Aetna Takes Amerigroup Spot in Kansas Managed Medicaid Contract

Aetna has received a Managed Medicaid contract from the state of Kansas for plan year 2019 and will replace Amerigroup as one of the state’s three managed care payers.

The state received six bids from commercial payers and determined that bringing Aetna in as a managed care organization (MCO) would better benefit the goals of KanCare, the state’s Medicaid program.

Medicaid officials decided to keep Centene’s Sunflower State Health Plan and UnitedHealthcare’s Community Plan as MCOs, and switch out Amerigroup for Aetna.

 

The state believes that the new set of payer participants will provide greater oversight, improved response to consumer needs, enhanced care coordination, employment and behavioral health supports, and new value-added benefits for Medicaid beneficiaries

“These new KanCare contracts will provide Medicaid waiver consumers with enhanced, comprehensive care and services,” said Kansas Department for Aging and Disability Services Secretary Tim Keck. “We are looking forward to offering them improved care coordination and more work opportunities that will encourage them to grow and thrive while living in their home communities.”

The contract allows Aetna to provide KanCare members with medical benefits as well as long-term support services and behavioral health benefits. Currently, Aetna serves nearly 2.8 million managed Medicaid beneficiaries across 15 states.

Janet Grant, Vice President of Aetna Better Health’s Great Plains Region, expressed eagerness to work with the state of Kansas to provide benefits to Kansas’s most vulnerable beneficiaries.

“We appreciate the State’s fair and thorough evaluation process and we’re confident we can deliver improved health status, better access to coordinated care and greater emphasis on prevention and education,” Grant said in a press release.

“We are known nationally for our ability to establish collaborative relationships with health care providers and community leaders that focus on making members healthier and improving their health care experience.”

However, Amerigroup will appeal their exit from KanCare managed program, and use a formal bidding process to contest the state’s decision, the Kansas City Star reported.

Denise Malecki, a spokesperson for Amerigroup, told the Star that her organization is disappointed the decision after Amerigroup has helped initiate the state’s managed care program back in 2013.

“We are committed to working collaboratively with the state to review the process and determine the best approach for moving forward,” Malecki said. “In the meantime, we remain focused on our top priority — the Kansans we serve. As we proceed with our protest, we will work diligently to ensure individuals have uninterrupted access to services, and deliver care that helps improve their health and well-being.”

Pending the appeal, Amerigroup’s managed care beneficiaries will be able to enroll in a new MCO starting in October and can use their benefits until December 31, 2018.

https://bit.ly/2lIK5r7

California bans local soda taxes

California cities and counties won’t be allowed to tax soda for the next 12 years after Gov. Jerry Brown signed fast-moving legislation Thursday.

The bill, which was first unveiled Saturday evening, prohibits local governments from imposing new taxes on soda until 2031. It comes after a deal was struck between legislators and business and labor interests who agreed to remove an initiative from the Nov. 6 statewide ballot that would have restricted cities and counties from raising any taxes without a supermajority vote of local citizens.

In a signing statement, Brown said soda taxes “combat the dangerous and ill effects of too much sugar in the diets of children.” But he added that mayors across the state called him to support the deal because they were alarmed by the tax initiative.

Brown also reacted strongly to another part of the initiative, which would have restricted the state’s ability to raise certain fees without a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

“This would be an abomination,” Brown wrote.

Many lawmakers shared Brown’s mixed emotions toward the soda tax ban.

During debate on the legislation, Assembly Bill 1838, legislators said they reluctantly voted to impose the moratorium because the ballot measure, for which signatures were gathered by a political campaign financed by more than $7 million from the beverage industry, would have been worse for state and local government coffers.

Assemblyman Kevin McCarty (D-Sacramento) said he was against both the soda tax ban and how the beverage industry used the threat of an initiative to force the Legislature’s hand, but ultimately supported it.

“I think this is a terrible decision that we’re making,” McCarty said during a state Capitol hearing on the bill Thursday morning.

Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) voted against the deal, but said he understood the choice his colleagues were making.

The beverage “industry is aiming basically a nuclear weapon at governing in California and saying if you don’t do what we want, we’re going to pull the trigger and you are not going to be able to fund basic government services,” Wiener said. “This is a pick-your-poison kind of situation, a Sophie’s choice. What the Legislature is doing is perfectly reasonable.”

