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Mark Cuban's Cost Plus Drug Company said on Wednesday that it is working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to import and distribute penicillin in the country temporarily. The online pharmacy, which offers low-cost common medications, will immediately import and distribute 1.2 million units of penicillin to mitigate the shortage of Pfizer's (PFE.N) Bicillin L-A. Last year in June, Pfizer had warned that the pediatric version of the drug, used to treat syphilis and other bacterial infections, could run out by the end of the quarter due to a spike in syphilis infections in adults. (7/17)

Humana announced Wednesday it had acquired a minority stake in Healthpilot, which offers consumers artificial intelligence-driven guidance in selecting Medicare plan options. Healthpilot focuses on Medicare Advantage plans, along with supplementary Medicare and Part D prescription drug plans. Humana said in a news release Healthpilot will remain payer-agnostic, meaning the tool will provide relevant suggestions to users regardless of carrier. (Turner, 7/17)

The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard is perhaps best known for the trailblazing work coming out of the labs of its core members; CRISPR tools like David Liu’s prime and base editors, Feng Zhang’s virus-like drug delivery particles, or Pardis Sabeti’s network of low-cost diagnostics designed to catch the next pandemic before it starts. But the largest of the institute’s operations isn’t a lab at all. (Molteni, 7/18)

Digital health companies interested in going public must convince potential investors that their companies will succeed where others have faltered. During the early 2020s venture capital funding boom, more than two dozen digital health companies that achieved "unicorn" valuations of more than $1 billion had initial public offerings. Many of those companies have struggled to achieve profitability and have laid off employees, sold lagging businesses, been taken private or filed for bankruptcy. (Turner, 7/18)

Healthcare provider Ardent Health said on Wednesday it has set the pricing of its initial public offering below its targeted range to raise around $192 million. The Nashville, Tennessee-based company which was aiming to price its offering between $20 and $22 apiece, sold about 12 million shares at $16 per share. The IPO values Ardent Health at about $2.3 billion. (7/18)

Swiss drugmaker Novartis (NOVN.S) raised its 2024 earnings guidance for the second time on Thursday, driven by a gain in prescriptions for drugs including heart failure treatment Entresto and arthritis drug Cosentyx. It said in a statement that full-year adjusted operating income is expected to grow by a "mid- to high teens" percentage, where it had previously seen a "low double-digit to mid-teens" percentage. (Burger, 7/18)

Wall Street’s reaction was swift Wednesday after Elevance Health said that the amount of care its Medicaid members are getting is outpacing what states are paying the insurer to treat those members. (Bannow, 7/17)

A prevention-focused co-founded by the head of a Stanford research lab is making an expensive bet with its latest fundraise: that it can build a better full-body scanner than medical device behemoths selling MRIs to health systems. (Ravindranath, 7/18)

Cassava Sciences is imploding — and as it crumbles, a dark, ugly corner of the Alzheimer’s disease world is being exposed and will hopefully get cleaned up. (Feuerstein, 7/17)

Activist investor Politan Capital has filed a lawsuit against medical device maker Masimo Corp (MASI.O), seeking to have the company hold its annual meeting as soon as possible. In the lawsuit, filed in a Delaware court, Politan also sought a declaration that Masimo will not reject Politan's nominees to the board. Politan has a near 9% stake in Masimo and has nominated two candidates to be elected to the company's five-member board. Only two board seats will be voted on this year. (7/17)

YesCare and its backers reached a $75 million settlement of hundreds of personal-injury lawsuits, paving the way to resolve a bankruptcy filed to manage the prison healthcare provider’s legal liabilities. The proposed settlement would compensate litigation plaintiffs and other creditors of YesCare through a chapter 11 plan for Tehum Care Services, a bankrupt former affiliate. Committees of tort claimants and unsecured creditors in Tehum’s bankruptcy support the proposed agreement, which requires court approval. (Matsuda, 7/17)