Science hinted that cancer patients could take less of a $148,000-a-year drug. Its maker tripled the price of a pill.

A group of cancer doctors focused on bringing down the cost of treatments by testing whether lower — and cheaper — doses are effective thought they had found a prime candidate in a blood cancer drug called Imbruvica that typically costs $148,000 a year.

The science behind Imbruvica suggested that it could work at lower doses, and early clinical evidence indicated that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia might do just as well on one or two pills a day after completing an initial round of treatment at three pills per day.

The researchers at the Value in Cancer Care Consortium, a nonprofit focused on cutting treatment costs for some of the most expensive drugs, set out to test whether the lower dose was just as effective — and could save patients money.

Then they learned of a new pricing strategy by Janssen and Pharmacyclics, the companies that sell Imbruvica through a partnership. Within the next three months, the companies will stop making the original 140-milligram capsule, a spokeswoman confirmed. They will instead offer tablets in four strengths — each of which has the same flat price of about $400, or triple the original cost of the pill. read more »

Ex-UBS Trader Was Spoofing ‘Mentor’ on Precious Metals Desk

Sometimes the student becomes the teacher -- or a cooperating witness.

A protege of former UBS Group AG precious metals trader Andre Flotron testified against his onetime mentor on Tuesday, telling jurors that his veteran colleague instructed him in the finer points of an illegal tactic known as "spoofing" in futures markets.

Mike Chan, 35, said he worked side-by-side with Flotron, 54, on a vast trading floor at UBS’s Stamford, Connecticut, office in 2008. Trying to make a leap from a more modest-paying job on the foreign-exchange desk into metals trading, Chan said he learned to spoof by "watching over his shoulder, and taking notes." read more »

Defendant Indicted for Swindling Investors in Binary Options and Cryptocurrency Scheme

Defendant Allegedly Lied to the FBI and Altered Documents to Obstruct Investigation

A three-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Central Islip, New York, charging Blake Kantor, also known as “Bill Gordon,” with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, obstruction of an official proceeding and making false statements to Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Kantor was arrested by federal authorities today and is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Gary R. Brown.

New CFTC Videos Give Inside Look at Binary Options Fraud

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today released The Truth Behind Binary Options Fraud, new videos that give viewers a first-hand look at the tactics shrewd fraudsters use to con investors out of hundreds or even thousands of dollars.

“Binary options can be helpful hedging tools for some traders, but there are only a few entities that can legitimately do business with individual investors in the U.S.,” said Erica Elliott Richardson, CFTC Director of Public Affairs. “These videos serve as a wake-up call to investors to check the registration of the company they are trusting with their money.”  read more »