Minutes after Brown signed the soda tax ban, proponents formally withdrew their initiative from the statewide ballot. The deadline to do so was Thursday.

The initiative wouldn’t have banned local soda or other tax increases. But it would have made them much harder to pass. It would have required all local tax hikes to pass by a two-thirds supermajority vote, making it significantly more difficult for cities and counties to raise revenue for a variety of projects.

Currently, any local sales, hotel-room or other tax increase needs a simple majority of local ballots that are cast — provided that the money goes to a city’s day-to-day operating budget. Roughly half of the local tax measures approved by voters since 2012 — raising hundreds of millions of dollars annually — did not receive supermajority approval, according to the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Public health advocates have been pushing for soda taxes across the United States for years, saying that higher prices would reduce consumption amid growing rates of obesity and diabetes while also generating more revenue for local governments. By contrast, the beverage industry has argued such taxes make it harder for low-income residents to buy groceries and unfairly single out soda as the cause of health problems.

Thirty cities and states attempted to pass soda taxes before Berkeley became the first to succeed in November 2014, charging a penny-per-ounce tax. Since then, three other Bay Area cities — San Francisco, Oakland and Albany — have passed soda taxes. The soda tax ban leaves those measures intact, but prohibits others that would have taken effect this year. Earlier this week, Santa Cruz city officials voted to put a 1.5-cent-per-ounce soda tax on the November ballot, an effort that will be blocked under the new state legislation.

Activists were stunned by the quick action on the soda tax ban. Carter Headrick, director of state and local obesity policy initiatives at the American Heart Assn., said using a ballot initiative to leverage lawmakers to prohibit soda taxes in communities across California was “blackmail.”

“I don’t think the [beverage industry] ought to be forcing legislators to be taking away the rights of people to vote,” Headrick said.

Some lawmakers attacked the deal because they supported the initiative. Sen. Jeff Stone (R-Temecula) said that Thursday’s decision subverted the will of Californians who wanted to keep their taxes low.

“This bill tells 1 million people that signed this petition to make it harder to raise their taxes that their voices don’t matter,” Stone said.

The American Beverage Assn., which represents soda companies and other nonalcoholic drink manufacturers, contributed 85% of the initial $8.3 million raised by backers of the ballot measure.

A spokesman for the association said that the legislation would keep grocery prices lower and that the industry was working to find alternatives to reduce sugar consumption.

“We believe the legislation approved today will allow us to work toward these goals,” association spokesman William M. Dermody Jr. said in a statement.

Labor interests added momentum to the eleventh-hour soda tax ban legislation, saying the initiative would be far more damaging to the state.

“A temporary pause on further local soda taxes gives California the opportunity to work on a statewide approach to the public health crisis of diabetes,” Alma Hernandez, executive director of SEIU California, said in a statement.

https://lat.ms/2MArKrI

‘FitBit for your stomach’ charges itself using your organs

MIT wants to help you listen to your stomach.

No, it won’t project the grumbles you get before your lunch break. Instead, this team of scientists has created a “FitBit for your stomach” to monitor your gastrointestinal system, lead researcher Canan Dagdeviren tells Stat.

These so-called “conformable decoders” are packaged inside a pill and swallowed by a patient, Stat reports. The pill dissolves, and an embedded device latches to the stomach lining. It can then start transmitting messages, revealing how your stomach behaves when you’re stressed, eating, or sleeping.

The device powers itself on heartbeats and other organ movements using a form of electrical energy Pierre Curie first discovered in the 1800s. And since it conforms to the stomach wall, the decoder can likely stay in the body indefinitely, Dagdeviren told Stat. Eventually, it could be used to diagnose gastrointestinal issues.

https://bit.ly/2tJ8JfF

OIG, GAO say CMS isn’t doing enough to curb Medicaid fraud

Supplemental payments and demonstration programs could be the source of improper payments coming out of the Medicaid program.

And the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) needs to do much more to stop the flow, witnesses said in Senate hearing.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, began the Wednesday hearing by highlighting the increase in government spending on healthcare.

“If Americans are spending their own money on healthcare, I’d be OK with that,” but they’re not, he said. “We have to be very careful with taxpayer dollars.”

