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☆ Many people using GLP-1s for weight loss stop treatment too soon, research shows, and results are not one-size-fits-all
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Deidre Mcphillips | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

Professional organizations have set this as a guideline for when to reassess whether a treatment is providing clinically meaningful weight loss. People who met with their providers less frequently – and those living in underserved regions with broader health inequities – were more likely to discontinue GLP-1 treatment sooner. But using GLP-1 treatments are still an investment in many ways. These injected medications, called GLP-1 agonists, are in high demand because they have proved to be so effective for weight loss. And experts warn that the GLP-1 treatment process can be different for everyone.

Persons: ”, Disha, Wegovy, Jody Dushay, Beth, There’s, Razia Hashmi, ” Hashmi, it’s, “, Dr, Sanjay Gupta, ” Narang, ” Dushay Organizations: CNN, Endeavor Health, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Shield, Dandelion Health, CNN Health, “ Locations: Chicago, –, GLP

☆ For the vibrant springtime celebration Vaisakhi, Sikhs from near and far gathered to honor their faith and community
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-29 | by ( Nimarta Narang | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

The April celebration Vaisakhi is a time when Sikhs gather for community worship, meals, and parades. Here I was in America about a century later trying to honor the community he helped build and, by extension, the Sikh faith. Anumeha Sinha for BINow in my late 20s, it's been 11 years since I've lived in a close-knit Sikh community. To feel closer to her community, Kaur said she's now making a personal effort to honor traditions she learned when she was younger. But outside the Sikh community — and increasingly after 9/11, like Singh mentioned — I saw people misunderstand our symbols of faith.

Persons: —, Vaisakhi, Anumeha Sinha, Guru Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh, Singh, Kaur, it's, I've, Harmeet Kaur, Harman Singh, Harmeet, hadn't, Sahib, she's, Kaur's, nishaan sahib, I'm, It's Organizations: Service, New, BI, Khalsa, ., BI Kaur, New York, Darbar Locations: New York City, Richmond Hill, Queens, Punjab, South Asia, Bangkok, America, . Orange, Brooklyn, Kentucky, Pikeville, Lexington , Kentucky, Atlanta and New York, New, Detroit, India, Windsor , Ontario, Bangkok , New York

☆ You'll soon need a driver's license or passport to get a blue checkmark on Tinder — and take a selfie to prove it's you
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Ana Altchek | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Tinder announced it's expanding its verification requirements to make users share a video selfie and a photo ID to get a special verification badge. To get the blue checkmark, your video selfie has to match the photo on the ID and the pictures on your profile. Users who only complete photo verification will now get a blue camera icon badge on their profile; users who only complete the ID verification will show a blue ID icon badge. Last year, the app took its security measures a step further by requiring a video selfie to get the blue checkmark. Hinge has users submit a video selfie, which can take up to 24 hours to get approved.

Persons: —, Tinder, Kayla Whaling, Whaling, Tenable, Satnam Organizations: Service, Business, Whaling, Group Locations: Australia, New Zealand, UK, Brazil, Mexico

☆ Toast will lay off 10% of its workforce, about 550 employees, as growth slows
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A screen displays the company logo for Toast Inc. during the company’s IPO at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., September 22, 2021. Toast , maker of restaurant management software, said on Thursday it will let go of 550 employees, about 10% of its workforce. Its net loss of $36 million narrowed from $99 million in the year-ago quarter. Gross payment volume, at $33.70 billion, was up 32%, higher than the $33.53 billion consensus among analysts surveyed by StreetAccount. Under Comparato's leadership last summer, Toast started charging a fee of 99 cents for each online order that totaled more than $10.

