watch. >> three, two, one. [ cheers ] >> and meg terrell got it, too. today top executives and researchers at a boston area firm of finding a cure for the disease took the challenge and the national office of the als association says and this is really good news, it's received $2.3 million since the end of july, ten times what it took in over the same period last year. >> poor meg but that's -- you're a pharmaceutical reporter. you've got to have the ice bucket, part two. that's "nightly business repo " report", i'm susie gharib. we want to remind you this is the time of year your public television station needs your support. >> on behalf of your public television station, thanks for your support and we'll see you back here tomorrow. explore new worlds and new ideas through programs like this, made available for everyone through contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. hello. i'm jon "bowzer" bauman here with you again as we go back to the good times when radio was a.m., when records had a hole in the middle, and when our pare

watch. >> three, two, one. [ cheers ] >> and meg terrell got it, too. today top executives and researchers at a boston area firm of finding a cure for the disease took the challenge and the national office of the als association says and this is really good news, it's received $2.3 million since the end of july, ten times what it took in over the same period last year. >> poor meg but that's -- y're a pharmaceutical reporter. you've got to have the ice bucket, part two. that's "nightly business repo " report", i'm susie gharib. we want to remind you this is the time of year your public television station needs your support. >> on behalf of your public television station, thanks for your support and we'll see you back here tomorrow. >> this is "bbc world news america." >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, kovler foundation, union bank, and sony pictures classics. now presenting "magic in the moonlight." >> my menta

meg terrell has the story. >> reporter: natalee is determined to succeed. whether on the soccer field or training her dog, missy. >> good girl. >> reporter: now she's tackling the challenge of her life. go years ago natalee was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. >> i started getting these really bad headaches and they were a lot worse than normal, and so my mom took me to the doctor one day and they were doing some x-rays and stuff and eventually found that i had a large tumor in my chest. >> reporter: the cancer had spread to natalee's brain. since then, she's been through ten surgeries, radiation and multiple medicines, some with difficult side effects. >> none of them really seem to have a good effect on my cancer. >> reporter: natalee's doctors have identified a new class of drugs they think may work for her. immune therapy. they harness the system to fight cancer, but they are not yet approved and natalee doesn't qualify for on going clinical trials. she's three years too young. >> we hoped there could be an age exception made or some sort of provis

meg terrell has the story. >> reporter: compassionate use is a last resort for the sickest of patients like natalee, a 15-year-old battling an aggressive cancer for two years. >> when we found this new promising medicine, pd 1, we definitely wanted to participate in a trial and we asked for compassionate use but they denied it. >> reporter: companies can use compassionate use to use drugs outside of clinical trial. >> there are three parties, the patient and their doctor, the fda and pharmaceutical companies and all three have to be in agreement if the drug gets to the patient. >> reporter: it is not a simple pass and a spill of public outcries is putting pressure on the system to change. one issue, a lack of guiding industry principles. tony consults for drug makers fielding requests for compassionate use. >> is there an individual process put in place or should there be a universal sort of set of principles that regulators and companies might agree to that won't be compromised in the face of a strong public pressure campaign. >> reporter: another initiative is right to try, a law tha

meg terrell has the story. >> reporter: two years into her battle with the rare form of cancer, natalee troller and her family think they may be close to something that could help. >> when we found this new medicine, pd 1, we definitely wanted to participate in the trial. >> reporter: pd 1 is part of a new class of experimental drugs. the family and oncologists asked for access. they all said no. >> it was only including people 18 and up, and since i'm only 15, they wouldn't let me in. we asked for compassion et use, but they denied it. >> reporter: compassionate use is a way to use outside of the clinical trials for patients with no other options. natalee and countless others fit that describe. >> agonizing. >> reporter: doug williams leads research, two years ago, the company was working on a therapy. with compassion et use requests pouring in, biogen prepared enough supply to give 5,000 patients if the drug proved to work in clinical trials. >> an individual situation while difficult and heart wrenching has to be weighed against the backdrop of what the ultimate goal is which is to b

meg terrell has more on what's driving this merger. >> reporter: health care companies have been on auying spree. from pfizer's attempted deal to buy astrazeneca for almost $120 billion to the successful purchase of shire. mergers and acquisitions in the industry are at a record high. traditional targets, biotech companies, haven't been the main event this year. as companies pursue m & a for tax reasons. >> there has been an increased number of these transactions that are tax inversions. so, you know, kind of inverting into a nonu.s. corporation to, you know, really lower overall tax rates. >> reporter: that may be changing, lisa bako says. roche's purchase of intermune yesterday makes it still healthy. >> this transaction is the ilk of a traditional biotech, bio phrma agreement where it's really about the pipelines, the assets between the two companies. >> reporter: so for $8.3 billion, what does roche get? intermune makes a drug for a fatal drug disease. it's approved in europe and canada, and is currently under review in the united states. and the disease it treats is a devastating

for "nightly business report" i'm meg terrell. >>> a nasty earnings report from abercrombie & fitch is where we begin tonight's "market focus." same-store sales fell for the tenth straight quarter as it struggled to attract customers. the company did turn a profit in the second quarter, but that was fuelled mostly because of cost cutting and store closures. shares fell 5% to $41.87. dollar general posted earnings a that muched estimates but its revenue and sales both missed. the discount retailer blamed a competitive environment and a cautious consumer. the disappointing results reaffirmed its interest in consolidating. the company told investors that it still wants to buy family dollar even though its nearly $9 billion offer was rejected last week. shares are up slightly to $64.20. cody posted a big loss and a drop in revenues in its fiscal fourth quarter. the beauty product company missed on the top and bottom line. cody says it's targeting a return to revenue growth this fiscal year. but still, shares were down 3.5%, to $17.39. and the news apple fans have been waiting for. the tech