He added that Medicaid spending will climb to $723 billion per year within the next 10 years, requiring greater oversight. Johnson also noted that Medicaid wasted $37 billion on improper payments last year.

“We are spending hundreds of billions of dollars, and we want this money spent well,” he said. “When we have $37 billion in improper payments, it’s something we need to provide oversight of.”

The hearing followed on the heels of a new initiative announced Tuesday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services that intends to crack down on Medicaid, including conducting audits at the state level. Officials from neither CMS for the Department of Health and Human Services spoke at the hearing.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., agreed with Johnson that Medicaid needs to be more efficient and better handle its finances, but she also took a jab at pharmaceutical companies for increasing drug prices.

“It is ridiculous that we are handcuffing Americans with higher costs because we are protecting profits of the pharmaceutical industry,” she said.

Eugene L. Dodaro, comptroller of the Government Accountable Office, told lawmakers improper Medicaid payments could be much higher than $37 billion because managed care spending is not properly evaluated for improper payments.

“There really isn’t a full measure of the payment issues in the Medicaid program,” he said.

Supplemental payments and demonstration programs might also not receive proper oversight, Dodaro said, adding that Congress could take action on tightening budget neutrality issues within demonstration programs.

“[CMS] has a policy that when they approve demonstrations it should be budget neutral, and we’ve repeatedly found that that’s not the case … and ends up costing the federal government more,” he said.

The comptroller also said that the new CMS initiative doesn’t fully address all of his concerns.

“Much more urgent and aggressive action is needed by CMS in these areas,” as Medicaid spending continues to increase, and as a result, so will improper payments, Dodaro said.

Brian Ritchie, assistant inspector general for audit services at HHS Office of Inspector General reminded lawmakers that the CMS has not implemented various recommendations the OIG has made in recent years to curb fraud.

A previous recommendation included ensuring that national Medicaid data are complete, accurate and timely, which Ritchie said went unimplemented.

https://bit.ly/2yVkwfV

Top News And Data From The Cannabis Industry This Week

It was another extremely busy week for the cannabis industry.

Voters in Oklahoma chose to legalize medical marijuana, becoming the 30^th U.S. state to do so; GW Pharmaceuticals GWPH 0.78% got the first-ever FDA approval for a cannabis-based drug; Ice Cube’s Big3 basketball league started allowing players to medicate with CBD; Aurora Cannabis ACBFF 0.14% closed a debt deal with the Bank of Montreal worth up to C$250 million ($188.6 million); and U.S. Congress passed a bill would (pending the President’s approval) legalize hemp, the plant often described as the non-psychoactive “cousin” of marijuana.

“The FDA’s approval of GW Pharmaceutical’s drug Epidiolex has pushed the controlled substance scheduling classification to the edge. GW Pharma says the drug will be rescheduled within 90 days so that patients can get a prescription, while the FDA will only say that it has sent a recommendation to the DEA – but wouldn’t say what the recommendation was,” Debra Borchardt, CEO of Green Market Report told Benzinga.

“The key takeaway from the FDA decision to approve Epidiolex is GW Pharma’s approach to harnessing CBD’s potential and packaging it into a medicine that conveys the safety, consistency and clarity that FDA approval affords,” Julie Raque, director of marketing at cannabis-focused R&D company Cannabistry Labs, added. “This is a step forward for everyone in the cannabis industry, as the government begins to finally acknowledge the powerful potential of cannabis. Cannabis is a unique plant with a myriad of therapeutic abilities – we are just scratching the surface of research and development.”

Commenting on the Farm Bill legalizing hemp, Borchard said, “Adding fuel to the rescheduling fire, the U.S. Senate legalized industrial hemp and removed it form the controlled substances list as a part of the Farm Bill. Now, the next step will need to be the President signing the Farm Bill. This will be huge for any of the companies that deal in hemp-based CBD products.

“Both of these actions together will make it harder and harder for cannabis to remain a Schedule One drug on the controlled substances list.”

Despite the news, the United States Marijuana Index, which tracks 17 of the largest marijuana stocks in the U.S., lost 8.3 percent this week, while the North American Marijuana Index, which also includes Canadian stocks, tumbled 8.2 percent.

Over the last five trading days, the Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences Index ETF HMLSF 0.63% (TSE:HMMJ) slipped more than 8 percent, while the ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF MJ 0.07% shed 6.1 percent of its value. The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY 0.14% was down 0.65 percent.

