For the second time in one week, Valeant Pharmaceuticals increased its bid to acquire Allergan. On May 28, Valeant officials offered Allergan $58.30 per share––roughly equivalent to $49.5 billion––after a previous bid rejection at $48.30 per share in April. Just before press time on May 30, Valeant upped the ante by 23%, offering $72.00 per share––a total bid of nearly $53 billion. In August 2013, Valeant acquired Bausch + Lomb for $8.7 billion.
There may be a link between taking vasodilators and developing early AMD, according to a study recently published in Ophthalmology. Researchers from University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health conducted a long-term, population-based study of nearly 5,000 patients from 1988 to 2013. After adjusting for age and sex, the investigators found that using a vasodilator was associated with a 72% greater risk of developing early-stage AMD. Of the subjects who did not take vasodilators, approximately 8.2% developed early-stage AMD; approximately 19.1% of those using vasodilators developed the disease.
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