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AstraZeneca has made a $10 billion offer to acquire Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, which could lead to a bidding war for the company specializing in treatments for metabolic conditions and obesity, in today's bite-sized hospital and health industry news from California, Massachusetts, and New York.
- California: Daryl Tol, president of General Catalyst's Health Assurance Transformation Company (HATCo), is stepping down from his position. General Catalyst first launched HATCo in 2024 to help health systems leverage technology, and the company has so far worked with almost 40 health systems and payers. Before Tol joined General Catalyst, he served as interim CEO at Summa Health, which was acquired by HATCo in 2025. Although he is departing as HATCo's president, Tol will remain an advisor at General Catalyst. Meanwhile, another leadership change at HATCo is the appointment of Reva Nohria as the company's new CEO. Nohria is a partner at General Catalyst and a founding member of HATCo. (Famakinwa, Modern Healthcare, 10/27)
- Massachusetts: AstraZeneca has made a $10 billion offer to acquire Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, which specializes in treatments for metabolic conditions and severe obesity. The acquisition would expand AstraZeneca's portfolio of rare disease treatments, strengthen its push into the obesity treatment market, and potentially support its goal of reaching $80 billion in sales by 2030. Last year, the company reported $58.7 billion in sales. However, analysts at Jeffries, Leerink Partners, and William Blair suggest Rhythm is unlikely to agree to AstraZeneca's current offer and that a bidding war could soon emerge. Rhythm "has long been an attractive M&A candidate, […] given its scalable rare-obesity franchise and indication-expansion potential," said Basma Radwan, an analyst from Leerink. Although AstraZeneca's offer was "broadly fair," Radwan said that "[w]e would not be surprised by negotiations for high milestone payments or by competing bids." (Thomas/Martinez, Wall Street Journal, 11/4; Liu, Fierce Pharma, 11/5)
- New York: Elevance Health is currently suing the autism therapy provider Perfect Child, alleging that the company filed $160 million in misleading claims over the last five years. In the lawsuit, Elevance cited a Wall Street Journal article reporting that Perfect Child charged insurers rates that could surpass $30,000 a day and tried to collect payment directly from families, even though they were initially promised little or no out-of-pocket costs. Although Perfect Child had contracts with Elevance's insurance units until this past June, it did not accept in-network payment rates, instead choosing to bill the insurer significantly higher out-of-network rates after going through a web of over 100 limited-liability companies. Perfect Child's actions amounted to fraud, breach of contract, conspiracy, and other issues, Elevance said. In addition to pressure from private insurers, Perfect Child is also facing growing scrutiny from the government over its condition. Currently, the FBI has launched an investigation into the company. (Weaver, Wall Street Journal, 11/5)
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