VENTURE CAPITAL POST

US Stocks went up across sectors Monday largely due to the increases in the energy sector and the growing acquisition activities in healthcare. Reuters reported that the increases on the first trading day of November happened right after the impressive October figure, which is the best monthly performance of the major indexes in the last four years.

AbbVie Inc (ABBV.N) is to buy Pharmacyclics Inc (PCYC.O) for about $21 billion, giving it access to what is expected to be one of the world's top-selling cancer drugs and expanding its reach in the profitable oncology field.

The world's biggest drugmakers face a new reality when it comes to U.S. pricing for their products as insurers use aggressive tactics to extract steep price discounts, even for the newest medications.

Belgian biotech group Galapagos said on Tuesday that its research partner Janssen Pharmaceutica, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, had pulled out of a program to develop a new drug to treat bowel disease.

U.S. drugmaker AbbVie has added two HIV medicines for children to a shared patent pool in an initiative that should speed the development of cheap new pediatric formulations for use in poor countries.

Hedge funds specializing in bets on mergers and acquisitions are starting to see investors withdraw funds, prompting them to take a more cautious approach after being caught out by more than 500 corporate deals globally failing this year.

Hedge fund Elliott Associates may take legal action against pharmaceuticals company AbbVie Inc for scuttling a merger deal with Shire Plc.

U.S. drugmaker AbbVie Inc (ABBV.N) said on Monday it has reached agreement with Shire Plc (SHP.L) to officially call off its proposed $55 billion purchase of the Irish company, and will pay Shire a $1.64 billion breakup fee for walking away from the deal.

British drugmaker Shire (SHP.L) will lose its interim chief financial officer early next year to water supplier Severn Trent (SVT.L), the latest blow for Shire, whose proposed $55-billion acquisition by U.S. rival AbbVie (ABBV.N) was aborted last week.

AbbVie Inc (ABBV.N) said it intends to reconsider its recommendation to its shareholders to vote in favor of the 32 billion pound ($54.7 billion) merger with Shire Plc (SHP.L) due to the changing U.S. tax regulations.

Hundreds of companies around the world are chasing an emerging market for cheaper copies of costly biotech drugs, with more than 700 so-called biosimilars now in development or already approved, according to a major study of the sector.

Shares in drugmakers AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Shire (SHP.L) both fell more than 5 percent on Tuesday after the U.S. Treasury took steps to curb "inversion" deals that allow companies to escape high U.S. taxes by reincorporating abroad.