Pharmaceutical manufacturer Astrazeneca (NYSE: AZN) has been trending higher over the last three and a half months and a trend channel has formed that defines the various cycles within the overall trend.Similar developments in July and May were really good buy signals for the stock. In addition to the oversold readings from the 10-day RSI and the stochastic readings, the stock dropped below its lower Bollinger Band on September 10.

Bristol-Myers Squibb beat second quarter earnings estimates, while also lifting its full-year profit guidance. The pharmaceutical company’s non-GAAP earnings for the three months ending in June came in at $1.18 per share, 10 cents higher than the Street consensus estimates.The earnings per share figure is also +16.8% higher compared to the year-ago quarter. The company’s total revenues increased +10.52% to $6.3 billion, topping analysts' estimates of $5.72 billion.

Amarin raised outlook on revenue, sending its shares surging +10% Tuesday. The biopharmaceutical company lifted its 2019 revenue guidance to a range of between $380 million and $420 million, up from prior forecast of $350 million. The company’s higher guidance comes on the back of its optimism about its Vascepa treatment for chronic cardiovascular disease.It is hopeful that Vascepa will generate “billions of dollars in revenue in the years to come”. Amarin reported first-quarter revenue of $73.3 million, which represents a 67% jump from the same quarter of the previous year.

Sanofi is poised to appoint Paul Hudson, a top executive with Switzerland’s Novartis, to become the French drugmaker’s next CEO from Sept. 1, a source familiar with the decision told Reuters on Thursday.

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved Novartis’ $2.1 million gene therapy for spinal muscular atrophy — making it the world’s most expensive drug.

Amgen Inc. has offered to buy Denmark-based drug discovery platform biotech company, Nuevolution, at $3.36 per share in cash.The shares of Nuevolution are listed on the Nasdaq Stockholm Small Cap exchange. The board of Nuevolution unanimously recommended an acceptance of the offer and three top shareholders, representing 59% shareholdings, have also undertaken to accept the offer.

Merck & Co Inc says it is buying Peloton Therapeutics Inc for $1.05 billion in cash plus $1.15 billion in additional payments based on how the company's drugs fare once they are further developed.The purchase will give it access to the privately held company’s lead kidney cancer drug candidate.  Peloton had said earlier this month that it was planning to raise up to $159.4 million in an initial public offering.

Nestle SA has entered exclusive negotiations to sell its skin health business to a consortium led by EQT Partners and Abu Dhabi’s ADIA in a deal worth 10.2 billion Swiss francs ($10.12 billion), it said on Thursday.

Novartis is buying dry-eye drug Xiidra from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co for up to $5.3 billion.The deal calls for $3.4 billion up front and milestone payments up to $1.9 billion, Novartis said.  The acquisition from Takeda, which is selling off medicine to reduce its debt, adds to several big Novartis transactions over the last year as the Swiss-based company continues to ramp up its portfolio and get rid of non-core assets to focus on prescription drugs.   

Johnson & Johnson agreed to pay about $1 billion to resolve many lawsuits claiming the company sold defective metal-on-metal hip implants that ultimately had to be removed, according to a report in Bloomberg. The agreement resolves over 95% of the 6,000 cases in which surgeons extracted the company’s Pinnacle implants because they left patients unable to walk and in pain, according to the report. The $1 billion total includes an earlier settlement for more than $400 million and there are still about 4,500 pending suits by patients with artificial hips that were not made totally of metal or haven’t been surgically removed, Bloomberg added.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Pfizer Inc’s oral drug, tafamidis, to treat a rare and fatal heart disease called transthyretin amyloid cardiomyopathy, the U.S drugmaker said. Pfizer, which has touted tafamidis as a potential blockbuster product, set a list price of $225,000 a year for the medicine, which would be sold under the brand name Vyndaqel.It is the first approved medicine for the disease in the United States. Analysts are forecasting annual sales to exceed $1 billion in 2024, according to Refinitiv data.

Unadjusted earnings per share of $3.18 fell from the year-ago quarter’s $3.25. While revenue remained the same at $5.6 billion, expenses in the quarter increased +9% year-over-year to $3.1 billion. The company’s revenue from Blincyto, its first bi-specific antibody for the treatment of cancer, surged +41% year-over-year to $69 million.Sales of its highest selling drug, Enbrel, rose +4% to $1.15 billion. Research & Development (R&D) expenses increased +16% largely towards bolstering the company’s oncology programs, as indicated by Amgen. For the full-year 2019, Amgen projects a revenue range of $22 billion and $22.9 billion.