Persons: Aman Narang, Toast's, Chris Comparato, Toast, Narang, Jim Cramer Organizations: Toast Inc, New York Stock Exchange, LSEG, Bank of America, StreetAccount Locations: New York City, U.S, Shift4

☆ Once loyal Calibrate patients say they regained weight after the startup struggled to get them weight-loss meds on time
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Christina started taking Wegovy in September 2021 after getting a prescription through Calibrate, a startup that promises science-backed help with weight loss. She never received medication through Calibrate again, and she's since gained back all the weight she lost. Calibrate says its goal for Masters patients is to get them off weight-loss medications and help them maintain the weight loss they achieved. A former employee on Calibrate's clinical team said the startup allocated fewer doctors to second-year patients because those patients historically required less help from Calibrate. At least four second-year patients Insider spoke with said they sought refunds from Calibrate after they didn't receive the services they paid for.

Persons: Christina, She'd, I'm, Florian Gaertner, they've, They've, Isabelle Kenyon, Kenyon, Fortune, Jenny Craig, Ozempic, it's, Katie, Calibrate's, didn't, It's, James, they'd, Arantza Pena Popo, Disha, aren't, hasn't, Michael Siluk, Beth Organizations: Getty, Calibrate's, Better, LinkedIn Locations: York, Chicago

India's defence ministry did not respond to Reuters questions. The U.S. Congress in 2019 banned the Pentagon from buying or using drones and components made in China. India has set aside 1.6 billion rupees ($19.77 billion) for military modernisation in 2023-24, of which 75% is reserved for domestic industry. But the ban on Chinese parts has raised the cost of making military drones locally by forcing manufacturers to source components elsewhere, government and industry experts said. Sameer Joshi, founder of Bengaluru-based NewSpace Research and Technologies, a supplier of small drones for India's military, said 70% of goods in the supply chain were made in China.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Sameer Joshi, Joshi, Dilip, ADE, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narang, Krishn Kaushik, Joe Cash, David Crawshaw, YP Rajesh Organizations: Reuters, U.S, Congress, Pentagon, Research, Technologies, Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies, Finance, YP, Thomson Locations: DELHI, India, China, Delhi, cyberattacks, Beijing, Bengaluru, Polish

☆ This tech fund manager has outperformed for 10 years using a unique 'value opportunity' strategy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-02 | by ( Hakyung Kim | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Even in a year with a huge tech stock rally, Columbia Global Technology Growth Fund (CTYRX) stands out for its outsized gains. The final bucket in the portfolio is value opportunity names, or stocks that Narang and his team believe have valuations cheaper than the entire portfolio. He cited data from Alliance Bernstein showing that tech stocks in the most expensive and least expensive quintiles tend to outperform historically — suggesting the attraction of a balanced approach. "Returns seesaw between growth and value over various periods of time," he added, noting this year's growth-oriented tech rally after last year's drubbing. Global mandate Over the last 11 years managing the fund, Narang called its "global mandate" both the biggest challenge and opportunity for him.

Persons: Rahul Narang, Narang, we're, It's, Bernstein, Morningstar Organizations: Columbia Global Technology Growth, Nasdaq, Morningstar . Columbia Management, California Polytechnic State, JPMorgan, Microsoft, Nvidia, Broadcom, Columbia, chipmakers, NXP Semiconductors, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, Samsung Locations: Morningstar, India

Wegovy is a weekly injection that can help patients shed 15% of their weight alongside diet and exercise changes. Walgreens (WBA.O), one of the biggest U.S. pharmacies, is experiencing supply shortages for the higher strengths, spokesperson Erin Loverher confirmed. Doctors in six U.S. states told Reuters patients are reporting problems filling their prescriptions for the higher doses. Three of the doctors said supply delays at pharmacies had resulted in patients missing their Wegovy injections at the prescribed weekly interval. "Patients are often having to delay their injections because it's harder for pharmacies to get Wegovy in stock," he said.

