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☆ See the 14-slide pitch deck Labviva used to raise $20 million to overhaul a crucial but overlooked task for Big Pharma
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

The startup just raised $20 million to help expand its team and platform. Siamak Baharloo says there's a big time-consuming task that's taking researchers away from doing science in their labs: finding and buying the right supplies for their experiments. He added that the company expects to see $150 million in purchases on its platform in 2023. Labviva said on Monday that it had raised $20 million from investors in a Series A round led by Biospring Partners, bringing the company's total capital raised to $30 million. See the pitch deck Labviva used to raise its series A round:

☆ Wells Fargo says this biopharmaceutical stock could double due to drug catalysts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Catalysts coming for Ventyx 's immunology and inflammation projects could help the stock more than double its share value, Wells Fargo said. Analyst Derek Archila initiated coverage of the biopharmaceutical stock at overweight and set a target price for the stock at $77. His price target implies the stock will surge 103.4% over the next year from where it closed Monday. But Archila said there's a likely chance that the company could set a new bar with its trial for moderately to severely active ulcerative colitis. Wall Street expectations for the read-out coming in the second half of this year would be "highly impressive" if met, Archila said.

☆ Here are Thursday's biggest analyst calls: Credit Suisse, Amazon, Block, First Republic, FedEx & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-16 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

Here are Thursday's biggest calls on Wall Street: JPMorgan reiterates Amazon as overweight JPMorgan said growth deceleration concerns are overdone. Stifel upgrades FedEx to buy from hold Stifel said FedEx shares are compelling at current levels. JPMorgan reiterates Credit Suisse as overweight JPMorgan said it's standing by shares of the banking giant. JPMorgan upgrades Motorola Solutions to overweight from neutral JPMorgan called the telecom equipment company "high quality." Bank of America upgrades Takeda Pharmaceuticals to buy from neutral Bank of America said called Takeda a "stable value stock."

Takeda CFO Costa Saroukos in a 2018 picture. Mr. Saroukos joined Takeda in 2015 as CFO of Takeda’s European and Canadian operations before he was elevated to global CFO in 2018. WSJ: What did you learn from your deal-integration experiences that helped with the Takeda and Shire integration? ” — Costa Saroukos, CFO of TakedaAnother reason speed is important is to avoid losing talent. We broadened CFOinUrpocket to be used globally across 80 countries for the combined Takeda and Shire offices.

☆ Japan's factory output posts biggest fall in 8 months on weak autos, chips sectors
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Kantaro Komiya | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

In contrast, retail sales posted their fastest growth in nearly two years, separate data showed, highlighting the divergent paths between soft manufacturing and robust service-sector activity. Factory output fell 4.6% in January from a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis, government data showed on Tuesday. Separate data showed Japanese retail sales rose 6.3% in January from a year earlier, beating a median market forecast for a 4.0% gain and posting an eleventh consecutive month of expansion. Despite the production cuts, retail sales of autos rose 19.3% year-on-year, suggesting strong pent-up demand among domestic consumers caused by delivery delays. Compared with the previous month, retail sales expanded 1.9% in January, following a 1.1% rise in December, the data showed.

☆ Pharma CEOs say Mark Cuban's effort to upend the drug industry is 'a really great idea' but will be difficult to pull off
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Biopharma CEOs say his company Cost Plus Drugs could remove costs from the distribution system. Cuban told Insider in an email that he believed the company's pricing transparency was "an absolute positive for patients." The company started its pharmacy services last year and quickly racked up over 1 million accounts, Cuban told Insider recently. Cost Plus Drugs is focused on bringing down the price of generic medications, which no longer have patent protections but can still be expensive. Cuban told Insider that EQRx was in a "different business" than what he's attempting to build out.

