CENTCOM) said it carried outstrikes against Iranin retaliation for an Iranian drone strike against a Singapore-flagged vessel in the Strait of Hormuz.
"US aircraft struck Iranian missile and drone storage locations and coastal radar sites after Iran hit M/V Ever Lovely on June 25 with a one-way attack drone. The Singapore-flagged cargo ship was exiting the Strait of Hormuz along the Omani coast at the time of Iran’s attack," CENTCOM said in a statement published via social media. CENTCOM described the ship attack as "dangerous behavior" that threatens shipping in the Strait, while vowing to continue its efforts to protect maritime traffic in the vital waterway.
Shortly before the announcement, Iran's state media said a blast was heard in Sirik in the Hormozgan Province in southern Iran.
President Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton pleaded guilty Friday to a single count ofhoarding national defense informationwhile working in the White House, leaving the 77-year-old facing up to five years in federal prison.
Bolton, an Iran hawk and former US ambassador to the United Nations, copped to the charge during a nearly hour-long hearing in federal court just outside Washington, responding to US District Judge Theodore Chuang’s inquiry about whether he was guilty: “I am, Your Honor, and sorry for it.”
A court clerk later read the count aloud and asked Bolton, clad in a dark suit and striped tie, to formally enter his plea — which he did by saying “Guilty” in a resolute tone.
Former US Ambassador to the UN and national security adviser John Bolton arrives for a plea hearing at the US District Court for the District of Maryland on June 26, 2026, in Greenbelt, Maryland.Getty Images
Bolton leaves the US District Court for the District of Maryland after his plea deal hearing on June 26, 2026, in Greenbelt, Maryland.Getty ImagesThe charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, but US Attorney Kelly Hayes clarified to reporters following the hearing that the Justice Department was asking for a five-year sentence and three years of supervised release as part of a plea agreement that will also force Bolton to pay a $2.25 million fine.
“As Mr. Bolton just admitted, he put our national security at grave risk in violation of the law,” Hayes said of the 77-year-old former White House official. “No one is above the law.”
“The national defense information at issue in this case was classified at the highest classification levels,” Hayes added, claiming that it “revealed intelligence about an adversary’s plans for an attack conducted against US forces in another country; it contained human intelligence using sensitive sources; and it discussed a covert action program.”
Sentencing was set for Oct. 28, with Chuang noting that Bolton would not be eligible for parole before releasing him. The case judge, appointed to the federal bench by Barack Obama in 2014, made headlines last year for temporarily blocking efforts by the Department of Government Efficiency to dissolve the US Agency for International Development.
The ex-Trump official’s plea makes his case the first in a series brought by the 47th president’s Department of Justice against political adversaries — including former FBI Director James Comey and New York State Attorney General Letitia James — that has resulted in a conviction.
Bolton has been a frequent critic of Trump since his departure from the 45th president’s administration in September 2019.
Prosecutor Tanner Kroeger said Bolton shared “more than 1,000 pages” of classified information “in the form of diaries with two family members” — believed to be his wife and daughter — in anticipation of a memoir that he would be paid a $1.5 million advance to write.
That information was transmitted between the personal email accounts of Bolton and his relatives and stored digitally. The notes also existed in handwritten form based on jottings from his 17 months in the Trump White House.
While holding a top-secret security clearance, Bolton also transmitted eight documents over his private email despite “at no point” being authorized to do so, according to Kroeger.
Seven of those were determined to be classified at the “top secret” level, the highest under the US government’s national security system.
US Attorney for the District of Maryland Kelly O. Hayes (C) speaks to the media following a plea deal hearing with Bolton on June 26, 2026, in Greenbelt, Maryland.Getty Images
The longtime GOP foreign policy figure was indicted by a federal grand jury this past October on 18 counts of illegally hoarding or sending sensitive information, raising the prospect that Bolton would spend the rest of his life behind bars after his Maryland home and DC office were raided by federal investigators on Aug. 22, 2025.
Bolton pleaded guilty to count 12 of the indictment, with prosecutors intending to formally dismiss the remaining counts at October’s sentencing hearing.
Among the items recovered by the FBI were documents about weapons of mass destruction, internal government communications about strategy, secret travel memos, and the US mission to the UN.
Bolton pleaded guilty to count 12 of the indictment, with prosecutors intending to formally dismiss the remaining counts at October’s sentencing hearing.REUTERS
Portions of Bolton’s diaries were exposed in July 2021 after his AOL email account was infiltrated by Iranian-linked hackers, Kroeger and Bolton affirmed Friday.