Persons: Erin Loverher, Novo, Alicia Shelly, Shelly, Robert Kushner, Wegovy, Kushner, Denise Wells, Wells, Holly Lofton, New York University Langone, Disha Narang, Narang, Maggie Fick, Patrick Wingrove, Elissa Welle, Caroline Humer, Bill Berkrot Organizations: Reuters, Walgreens, Wellstar, Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, Amazon Pharmacy, New York University, Northwestern Medicine, Barclays Research, Novo, Thomson Locations: U.S, Danish, Georgia, Chicago, Michigan, Chicago , New York, San Francisco, Detroit, Atlanta, Charlottesville , Virginia, London, New York

☆ Google's top AI researchers, including all the authors behind a landmark paper, have left for competitors. Here's where they are now.
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-13 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Top AI researchers have been leaving for startups where their work can have more impact. That frustration over Google's slow movement has been corroborated by other former Google researchers who spoke to Insider. Niki Parmar left Google Brain after five years to serve as a cofounder and CTO of Adept, though in November, she left to found a stealth startup. Lukasz Kaiser left Google Brain after working there for more than seven years to join OpenAI in 2021. Sharan Narang, another contributor to the T5 paper, left Google Brain in 2022 after four years there.

Persons: it's, Llion Jones, OpenAI's, ChatGPT, Sundar Pichai, Bard, Daniel De Freitas, Noam Shazeer, Ilya Sutskever, Sutskever, OpenAI, Ashish Vaswani, Niki Parmar, Jakob Uszkoreit, Aidan Gomez, Nick Frosst, Lukasz Kaiser, Kaiser, Illia Polosukhin, Meena, De Freitas, Romal Thoppilan, Character.AI, LaMDA, Elon Musk, Character.ai, Winni Wintermeyer, Thoppilan, Alicia Jin, BERT BERT, BERT, Jacob Devlin, Colin Raffel, Raffel, Sharan Narang, He's, Azalia Mirhoseini, Anna Goldie, Mirhoseini, Goldie, Claude, DeepMind Mustafa Suleyman, Mustafa Suleyman, DeepMind, Suleyman, Reid Hoffman Organizations: Google, Bloomberg, New York Times, Microsoft, Street Journal, Neural Networks, OpenAI, YouTube, Elon, UNC Chapel Hill, Meta, Anthropic, Society Locations: ChatGPT, Character.AI, DeepMind

☆ People Can't Get Ozempic, New Weight-Loss Drugs Because of Broken Healthcare System
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Wegovy is just one of a wave of revolutionary weight-loss drugs, which also includes the buzzy Ozempic, that represents a watershed moment for obesity treatment. Demand for weight-loss drugs is surgingDoctors and healthcare professionals searched for a healthy, safe, and effective weight-loss solution for years before the drugs, known collectively as GLP-1 agonists, exploded on the scene. If there is one key that could unlock access to expensive weight-loss drugs for Americans, it's Medicare. Expanding coverage for Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs for just a small segment of the population could cost Medicare up to $26.8 billion a year. Patients lose outYears from now, patients may have an easier time getting their hands on weight-loss drugs.

☆ Google's AI teams are experiencing a brain drain. Here's where its top researchers are now.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Thomas Maxwell | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

Top AI researchers have been leaving for startups where their work can have more impact. That frustration over Google's slow movement has been corroborated by other former Google researchers who spoke to Insider. Niki Parmar left Google Brain after five years to serve as a co-founder and CTO of Adept, though like Vaswani she recently left for a stealth startup. Lukasz Kaiser left Google Brain after over seven years to join OpenAI in 2021. Sharan Narang, another contributor to the T5 paper, left Google Brain in 2022 after four years.

☆ Self-driving startup Gatik to double workforce, strikes Kroger deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Abhirup Roy | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

SAN FRANCISCO, March 15 (Reuters) - Self-driving trucking startup Gatik will double its workforce by year end, a top executive said, after it announced a deal on Wednesday with grocer Kroger Co (KR.N) to transport goods within its Dallas, Texas network. Gatik, which operates traditional mid-sized trucks fitted with its autonomous technology, aimed to expand to 15 new U.S. states over five years, CEO Gautam Narang told Reuters. Many investors in the self-driving industry have grown sceptical as complicated technology and tough safety regulations have delayed large-scale commercialization. Autonomous truck company Embark Technology (EMBK.O) said this month it would lay off 70% of its employees and start evaluating options, including winding down the business. Microsoft (MSFT.O)plans to invest more than $10 million in Gatik at a valuation above $700 million, sources told Reuters in January.

