• California: Gilead Sciences is planning to acquire Ouro Medicines, which develops treatments for autoimmune diseases, in a deal worth up to $2.18 billion. Under the deal, Gilead would purchase all Ouro's outstanding equity for roughly $1.68 billion in cash and provide the company with up to $500 million in contingent milestone payments. Gilead is also in discussions with Galapagos for a potential research-and-development collaboration with the assets it will acquire through the Ouro acquisition. The companies would collaborate on one of Ouro's experimental drugs gamgertamig, which has shown efficacy in severe antibody-mediated orphan diseases such as autoimmune hemolytic anemia and immune thrombocytopenia. Under the collaboration, both companies would share registrational study costs while Galapagos would be responsible for development costs. Gilead would retain most worldwide commercialization rights and pay Galapagos royalties of between 20% and 23% of net sales. "This acquisition underscores our commitment to advancing transformative therapies for people living with serious autoimmune diseases," said Gilead CMO Dietmar Berger. (Cloonan, Wall Street Journal, 3/23)
• Illinois: According to a new study published in JAMA Cardiology, women who experience menopause before the age of 40 have a significantly higher risk of heart attacks than women who experience menopause later. Overall, the study found that women who went through premature menopause (before age 40) had 40% more fatal and nonfatal heart attacks during their lifetimes compared to those who went through menopause after 40. Black women, who already have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, were three times more likely than white women to report experiencing premature menopause, though the lifetime risk of heart attacks was largely similar for both groups. According to Priya Freaney, director of Women's Heart Care at Northwestern University and the study's lead author, reproductive history and age of menopause should be considered in any assessment of a woman's cardiovascular risk. "Menopause at any age unmasks adverse metabolic profiles: Lipids go up by 20 percent, blood pressure profiles go up, activity levels go down, body fat distribution shifts to the belly, muscle mass become[s] lower, and fat mass becomes higher," Freaney said. "All these things are compounding cardiovascular risk in this short period of time." (Rabin, New York Times, 3/18)
• Maryland: FDA is expected to allow compounding pharmacies to manufacture over a dozen injectable peptides — a move that has been championed by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In 2023, FDA removed 14 peptides from a list of products that compounding pharmacies were allowed to produce. The peptides had not been approved by FDA, and the agency said that more companies were using unproven claims about cosmetic, anti-aging, and disease-fighting benefits to market them. Scott Brunner, CEO of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding, said the injectable peptides people are buying online raise concerns. "The patients who are getting them are almost certainly getting either unproven, illicit product from overseas or research-grade product because there's not a version of these drugs that is pharmaceutical grade from F.D.A-registered manufacturers and eligible for use in humans," Brunner said. The New York Times also spoke to a senior HHS official who said that top FDA leaders also have reservations about the change — which could also increase criticism that the agency is making decisions based on politics instead of science. (Jewett/Blum, New York Times, 3/31)

In this episode, host Rachel Woods invites Advisory Board women’s health experts Kara Marlatt and Gaby Marmolejos to explain why providers and employers need to expand their focus on women’s health to include the post-reproductive years, and explore what tangible steps they can take to do so today.