BIOTECH
Speculation grows over Biogen’s future
Takeover talk about Biogen Inc. is getting louder. Biogen’s stock shot up 9.3 percent on Tuesday after the Wall Street Journal reported that two larger drug makers had approached the Cambridge company about a potential acquisition. Market chatter about a buyout involving Biogen, the world leader in multiple sclerosis medicines, has been rampant for more than a year — with some on Wall Street suggesting Biogen could purchase another big biotech and others describing it as takeover bait. Biogen’s market value is more than $72 billion, making it the largest Massachusetts biotech and the state’s most highly valued public company. Its shares closed at $330.11 on Tuesday, up $28.28. They gave back 2.3 percent in after-hours trading. Merck & Co. and Allergan PLC have both made preliminary overtures to Biogen, according to the Journal report, which quoted unnamed sources. The Journal said the sources acknowledged that “Biogen may not be interested’’ in being purchased. RBC Capital Markets biotech analyst Michael Yee estimated Biogen could fetch $400 a share from an acquirer — and potentially more if a deal could be structured so current shareholders profit if its lead Alzheimer’s drug candidate is approved. A buyout of Biogen by either Merck, based in Kenilworth, N.J., or Allergan, which has its headquarters in Dublin, could be the biggest biotech takeover by far, and rank among the largest among all drug makers. — ROBERT WEISMAN
ECONOMY
Refusal to take cash, while illegal, is growing
At Amsterdam Falafelshop in Kenmore Square, you can choose hummus or tahini for your $7 sandwich. And you can pick from a dozen toppings, from pickled cauliflower to fresh feta and olives. What you can’t do is pay with cash. As technology allows us to make purchases with a barcode scan or an iPad click, a handful of retail outlets, restaurants in particular, are experimenting with no-cash policies, from the salad chain SweetGreen to Amsterdam Falafelshop to Clover Food trucks. They join parking garages and state toll roads in shunning cash payments in favor of credit cards or scanners. Why hunt for a greenback when you can open an app? But there’s a significant hitch to this trend: Refusing to accept cash is illegal in Massachusetts. A state law on the books since 1978 states that no retailer “shall discriminate against a cash buyer by requiring the use of credit.’’ Federal law leaves the choice up to states. The section of the Massachusetts law is so little known that the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation makes no mention of it on its website, and several consumer watchdogs said they’d never heard of it. The attorney general’s office, which is tasked with enforcing the law, did not provide details about it. Barbara Anthony, former undersecretary for the consumer affairs office, said the rule raises legitimate concerns as a younger generation increasingly opts for new forms of payment and retail outlets begin to reinvent the cash register. — MEGAN WOOLHOUSE
FIREARMS
Smith & Wesson donates $500,000 to gun lobbyists
The Springfield gun maker Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. has contributed $500,000 to the gun industry’s largest association to support voter registration and gun owners’ rights, citing Attorney General Maura Healey’s recent crackdown on “copycat’’ assault weapons. The National Shooting Sports Foundation, a lobbying group based in Newtown, Conn., on Wednesday said that Smith & Wesson’s gift to its “#GunVote’’ campaign was the largest contribution it has received so far. Healey last month announced plans to curtail the sale of guns that copy the Colt AR-15 or AK-47 and others that were banned in the state in 1998. She has since faced a backlash from gun rights activists and gun buyers, as well as from some lawmakers and Governor Charlie Baker. — BETH HEALY
BIOTECH
Momenta halts trial of pancreatic cancer drug
Momenta Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Thursday it halted a clinical trial of a pancreatic cancer drug after an independent panel concluded the experimental therapy wasn’t effective enough to justify continuing the study. The move was a setback for Momenta, a 16-year-old Cambridge company that markets two generic medicines and is developing generic biotech drugs and its own therapies. The pancreatic cancer drug, called necuparanib, was its lead novel drug candidate, targeting a disease that has been stubbornly resistant to treatment. Its clinical trial of necuparanib enrolled 138 patients with advanced metastatic pancreatic cancer, and Momenta planned to continue enrollment in the fall. But analyzing interim data, the independent monitoring board concluded the therapy didn’t appear to be slowing the progression of the deadly disease. — ROBERT WEISMAN
REAL ESTATE
Millennium Partners selected for Winthrop Square project
In the contest for one of the most prized building sites in Boston, city officials chose an increasingly familiar name that offered to write a very large check. The Boston Redevelopment Authority said Wednesday that it will start negotiating with Millennium Partners — builders of the just finished Millennium Tower in Downtown Crossing — for the right to put one of Boston’s tallest buildings on the site of the defunct Winthrop Square Garage on Devonshire Street. The New York company was one of six major builders vying for the city-owned site and offered to pay $151 million — far more than any of its competitors — while pointing to its track record of building high-profile downtown buildings. That combination persuaded a committee of BRA and other city staffers to choose Millennium’s proposal for a 55-story tower with condominiums, office space, and a three-story “great hall’’ at street level. The two sides still must hammer out financial and technical details, with Millennium hoping to start construction, estimated to cost $1 billion, as soon as next summer. The contest drew proposals from a range of high-profile developers who enlisted renowned architects and pitched modern office and condo towers packed with various civic amenities. — TIM LOGAN
HEALTH CARE
Hospitals object to new ranking system
Federal officials recently unveiled a new system for ranking hospitals across the country, a big step, they said, toward helping consumers make important decisions about where to get their care. As with restaurant reviews, the best hospitals received five stars, and the least impressive got one. But the hospital industry is as indignant as a poorly rated chef. The star system is too crude, industry officials said. It focuses too heavily on controversial measures, like the rate at which patients return to hospitals after being discharged, and unfairly gives lower scores to big teaching hospitals that treat patients with complex problems. “The star rating system is an irresponsible slap in the face to America’s most essential hospitals, those hospitals that take in the sickest patients, that can never turn people away,’’ said Dr. Eric W. Dickson, chief executive of UMass Memorial Health Care, whose flagship teaching hospital in Worcester got just one star. The Massachusetts Hospital Association said the government took “a step backward’’ by releasing the ratings. “There are problems with the methodology,’’ said Timothy Gens, executive vice president of the trade group. And yet when hospitals make it to the list of top hospitals compiled by US News & World Report, they are quick to celebrate and splash the designation across their ads. The hospital industry’s varying responses to different rating systems show how hard it can be to find consensus about what constitutes good quality health care. Federal officials said they reviewed 64 measures to assess the quality of care provided in a hospital, including rates of hospital-acquired infections and deaths. “Numerous’’ patient and consumer advocacy groups supported the new ratings, officials said. But Dr. Elizabeth Mort, senior vice president for quality and safety at Massachusetts General Hospital, which received four stars from the government, said the rankings omit important “structure’’ measures, such as the levels of nurse and physician staffing. — PRIYANKA DAYAL MCCLUSKEY