☆ Workers are clamoring for pricey new weight-loss drugs like Ozempic. Companies are grappling with how to respond.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Companies that pay for workers' health insurance are grappling with how to cover the pricey drugs. Medicare, the federal program that provides health coverage for people 65 and older, doesn't cover weight-loss drugs. ArcBest already has a program to help workers lose weight through behavior changes and nutrition. Krutsch said he wants to build on that, covering the weight-loss drugs Wegovy and Saxenda for employees who aren't able to lose weight without medication. The new weight-loss drugs were in short supply in 2022, and that gave employers time to figure out how to handle them, he said.

☆ India Budget 2023: Here's what the experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +13 min

"This budget, therefore, has rewritten the rules for financilisation of savings in India, which will induce expenditures rather incentivise savings. LAKSHMI IYER, CEO-INVESTMENT ADVISORY, KOTAK INVESTMENT ADVISORS LTD"India budget 2023 has offered a multi-dimensional view. The 3 Cs which stand out are - Capex increase - consumption boost - capital gains tax status quo. Additionally, the budget has provided significant direct tax benefits to individuals which will help increase disposable income and support spending. The budget keeps in mind the needs of future India while focusing on Artificial Intelligence and machine learning.

☆ People with diabetes struggle to find Ozempic as it soars in popularity as a weight loss aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Berkeley-Lovelace-Jr.Jpg | Berkeley Lovelace Jr. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +5 min

For the past two years, she's managed the condition using a drug called Ozempic, which helps people with diabetes keep blood sugar levels in check. "It's been very frustrating," Largent-Phillips, of Florida, said of the shortage, adding that her blood sugar levels have been fluctuating as she's had to change medications. If the body doesn't use it well, that sugar stays in the blood, resulting in high blood sugar levels. His wife, Gerilynn, who is a nurse, said his blood sugar levels have gone back up since being off Ozempic. Largent-Phillips, of Florida — who has been documenting her experience on TikTok — said that for now, she has to be vigilant about monitoring her blood sugar levels.

Jan 4 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) is in advanced talks to invest in Gatik, a California-based autonomous driving startup, as part of its cloud partnership with the company, two people familiar with the discussions told Reuters. Microsoft plans to invest over $10 million in a financing round that values Gatik at more than $700 million, the sources added. As part of the deal, Gatik will use Microsoft's cloud and edge computing platform Azure in developing autonomous delivery technology for trucks. Like other big tech companies, Microsoft has recently been putting funds into self-driving technology. In November, Ford and Volkswagen shut down their self-driving technology unit, Argo AI, saying that creating self-driving "robotaxis" would be "harder than putting a man on the moon."

☆ What Is Ozempic and Why Is It Getting So Much Attention?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Dani Blum | More About Dani Blum | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

Ozempic, a drug used to treat diabetes, keeps gaining attention as celebrities, a tech mogul and TikTok influencers have described taking it to lose weight in short time frames. Elon Musk, when asked about how he looked “fit, ripped and healthy,” tweeted that he was taking Wegovy. On TikTok, the hashtag #Ozempic has been viewed over 273 million times, with people alternately expressing shock over their supposed medication-induced weight loss and swapping stories about side effects. Ozempic and Wegovy are not the only medications gaining popularity for their weight loss effects. Dr. Narang herself has seen patients “who have somehow gotten their hands on this,” taking the medication off-label, she said.

Persons: TikTok, Elon Musk, ”, Andy Cohen, “, Ozempic, Eli Lilly, Disha, Narang Organizations: Drug Administration, Variety, Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital, Novo Nordisk Locations: Britain, Northwestern, Ozempic

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