☆ Drop in China-bound Japanese exports adds to fears of global downturn
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Tetsushi Kajimoto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Exports to China, Japan's largest trading partner, fell 6.2% year-on-year in value and were down by 24% in terms of volume in December. In the worst case, it may deal a blow to Japanese exports, which could in turn hit Japan's factory output and capital expenditure," said Atsushi Takeda, chief economist at ITOCHU Research Institute. The trade data also highlighted the challenge of a resource-deficient country that relies heavily on imports of commodity and energy. The rises in exports and imports were largely in line with forecasts by economists in a Reuters poll. As a result, December's trade deficit came to 1.45 trillion yen ($11.29 billion), extending the run of deficits to 17 months.

☆ Slumping China-bound Japanese exports raise fears of global downturn
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Tetsushi Kajimoto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Exports to largest trading partner China fell 6.2% year-on-year in value and were down 24% in volume terms in December. Exports to the United States in December rose 16.9% from a year ago, led by cars, mining equipment and aero-engine parts. In the worst case, it may deal a blow to Japanese exports, which could in turn hit Japan's factory output and capital expenditure," said Atsushi Takeda, chief economist at ITOCHU Research Institute. "Trade deficits will stay at high levels even as import growth slows with oil prices falling and weak yen running its course. That's because exports remain weak due to lacklustre global demand," said Taro Saito, executive research fellow at NLI Research Institute.

☆ Bank of Japan makes surprise policy tweak
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

ATUSHI TAKEDA, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ITOCHU ECONOMIC RESEARCH, TOKYO:"Today's move reflects the BOJ's determination not to alter its yield cure control policy. CAROL KONG, CURRENCY STRATEGIST, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA, SYDNEY:"I think the move was certainly unexpected, to say the least. MOH SIONG SIM, CURRENCY STRATEGIST, BANK OF SINGAPORE:"They've widened the band, and I guess that came earlier than expected. CHRISTOPHER WONG, CURRENCY STRATEGIST, OCBC, SINGAPORE:"The timing of the policy tweak is a surprise, though we have been expecting the move to come in 2Q 2023. "The tweak may seem modest but is significant for a central bank that has held dovish for a long time.

☆ Japan's ispace launches world's first commercial moon lander
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-10 | by ( Rocky Swift | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

ispace Inc's HAKUTO-R mission took off without incident from Cape Canaveral, Florida, after two postponements caused by inspections of its SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. The project was a finalist in the Google Lunar XPRIZE before being revived as a commercial venture. The M1 lander will deploy two robotic rovers, a two-wheeled, baseball-sized device from Japan's JAXA space agency and the four-wheeled Rashid explorer made by the United Arab Emirates. "The Rashid rover is part of the United Arab Emirates ambitious space programme," said Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, who is also vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and who watched the launch at the Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre. Privately funded ispace has a contract with NASA to ferry payloads to the moon from 2025 and is aiming to build a permanently staffed lunar colony by 2040.

☆ New Dengue Vaccine Approved in Europe
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Jared S. Hopkins | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Takeda Pharmaceutical’s dengue vaccine, Qdenga, could generate peak annual sales of at least $700 million, the Tokyo-based company said. European health regulators cleared a new dengue vaccine from Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., a decision that could pave the way for its use around the world against the devastating mosquito-borne virus. The European Commission approved the two-dose shot in people ages 4 years and older, Takeda said Thursday.

☆ Big pharma not doing enough to improve drug access - analysis
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] A doctor tests a child for malaria at the Ithani-Asheri Hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, May 11, 2016. While there has been progress, there remain some gaping holes that need to be prioritised in the coming years, Access to Medicine Foundation CEO Jayasree Iyer told Reuters. The findings mirror a long-established pattern - that the pharmaceutical industry will prioritise countries where there is a market, she said. "If we consistently see that the industry leaves low income countries behind, then we're never going to solve the problem of access at scale," she said. In terms of overall rankings on the Access to Medicine Index, British drugmaker GSK (GSK.L) retained the top spot, closely followed by U.S. pharma major Johnson & Johnson (J&J) (JNJ.N).