Merck first quarter earnings surpassed analysts’ estimates, thanks in large part to its success in lung cancer treatment. For the three months ending in March, the pharma company’s GAAP earnings came in at $1.12 per share, beating the Street consensus estimates by seven cents.  Merck’s total revenues surged +8% year-over-year to $10.8 billion, on the back of a +55% sales growth of Keytruda lung cancer treatment. CEO Ken Frazier highlighted investments in research and development as one of the factors behind Merck’s strong quarter. Looking ahead, Merck lifted its full-year 2019 revenue outlook to a range of $43.9 to $45.1 billion, while forecasting GAAP earnings to  range between $4.02 and $4.12 per share. The company also revealed a global restructuring plan - which includes closing plants and slashing jobs - that is expected to get completed by 2023.

Eli Lilly and Co. reported lower-than-expected sales for its top-selling diabetes drug, Trulicity, and cut its full-year revenue forecast. Due to pressure to lower prices, Eli Lilly agreed to offer a half-priced version of insulin injection Humalog earlier this year.The drugmaker is one of the three main global providers of insulin products.  Lilly said it now expects 2019 revenue to come in between $22.0 billion and $22.5 billion, lower than its prior forecast of $25.1 billion to $25.6 billion.

Bristol-Myers Squibb reported better-than-expected results for the first quarter of 2019 on the performance of its blood thinner drug, Eliquis. First-quarter 2019 earnings of $1.10 per share beat analyst estimates by one cent and surpassed the year-ago quarter’s earnings of $0.94. Total revenue of $5.92 billion beat expectations of $5.80 billion and increased 14% from $5.2 billion in the year-ago period.Continued strong sales of Opdivo and Eliquis contributed to the top line in the reported quarter.

Two drugmakers will pay nearly $125 million to resolve claims they used charities that help cover Medicare patients’ out-of-pocket drug costs as a way to pay kickbacks aimed at encouraging the use of their high-priced medications, the U.S. Justice Department. The department said Japan-based Astellas Pharma and Amgen Inc, the world’s largest biotech company, were the latest to settle claims stemming from an industry-wide probe of drugmakers’ financial support of patient assistance charities. Astellas will pay $100 million while Amgen will pay $24.75 million, the department said.Neither company admitted wrongdoing.

Drugmaker Biogen beat analysts' estimates for first-quarter on higher sales of its growth driver Spinraza. Net income attributable to the company rose 20 percent to $1.41 billion, in the quarter ended March 31. On an adjusted basis, the company earned $6.98 per share on revenue of $3.49 billion.Analysts had expected the company to earn $6.87 per share on revenue of $3.39 billion.

In a recent announcement, Novartis confirmed its acquisition of IFM Tre, a subsidiary of IFM Therapeutics LLC that specializes in developing anti-inflammatory medicines, especially the NLRP3 inflammasome.This latest acquisition will now add to the company’s immunomodulatory medicine portfolio. Valued at $1.575 billion, according to the terms of the deal, Novartis would pay $310 million upfront and then become eligible to pay for as much as $1.265 billion in milestone payments.  The acquisition is a significant move for Novartis, as it gives it full exposure to IFM Tre's portfolio of NLRP3 inhibitors. The NLRP3, the nucleotide-binding domain containing three pathway, is crucial to the body’s immune system and works as a warning sensor for pathogens signaling tissue damage and metabolic disorders. The acquisition is significant as it means gaining control over IFM Tre's molecules that can selectively suppress inflammation caused by the NLRP3 inflammasome, while allowing the

Novartis must face a U.S. government lawsuit accusing it of paying millions of dollars in kickbacks to doctors so they would prescribe its drugs, after a federal judge ruled in a decision released on Monday that the government had offered evidence of a "company-wide kickback scheme.District Judge Paul Gardephe in Manhattan also rejected the Swiss drugmaker's bid to keep key government evidence out of the case, and ruled that the government does not have to prove a direct "quid pro quo" agreement between Novartis and doctors for the company to be liable. The ruling means that, unless Novartis settles, the case is headed for trial.

AstraZeneca says it will pay up to $6.9 billion to work with Daiichi Sankyo Co Ltd on a new experimental treatment for breast cancer. Britain’s AstraZeneca plans to use some of the proceeds of a $3.5 billion share issue to fund the deal. Under the deal, AstraZeneca will make an upfront payment of $1.35 billion to Daiichi.They will share development and commercialization costs for the drug worldwide, with Daiichi retaining exclusive rights in Japan. AstraZeneca will also target patients with low levels of HER2, a much larger breast cancer subgroup with poor treatment options and the drug’s biggest market opportunity, as well as certain lung and gastric tumors.