Bolton subsequently told federal agents of the hack, but not that it compromised some national security information, according to the prosecutor.
The former national security adviser has faced constant security threats from Iran since the January 2020 killing of notorious military commander Qassem Soleimani.
Friday’s guilty plea by Bolton wraps up a long-running investigation that began near the end of Trump’s first term and that FBI sources previously told The Post was mysteriously “shelved” during the administration of President Joe Biden.
In 2020, Bolton faced a separate investigation into his handling of classified information surrounding the publication of his best-selling White House memoir, “The Room Where It Happened.”
The Trump administration asserted that Bolton’s manuscript could harm national security if published. Bolton’s lawyers have said he moved forward with the book after a White House National Security Council official, with whom Bolton had worked for months, said the manuscript no longer contained classified information.
Bolton steps off Air Force One on April 16, 2018.REUTERS
Bolton’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, had argued that many of the documents seized by the feds in August had been approved during a pre-publication review for “The Room Where It Happened,” were decades old and dated from his client’s long career in government.
“Today, Ambassador Bolton did what real leaders do. He took responsibility for a mistake he made, thereby saving the government resources to pursue a case that could expose additional sensitive information,” Lowell said in a statement.
By contrast, President Trump thumbed his nose at the classified information laws, took actual classified documents to his Florida mansion, interfered with the investigation of that conduct, and has never accepted any accountability for his conduct,” he added.
“Ambassador Bolton, whose offense was only keeping a diary which contained classified information, kept a record to preserve history, but Donald Trump kept secrets to serve himself.”
Notably, Kroeger confirmed Friday that no classified information was published in Bolton’s book that related to the October indictment.
As part of the plea deal, the prosecutor confirmed that Bolton would “participate in a debrief with the intelligence community and members of the Justice Department,” forgo his government pension and perform 100 hours of community service.
“To have people who frankly taught the world about freedom have their own freedom put into jeopardy by the actions of a Supreme Court and federal administration — it is not only cruel, it’s not something we will ever accept,” Hizzoner said in a video statement after Thursday’s bombshell 6-3 ruling.
The high court ruled that the “temporary protected status” statutes don’t allow for judicial review and that lower courts can’t intervene in the Trump administration’s decision to remove deportation protections for more than 6,000 Syrians and 350,000 Haitians living in the US.
Mamdani immediately rallied with immigration advocates, Gov. Kathy Hochul and state Attorney General Letitia James following the ruling, and released the defiant video message afterward.
“The Supreme Court just sparked one of the largest attacks on immigrants in modern American history. In one fell swoop, thousands of Haitians and Syrians now risk losing the right to live and work in the country they call home,” Mamdani also said in a statement issued by City Hall.
“This decision will cause enormous pain across the five boroughs. Here in New York, it falls hardest on our Haitian community, one of the largest in the country, alongside Syrian families,” the statement said.
“To the tens of thousands of New Yorkers with TPS who are watching the news, frightened about what comes next, hear me clearly: New York City is your home. You belong here. We will not turn our backs on you.”
SCOTUS ruled that lower courts can’t intervene in the Trump administration’s decision to remove deportation protections for more than 6,000 Syrians and 350,000 Haitians living in the US.AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
City Hall said the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs would be sharing “additional information and resources soon.”
“You will not face this cruelty alone. This administration will stand alongside immigrant New Yorkers today, tomorrow, and every day that follows,” Mamdani said.
New York’s sanctuary rules largely prevent local law enforcement from enforcing federal immigration laws and operations, or cooperating with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
But Mamdani has boosted the Big Apple’s sanctuary rules since taking office in January.
The mayor signed an executive order in February strengthening sanctuary protections, including a prohibition on ICE entering city property like public schools, homeless shelters and hospitals without a judicial warrant.
As part of the executive order, The mayor’s office also said it was auditing city agencies to examine whether they were upholding sanctuary policies and issued recommendations for departments to better comply with the rules. It also ordered the training of city workers on sanctuary laws.
“We will make it clear once again ICE will not be able to enter New York City property without a judicial warrant. That means our schools, our shelters and our hospitals,” Mamdani said at the time.
City data shows that there are roughly 115,000 Haitians and nearly 12,000 Syrians across the Big Apple.
TPS protections had been in place for Syrians since 2012 due to the outbreak of civil war and has been in place for Haitians since 2010 following the deadly earthquake.
The Trump administration successfully removed TPS designation for Venezuelan migrants after the Supreme Court issued a similar ruling.