Stock Moves

Here are some of the top marijuana stocks in U.S. exchanges and how the performed over the last five trading days:

• 22nd Century Group Inc XXII 2.38%: up 1.6 percent
• Aphria Inc APHQF 2.92%: down 5.4 percent
• Aurora Cannabis Inc: down 6 percent
• Cannabis Sativa Inc CBDS 3.34%: down 19.85 percent
• CannTrust Holdings Inc CNTTF 0.97%: down 12.6 percent
• Canopy Growth Corp CGC 4.41%: down 10.2 percent
• Cronos Group Inc. CRON 1.56%: down 9.25 percent
• GW Pharmaceuticals: down 7.7 percent
• Hiku Brands Company Ltd DJACF 2.83%: down 6.7 percent
• India Globalization Capital, Inc. IGC 3.92%: down 9 percent
• iAnthus Capital Holdings Inc ITHUF 1.29%: down 9.6 percent
• MassRoots Inc MSRT 1.6%: down 4 percent
• MedReleaf Corp MEDFF 0.54%: down 11.9 percent
• Scotts Miracle-Gro Co SMG 0.89%: up 2.1 percent
• THC Biomed Intl Ltd THCBF 1.1%: down 11.1 percent
• Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc ZYNE 0.1%: down 16.1 percent

In Other News

A consortium of cannabis-related media professionals are conducting a Cannabis Media Survey.

Aurora Cannabis closed a debt deal with BMO. Boasting a value of up to C$250 million ($188.6 million), the financing has been qualified as “the largest traditional debt facility in the cannabis industry to date.”

Cam Battley, Chief Corporate Officer at Aurora Cannabis, said, “This is a game changer in the cannabis sector. Aurora is the first cannabis company in the world to secure a large traditional debt facility, and that speaks well of the maturity of the company and the value of our assets. It’s also a recognition that leading Canadian companies are at the forefront of the creation of a new global industry. Aurora has ready access to significant capital, and a low cost of capital, with which to further accelerate international growth and establish operations in additional countries.”

Ice Cube’s Big3 basketball league started allowing players to use CBD for pain management and recovery. The press release claimed this was the first time a professional sports league permitted the use of CBD; however, the North American Premier Basketball League (or NAPB) had announced the same back in January.

Responding to these claims, Treyous Jarrells a consultant for CannaEndorsers, often conceived as responsible for getting the NAPB to allow its athletes use CBD products said, “plenty of people have gone to the moon following Neil Armstrong. For me, it’s about paying homage to those who influenced you to do what you did; and in this case, that is us [the NAPB and Green Roads Athletics]. I have risked everything including my life for this movement; David Magley risked his leagues image by openly affiliating the league with our products; and Green Roads showed the industry they have a quality finished product.

“I congratulate Ice Cube and Al Harrington on their announcement but, in all reality, if you are not first, you’re last,” Jarrells said.

The Arizona Court of Appeals ruled hashish isn’t protected by the 2010 Arizona Medical Marijuana Act. While the decision will most certainly be appealed to the Arizona Supreme Court, the ruling has the potential to impact patients’ use and possession of certain extracted cannabis products such as oils, waxes, and shatters.

“If this ruling is upheld, it would be an enormous miscarriage of justice that undermines the cornerstone of Arizona’s medical marijuana program, which is to protect our patients,” said Laura A. Bianchi, Esq., partner and cannabis law department director at Rose Law Group in Scottsdale, AZ. “In reviewing an Arizona criminal case, the Court of Appeals fashioned a new definition of hashish that created a direct conflict between our criminal code and Arizona’s medical marijuana law. Unless this decision is overturned – and I believe there is ample legal justification to presume it will be – the resulting inconsistencies and lack of clarity will most certainly jeopardize the medical marijuana program that Arizona voters approved, as well as place enormous liability on our patients, caregivers, license holders, and the community as a whole.”

Entrepreneur Media and PRØHBTD announced the closure of the nomination period for their inaugural Green Entrepreneur Top 100 Cannabis Leaders List. The awards will highlight the innovative entrepreneurs leading the way in the burgeoning cannabis industry.

