Roche Diagnostics is the best performing asset at Roche. As the troubled Swiss pharma company suffers through its worst pipeline drought in a decade, Roche Diagnostics is delivering a stellar performance. It is strong across all business segments, from laboratory systems to diabetes to molecular testing. Its challenge: to pull far enough ahead in its traditional businesses to maintain a comfortable lead. Its bigger hurdle, however, is to position itself as a leader in adoption of new genomic and proteomic diagnostic technologies, which is where the industry's future growth lies.

A new draft National Coverage Determination from the US Medicare agency proposes extending coverage of transcatheter mitral valve repair to certain patients with functional mitral regurgitation. But Sue Peschin, CEO of the Alliance for Aging Research, says minimum surgical procedure thresholds in the draft policy’s coverage requirements are unnecessary.

Join us for a quick audio roundup of five useful things to know from Scrip's recent coverage of the global biopharmaceutical industry.