for "nightly business report" i'm meg terrell. >>> best buy didn't live up to its name.t posted another disappointing quarter, the third in a row. the largest specialty consumer electronics retailer reported lower than expected revenue, down 4%. best buy expects continued softness until the newest models come out. the company had cost cutting and better online electronic sales. that wasn't enough to help shares, which dropped almost 7% today. >>> best buy also echoed a theme repeated by many other retailers recently. more and more customers are buying online. so how do companies get more foot traffic into their brick and mortar stores? courtn courtney reagan tells us about some ideas that seem to be working. >> reporter: traffic. for most of us, it's a hassle. for retailers, the holy grail. just getting shoppers in the store has become a feat. while many retailers say a sale on their website is just as good, a sale in their stores is technically more valuable, because the high overhead cost of operating a store fleet. still, retailers are learning online and mobile prese

our meg terrell has the latest. in india we have 400 million people who don't have electricity and i just figured that it's time i do something about it. what we're doing right now, along with ibm, is to actually transfer data through a satellite from our wind farms directly onto the cloud. i think we could create a far more efficient system across the whole network where we could actually draw down different kinds of energy based on when it's needed by the consumer. a smarter energy system is made with the ibm cloud. the ibm cloud is the cloud for business. >>> signs today of pretty good bound for the stock market stemming a tide of selling it started overnight in asia, continued in europe this morning, but now we are decently positive here. the dow was up 162 points, now it's gain of 140. nasdaq's up about 30 and the s&p up 17 points at this hour. >> the world health organization declaring the ebola outbreak an international public health emergency. >> meg terrell joins us now with the latest developments on this

>>> then boston, meg terrell live is biogen, waiting for the big event. >> reporter: absolutely rightre with hundreds of employees of biogen who are all out here ready for a mass soaking for the ice bucket challenge for a.l.s. research, that's coming up in a few minutes. more "halftime report" after the break. (vo) watching. waiting. for that moment, where right place meets right time. and when i find it- i go for it. (announcer) at scottrade, we share your passion for trading. that's why we give you the edge, with innovative charting and trading features, plus powerful mobile apps so you're always connected, wherever you are. because at scottrade, our passion is to power yours. [ thud ] visit tripadvisor rome. with millions of reviews, tripadvisor makes any destination better. we're changing the way we do business, with startup ny. with millions of reviews, we've created tax free zones throughout the state. and startup ny companies will be investing hundreds of millions of dollars in jobs and infrastructure. thanks to startup ny, businesses can operate tax free for 10 years. no prope

our meg terrell has two very special guests on the deal. send it over to you, meg. >> kayla, thanks. let's bring our guests in, the ceos of both companies. both of you, thank you so much for joining us. >> thanks for having us. >> thank you. >> so dr. schwan, let's start with you. this is the biggest deal for roche since genentech in 2009. why does the deal make sense buying roche? >> i think the starting point is really the medicine which intermune has developed over the last years. it helps patients who suffer from a devastating disease. it's called i h ee eed ideaopat fibrosis. it's a devastating fatal disease. patients typically will die two to three years after diagnosis. and intermune has developed this important medicine, give new hope to patients and that's why we are so excited about this opportunity. it really fits into what we are doing, focusing on innovation, true medical differentiation for patients. >> and maybe you can tell us a little bit about the drug in the eu and canada and its approval pathway in the u.s. now approval i

for that and the news before the bell, it's meg terrell live, good morning. >> reporter: good morning. we're talking about google first. its been testing drone deliveries in australia as part of a program calmed project wing. the drones can take off vertically and fly at speeds of 60 miles per hour. google made 30 successful flights so far delivering small items such as a first aid kit, water bottle, and candy bars. while use is likely years away, they see it being used to fly in supplies. and a majority of genx workers believe they'll need $30 million for retirement. so far, most only have about $70,000 in savings. more than 80 who were born between 1965 and 1978 are worried social security won't exist. and 85% think they'll have a harder time receiving financial security than their parents. the oldest group will turn 50 next year, back to you guys. >> thank you much. >>> researchers in san diego say they have solved a mystery in death valley. this one was cool. for decades, people wondered what causes these rocks on the racetrack to slither across the flat lake bed. in december, two

meg terrell has that story. >> that's right, roche is paying $74 a share for intermune and it gets a drug for interpathic pulmonary fibrosis, affecting about 100,000 people in the u.s. and 100,000 people in europe and there's nothing on the market to treat it. it's approved in canada and europe but not yet in the u.s. analysts expect that this year. they think this could be a billion-dollar-plus drug in peak annual revenue and the ceo of roche told us today which is the drug that made intermune a fit for roche. >> it's, of course, the perfect strategic fit. it's a focus on medical differentiati differentiation. it fits very well to our preliminary portfolio. >> now, when you see biotech deals like these, there's a lot of speculation that more will follow. you've seen record deals in health care, but primarily driven by the tax inversions. now they think we may have a return to big pharma. isi group did a survey of investors today and has a list of names they're looking at, like puma biotech, biomarin, intercept, vertex. we'll see if any of those are next on the docket. >> thanks, meg