“We’ve had an incredible response,” said Drake Sutton-Shearer, PRØHBTD CEO, highlighting the more than 8,000 nominations they received. “It’s a testament to the exploding interest and excitement in the cannabis space, and due to caliber of nominees, it will be a challenge to select the Top 100 emerging leaders.

“With sales projected to hit $10 billion this year, we are thrilled to be covering the innovative leaders of this booming industry,” added Bill Shaw, president of Entrepreneur Media.

Cronos Group announced a new strategic distribution partnership with pharmaceutical wholesaler Delfarma to supply Peace Naturals branded cannabis products for the latter to distribute within Poland. This expands Cronos’ footprint to four countries: Canada, Israel, Australia and Germany.

“Cronos is the first and so far only firm to have a distribution agreement in the Polish market,” the company’s head of investor relations, Anna Shlimak, told Benzinga. “Delfarma distributes to over 5,000 pharmacies and over 200 hospitals, a distribution network that reaches approximately 40 percent of the market in Poland.”

“This distribution agreement is an example of how we are executing on our strategy of creating strong partnerships and relationships with large established companies on an international scale. We will continue to establish international agreements and look for partners in areas that make sense for our continued growth as well as serve the domestic market in Canada.”

Stanley Brothers Holdings, the parent company of the famed hemp-based CBD products manufacturer Charlotte’s Web filed a preliminary prospectus for an IPO. The offering would be led by underwriter Canaccord Genuity, with intentions of listing on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE).

Tidal Royalty Corporation (CSE: RLTY), a provider of royalty financing to licensed U.S. cannabis operators, started trading on the Canadian Securities Exchange on June 25, after raising roughly C$40 million ($30.1 million). Tidal Royalty intends to use the net proceeds of the offering for “royalty financings and for working capital and general corporate purposes.”

“Tidal Royalty offers very innovative, non-dilutive finance solutions for the cannabis industry. We have no operational ambitions whatsoever,” chairman and CEO Paul Rosen told Benzinga. Having said this, he added the company will aim for large-scale operators, usually cutting checks of C$10 million ($7.5 million) or more.

BioTrackTHC launched its latest integration with DataOwl, enabling the former to offer its dispensary customers a fully integrated suite of revenue-building applications, including an online ordering module, digital menu boards, and a customer relationship management tool that generates targeted SMS text-messaging based on purchasing trends uncovered in their point of sale data.

“On the heels of our MainStem integration launch, DataOwl offers BioTrack customers another value-add that directly and meaningfully impacts their bottom lines,” said Patrick Vo, president and CEO of BioTrackTHC. “The Helix merger and additions of these key technology partnerships put us in the driver’s seat to continue expanding our product offerings and propel the industry forward.”

Starting July 1, California cannabis businesses will be required to play by new rules set forth by the Bureau of Cannabis Control. The new regulations require significant changes in testing, packaging and labeling that many producers and dispensaries are unprepared for.

“The enforcement of the temporary regulations is going to disrupt the industry significantly, creating a huge bottleneck in the supply chain due to new packaging and lab testing requirements. It’s going to be frustrating for everyone involved in cannabis, including consumers,” said Daniel Wacks, co-founder and CEO of cannabis company State Flower. “The black market will continue to thrive, and perhaps even more so, while everyone struggles to comply with the new product regulations. I expect we will be entering into the largest supply shortage the legal cannabis industry has ever experienced. On the other hand, after 22 years since proposition 215 was passed, California’s industry will finally have adequate consumer protections in place.”

Longmont-based New Herb Health announced it will debut Meta Hemp Solutions, a new line of spagyric-crafted, whole-plant hemp extracts for both humans and animals at the 64^th Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City. Using a specialized “spagyric” technique that combines ancient alchemy with modern science, and utilizing only organic grape alcohol and pure water, the company applies this innovative extract technology and a low temperature technique to preserve the living constituents of the original raw hemp plant.

“At New Herb Health, we care deeply about the health and well-being of our natural health-minded customers, and we’ve spent years creating Meta Hemp Solutions to further help them achieve their health goals. We’re completely confident in the efficacy of our products and look forward to educating people about the tremendous benefits of full-spectrum hemp extracts for both humans and animals,” said Steve St. Clair, founder of New Herb Health.

