Healthcare providers posted solid gains last week

Healthcare providers posted solid gains last week after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said that interest rates would remain low and that she planned to stay at the helm of the money-policy board through the end of her term in January 2018. The beaten-up healthcare sector rose on the news. Tenet Healthcare Corp., LifePoint Health, AmSurg, HCA Holdings, and Universal Health Services all posted gains. President-elect Donald Trump has been critical of Yellen, arguing that ultra-low interest rates have starved some savers while inflating equity markets with easy borrowings for big investors.

Acknowledging Zika is “here to stay,” the United Nations health agency on Nov. 18 lifted a 9-month-old emergency declaration and prepared for a longer-term response to the mosquito-borne virus that can result in severe neurological defects in newborns whose mothers were infected. World Health Organization officials were quick to note that the move does not mean the agency is downgrading the threat of the virus that has spread across Latin America, the Caribbean and elsewhere. Nearly 30 countries have reported birth defects linked to Zika, with 2,100 cases of nervous-system malformations reported in Brazil alone.

Federal prosecutors have charged a former Valeant Pharmaceuticals executive and the ex-CEO of a specialty pharmacy with masterminding a multimillion-dollar fraud and kickback scheme. Prosecutors claim Andrew Davenport, a former CEO of Philidor Rx Services, and ex-Valeant executive Gary Tanner dissuaded Valeant senior executives from working with Philidor's competitors, and got the pharmaceutical company to purchase an option to acquire Philidor in December 2014. Davenport personally scored $40 million thanks to that option agreement and his high stakes in the company—which were hidden in shell companies. Davenport paid Tanner a $10 million kickback for his work, and Davenport stood to make tens of millions more as the two worked to score sales-related milestone payments from Valeant, prosecutors said.