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Good morning, everyone, and how are you today? A warm and shiny sun is enveloping the Pharmalot campus, where the shortest of short people has left for the local schoolhouse and the official mascots are happily snoozing away. As for us, yes, we are engaging in our familiar ritual – downing cups of stimulation. Our flavor today is Malt Shoppe Mocha. Like a curious drug developer, we also like to experiment. While you consider doing the same, here are some tidbits to get you going. Have a smashing day…

Despite criticism over tax inversions, Mylan ceo Heather Bresch says the tactic is needed for growth, Fortune reports. These maneuvers involve a U.S. company buying a foreign company and reincorporating headquarters overseas, where corporate taxes are lower. The acquiring company can reduce taxes by adding debt to its U.S. unit and shifting profits overseas. Among the critics is Bresch’s dad, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

New study results confirm that Ebola can linger in semen for many months after patients recover from its life-threatening symptoms, Stat writes. The study represents the strongest evidence so far that the Ebola virus can linger in testicles and be present in semen long after a patient recovers. And this occurs not just rarely, but in a substantial portion of survivors.

Theranos claims to use its own technology to “quickly process the full range of laboratory tests from a few drops of blood,” but the company is mostly using machines provided by Siemens, according to The Wall Street Journal. The company offers more than 240 tests, ranging from cholesterol to cancer. It claims its technology can work with just a finger prick. And investors have provided more than $400 million on a bet Theranos will be huge.

In case you missed it, Jeb Bush released his health care plan this week and among the proposals are two items that dovetail with pharmaceutical industry sentiment. He would like to speed clinical trials by using “patient data as it accumulates, rather than rigid predetermined timelines,” suggesting less rigorous evidence would be required. And he backs drug makers in their quest to battle the FDA over the right to distribute ‘truthful’ off-label information.

The FDA declined to approve Pfizer’s oral rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz to treat moderate to severe cases of the scaly skin condition plaque psoriasis, Reuters tells us.

Activists disrupted the CPhI industry trade show in Madrid to protest concerns drug makers contribute to antibiotic resistance, according to InPharma Technologist.

Kenya has become the first country to take up the Novartis Access program in which the drug maker is providing a batch of essential medicines at a cost of $1 per treatment per month, Pharma Times writes.

Women appear less likely than men to take all the medications needed after a heart attack to help prevent repeat episodes, according to Reuters, citing a new study.

A former University of Pennsylvania cancer researcher has been sentenced to a year in prison for misdirecting federal grant money into his own business, The Philadelphia Business Journal tells us.

Bristol-Myers Squibb struck an exclusive licensing and collaboration deal to develop and market cancer treatments with Five Prime Therapeutics worth up to $1.7 billion, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Eli Lilly says its baricitinib, its experimental pill for rheumatoid arthritis, was more effective in a clinical trial than Abbvie blockbuster injectable Humira, Reuters informs us.

Indian regulators are pressuring major drug makers to better police sales of popular codeine-based cough syrups to tackle smuggling and addiction, a move that is reducing supplies, The Economic Times says.

British private equity firm Charterhouse has agreed to buy French pharmaceuticals company Cooper, the first acquisition from its new fund, according to Reuters.