He is also the author of the morning Pharmalittle newsletter and the afternoon Pharmalot newsletter . Congratulations on making it this far, and remember there are only a few more days until the weekend arrives. …Excluding rare disease drugs from a Medicare pilot program known as GUARD to lower prices would wipe out much of the savings from retail meds, STAT writes. Thomas Hwang, who heads the Cancer Innovation and Regulation Initiative at Harvard Medical School, said that if all companies that agreed to most-favored nation deals were exempted, potential savings would be cut by 71%. AdvertisementThere are no talks ongoing between AstraZeneca and ​Bristol Myers Squibb over a potential ‌deal, quashing the ​prospect of a mooted mega merger ​between the drugmakers, Reuters reports.