[1/3] A cargo ship and containers are seen at an industrial port in Tokyo, Japan, February 15, 2022. The world's third-biggest economy has struggled to motor on despite the recent lifting of COVID curbs, and has faced intensifying pressure from red-hot global inflation, sweeping interest rate increases worldwide and the Ukraine war. GLOBAL RISKSHowever, the risks to Japan's outlook have risen as the global economy teeters on the brink of recession. Economy Minister Shigeyuki Goto said a global recession could hit households and businesses. "As for 2023, Japan will be dragged into a mild recession in H1 by a global downturn that will weigh on exports and business investment."

☆ BOJ's Kuroda vows to continue monetary easing for now, focuses on wages
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Tetsushi Kajimoto | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Kuroda said the job market is expected to tighten, particularly at service sector firms, many of which employ low-paid part timers and contract workers. The annual labour-management wage negotiations next spring will likely take into account both the tightening of the job market and rising inflation, he added. "We are at a stage where we will continue monetary easing to firmly back economic activity at present," Kuroda told a meeting with business leaders in Nagoya in central Japan. "The wages hold the key to see whether sustainable inflation take hold. In that sense, tightening of the labour market may be an encouraging signal to Governor Kuroda," Takeda said.

☆ Japan's economy shrinks for first time in a year
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Japan’s economy unexpectedly shrank for the first time in a year in the third quarter, stoking further uncertainty about the outlook as global recession risks, a weak yen and higher import costs took a toll on household consumption and businesses. The world’s third biggest economy has struggled to motor on despite the recent lifting of Covid curbs, and has faced intensifying pressure from red-hot global inflation, sweeping interest rate increases worldwide and the Ukraine war. “But the three key pillars of demand - consumption, capital expenditure and exports - remained in positive territory, if not robust, so demand is not as weak as the headline figure shows.”Global risksHowever, the risks to Japan’s outlook have risen as the global economy teeters on the brink of recession. Economy Minister Shigeyuki Goto said a global recession could hit households and businesses. The Bank of Japan has also maintained its ultra-loose monetary stimulus program to help revive the economy.

☆ New U.S. cancer drug prices rise 53% in five years -report
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Deena Beasley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"I do think there is a possibility we see launch prices go up," she said. Reuters GraphicsPorter, who championed inflation-based caps on drug prices, is calling for additional national legislation to link launch prices to how well a drug works. The report found that the average launch price of a self-administered cancer drug, after adjusting for inflation, rose by nearly 26% to $238,000 between 2017 and 2021. By 2022, six out of the eight newly-launched oral cancer drugs had prices over $200,000 per year. Based on current trends, the report calculated that by 2026, when Medicare will first be able to negotiate drug prices, the average self-administered cancer drug launch price will be nearly $325,000 per year and over $525,000 for pills and biologics.

Coins and banknotes of Japanese yen are seen in this illustration picture taken June 16, 2022. That contrasts with Japan's intervention after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami to quell sharp yen rises, in which authorities announced most interventions. "With stealth intervention, authorities can give markets the impression they could be stepping in more frequently than they actually have," said Atsushi Takeda, chief economist at Itochu Research Institute. That means Tokyo will need to rely more on its words - or its silence - rather than reserves to shore up the yen. You could say stealth intervention may be better than nothing, though it's really just buying time."

☆ Bank of Japan’s stubbornness keeps yen volatile
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Men look at an electric monitor displaying the Japanese yen exchange rate against the U.S. dollar and Nikkei share average in Tokyo, Japan September 14, 2022. read more That’s understandable, but it will make it harder to moderate an increasingly volatile exchange rate. The yen , currently trading around 144 per dollar, is at its weakest since 1998, but more important is the rate of change. A see-sawing foreign exchange rate, though, makes executives nervous. Exporters including carmakers Nissan Motor (7201.T) and Toyota Motor (7203.T), and drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical (4502.T), which reported nice forex tailwinds in its last quarterly report, are benefitting from unexpected exchange rate gains on paper.

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