Casa Verde Capital and Imperial Brands led a Series A Investment in Oxford Cannabinoid Technologies, a biopharmaceutical company researching the potential of cannabinoid-based medications. In partnership with the University of Oxford, the company has commissioned research in many critical areas with indications ranging from pain and inflammation to cancer and gastrointestinal diseases. The round of funding will push forward this research and establish laboratory facilities in Europe.

Managing Partner of Casa Verde Capital, Karan Wadhera, said, “This is a landmark transaction bringing together strategic partners in complementary sectors. We are excited to work closely with Imperial Brands and OCT as we expand our reach into Europe.”

Heineken N.V. (ADR) HEINY 1.16%-owned Lagunitas Brewing company said it will debut a THC-infused sparkling water beverage, Hi-Fi Hops.

“The product is an IPA-inspired, THC- or CBD-infused sparkling water beverage produced in conjunction with CannaCraft. Lagunitas supplies the IPA-sparkling water and CannaCraft infuses the THC,” Benzinga’s Brett Hershman explained.

MariMed MRMD 1.76% and Cannabis Venture Partners have joined forces to continue to develop and expand the Sprout platform, a CRM and marketing software designed for dispensaries and cannabis brands. The software platform is used today by dispensaries and cannabis brands in nine states and its clients – brands and dispensaries – typically achieve 10x return on their marketing spend to acquire, retain, and increase share of wallet with their customers.

“With the proliferation of cannabis products across medical and recreational markets, Sprout is a tremendous resource to cannabis brands and dispensaries, enabling them to provide targeted information and offers to their customers. This in turn increases spend, loyalty, and engagement. We are investing in Cannabis Venture Partners to facilitate Sprout’s expansion as the ‘go-to’ CRM resource for the cannabis industry,” Bob Fireman, CEO of MariMed, told Benzinga.

The Green Organic Dutchman Holdings Ltd (TSX:TGOD) TGODF 2.59% entered into a letter of intent (LOI) for a 50/50 joint venture with Queen Genetics/Knud Jepsen based in Hinnerup, Denmark. The partnership will focus on the cultivation of premium organic cannabis and primary extraction following TGOD’s organic growing protocols and using Knud Jepsen’s years of advanced research and development directed towards plant genetics and breeding, including many patented discoveries that could be applied towards the cultivation of premium organic medicinal cannabis.

Find out more about these and other news on Canopy Growth Corp, EVIO Labs, Marapharm Ventures Inc MRPHF 31.46%, Harvest One Cannabis Inc HRVOF 0.89% and PotNetwork Holdings Inc POTN 0.55% with our friends at Marijuana Money, who share a weekly video summary of the top financial and business news in the cannabis industry.

Interesting Data

Cannabis analytics firm New Frontier Data said it expects more than 12 U.S. states to pass new cannabis legalization measures before 2025, with four of them opening medical markets, and nine embracing adult use. As per their calculations, these new markets may drive sales up by 22 percent between 2021 and 2025.

“The revenue increase will be driven by the evolution of high-population markets in New York, Michigan, Ohio, New Jersey, and Texas,” the firm said.

One recent study led by Tikun Olam in Israel found that medical cannabis can be administered to children over at least a five-month period without severe side effects or aggravating existing symptoms. The study, “Medical Cannabis for Pediatric Moderate to Severe Complex Motor Disorders,” published in the Journal of Child Neurology, followed 25 children as young as one (with a mean age of six-and-a-half years) who have “Complex Motor Disorders,” a term which includes conditions such as epilepsy and cerebral palsy.

After being treated with Avidekel, Tikun’s high-CBD, low-THC cannabis strain, most participants reported significant improvement in spasticity and dystonia, sleep difficulties, pain severity, and quality of life.

“While a relatively small study, these findings show the potential and safety of using Avidekel to treat children,” said Sid Taubenfeld, CEO of TO Pharma. “We view these results as very positive and the basis for conducting even larger studies with our pediatric patients.”

Events Calendar

July 25-27: NCIA Cannabis Business Summit and Expo in San Jose, CA.

July 27-28: Cannacon Boston.

August 16-17: Benzinga is hosting its first Cannabis Capital Conference in Toronto, Canada. Speakers include Alan Brochstein, Larisa Bolivar, Harrison Phillips, Giadha Aguirre de Carcer, Marvin Washington, Scott Boyes, Mark Lakmaaker, Brett Roper, Nick Kovacevich, Hadley Ford, Javier Hasse, Tim Seymour, Aras Azadian, and Cynthia Salarizadeh, among others.

