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Health insurer Centene (CNC.N) will lay off 3% of its workforce, or about 2,000 employees, a company spokesperson said on Tuesday as the company tries to lower costs. The company, which makes a major chunk of its revenue from government-backed Medicaid memberships, has also been selling some of its business units to refocus on its core business. Last month, Centene sold its UK unit to UAE's PureHealth in a $1.2 billion deal and also divested its AI platform Apixio earlier in the year. (9/26)

Centene said it will lay off about 2,000 of its employees, or slightly more than 3% of its workforce. "We routinely assess our workforce to ensure we have the talent and expertise necessary to support our members and the evolving needs of the business," a spokesperson said Tuesday. "Our decision was not made lightly." (Tepper, 9/26)

In less than two years, digital health’s high-flying class of public debuts have landed with a resounding thud. Accelerated by the pandemic’s forced adoption of telehealth and other digital health solutions, 2021 saw more than 30 health technology startups go public, raising hundreds of millions and in some cases billions of dollars. Today, three members of the class of 2021 have gone bankrupt. Twelve companies have lost more than 90% of their initial value, including Bright Health Group, Cue Health, and Better Therapeutics. And dangerously low reserves have inspired desperate moves to slash costs, drum up liquidity, and find buyers. (Palmer, 9/27)

Private-equity firms New Mountain Capital and Marlin Equity Partners plan to merge two companies they own in a bid to create an all-in-one technology platform for employers and patients to manage their healthcare plans. (Cumming and Cooper, 9/26)

The presidents of two Connecticut hospitals owned by Prospect Medical Holdings told a gathering of state legislators Tuesday that their financial situation is dire, that they are struggling to pay bills and, if a deal to sell Prospect’s Connecticut hospitals to Yale New Haven Health is not approved, the facilities may not remain financially viable, according to people in attendance. (Altimari, Carlesso and Pazniokas, 9/26)

Tower Health is selling eight urgent care centers to American Family Care and closing five locations in Pennsylvania, effective Oct. 1. Financial details of the transaction with Birmingham, Alabama-based American Family Care were not disclosed. Tower said there are no planned layoffs, and American Family Care, which operates more than 200 urgent care centers in 26 states, is expected to offer jobs to as many affected employees as possible. (Hudson, 9/26)

Consulting firm McKinsey & Co has agreed to pay $230 million to resolve lawsuits by hundreds of U.S. local governments and school districts alleging it fueled an epidemic of opioid addiction through its work for bankrupt OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma and other drug companies. The settlements, which require a judge's approval, were disclosed in papers filed on Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco. The money is on top of $641.5 million that McKinsey already paid to resolve claims by state attorneys-general. (Raymond, 9/27)

McKinsey & Co. is poised to pay $230 million in its latest settlement of lawsuits blaming the company for its role advising opioid manufacturers in their sales of the painkillers. The proposed accord with local governments and school districts filed in court Tuesday would resolve allegations that McKinsey, one of the biggest US management consulting firms, helped fuel the country’s opioid epidemic by providing sales analysis and marketing advice to makers of the highly addictive painkillers, including Purdue Pharma LP and Johnson & Johnson. (Rosenblatt, 9/27)

Drugmaker Eli Lilly (LLY.N) convinced a federal judge in Massachusetts on Tuesday to overturn a $176.5 million jury verdict for Teva Pharmaceutical (TEVA.TA) that found Lilly's migraine drug Emgality infringed three patents related to Teva's rival drug Ajovy. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said in a post-trial ruling that the Teva patents covering the use of antibodies to inhibit headache-causing peptides were invalid. (Brittain, 9/26)

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota and other insurers have asked a U.S. judge to deny what they called a "grossly inflated" request for legal fees from national retail pharmacy chain Walgreens (WBA.O) arising from a dispute over evidence in a court case. The insurers said in a Chicago federal court filing on Monday that Walgreens' attorneys at Ropes & Gray were seeking "excessive" fees of more than $103,000 for the work of 11 lawyers on a single court motion in the litigation. (Scarcella, 9/26)

A team of researchers led by Rice University will receive $45 million to create an implantable device that aims to reduce U.S. cancer-related deaths by more than 50 percent. ... This type of treatment, called immunotherapy, is increasingly popular for fighting cancer. But it usually requires tethering patients to hospital beds, IV bags and monitors. The goal of Rice’s project would be to use engineered cells to produce biologic-based drugs inside patients. The dosage could then be adjusted in real time as cancer cells evolve and adapt. (Leinfelder, 9/26)

Italy's Alfasigma S.p.A agreed on Tuesday to buy drugmaker Intercept Pharmaceuticals (ICPT.O) for $794 million as it aims to expand its treatment portfolio in liver diseases and digestive system disorders, and bolster presence in the U.S. The proposed all-cash acquisition would add Intercept's Ocaliva, a treatment for liver disease primary biliary cholangitis, to Alfasigma's portfolio. (9/26)

Results released Tuesday from an early study of an autoimmune disease drug from Roivant Sciences’ Immunovant showed the treatment could reduce the levels of a key immune marker in the blood, a promising signal. (Joseph, 9/26)

Ionis Pharmaceuticals, a California biotech that has spearheaded the development of RNA-targeting medicines, announced on Tuesday that its drug against familial chylomicronemia syndrome, a rare and serious disease that prevents the body from breaking down fats, succeeded in a late-stage clinical trial. (Wosen, 9/26)

With mounting calls for embattled Sen. Bob Menendez to resign, the pharmaceutical industry could see one of its historical, and increasingly rare, Democratic allies ousted from Congress. (Owermohle, 9/26)