September 7-9: Oklahoma is getting its first Hempfest ever: the Hempfest Oklahoma. “After a year of working with Oklahoma politicians and venues we finally get to announce the world’s largest hemp festival is coming to Oklahoma. With Dj Snoopadelic [Snoop Dogg] coming for a free show in Oklahoma and the massive 4-stage 3-day lineup we are about to announce, we are hoping to bring out the masses and educate on what the hemp industry really is,” Scott Mckinley, event organizer and CEO of Hi Tunes Distribution told Benzinga.

https://bit.ly/2tSA3HP

Acne was a bust, but excessive sweating scores FDA OK for Dermira

After a catastrophic failure in acne that obliterated its stock just months ago, Dermira $DERM had some redeeming news this morning — the FDA has OK’ed its anti-sweating drug glycopyrronium.

The med now goes under the brand name Qbrexza, and it’s a once-daily, topical treatment for people with excessive underarm sweating (also called primary axillary hyperhidrosis). The treatment is applied directly to the skin, blocking sweat gland activation.

“For years, dermatologists have been telling us of the need for new treatment options that address primary axillary hyperhidrosis given the stigma and burden associated with this condition,” said Tom Wiggans, chairman and chief executive officer at Dermira. “From the start, our goal was to develop an approach that went beyond masking a person’s excessive underarm sweating and instead focused on treating the condition in a clinically meaningful way. We partnered with dermatologists and the FDA during the development stage and listened to the people who have been living with this condition to understand how they would define a meaningful benefit. It is our hope that Qbrexza will not only provide the clinical benefit these sufferers have been seeking, but help to reduce the overall burden on their lives.”

Evercore industry analyst Umer Raffat wrote a note this morning about his take on the approval, which was based on results from two Phase III trials.

“I have to admit: I was in the more skeptic camp on unmet need for drug treatments in hyperhidrosis … until I saw a workshop hosted by FDA where I listened to many patient stories about the social stigma/unsuccessful job interviews etc. At present, Dermira estimates 5 (million) hyperhidrosis patients have had a discussion with the doc, but only ~15% treated. Dermira will have to work hard on creating this market.”

Raffat noted that Botox is currently approved in hyperhidrosis, but the drug has seen no sales growth in the indication, holding steady at about $70 million per year. Evercore is modeling $200 million in peak sales, starting in 2019 with about $30 million. Qbrexza is expected to be available nationwide in pharmacies beginning in October 2018.

Dermira’s stock was up 27% on the news. But it’s not yet enough to undo previous damage, as the company’s share price cratered over 65% in March (from $25 per share to $8.59 in a matter of days) following news that its Phase III acne drug failed in trials and would be scrapped. Friday in pre-market trading, it was at $11.04.

https://bit.ly/2IFUDQK

Novartis chairman says Alcon worth $20-30 billion

The chairman of Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NOVN.S) expects Alcon to be valued at between $20 billion and $30 billion when the opthalmic devices unit is spun off to shareholders next year, he said in an interview with Finanz und Wirtschaft.

“Just how much it’s ultimately going to be will be determined when we know how debt and other things will be quantified,” Joerg Reinhardt told the Swiss financial newspaper.

Novartis announced on Friday it is spinning off the eye care surgical equipment and contact lens unit, with $7 billion in annual revenue. The business no longer fits the drugmaker’s strategy of focusing on prescription medicines, Novartis concluded.

The Basel-based company will also repurchase up to $5 billion in shares through the end of next year.

Reinhardt said it was hard to determine whether Alcon, bought over time for $52 billion from Nestle in a deal concluded in 2011, ever really earned money for Novartis.

Novartis AG75.6

NOVN.SVIRT-X LEVEL 1

+0.10(+0.13%)

• NOVN.S
• ROG.S

“Tough to say, since Alcon had to be revamped multiple times,” he said. “But I would say, all things considered, we didn’t lose money on Alcon.”

Reinhardt also said there were no changes to Novartis’s roughly $13 billion stake in Roche (ROG.S). His company has, for now, abandoned active plans to unload the package, and Reinhardt has returned to calling it “a financial investment with a certain strategic component.”

https://reut.rs/2tHRdbT