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☆ AstraZeneca’s new deal is smarter than it looks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Jan 9 (Reuters Breakingviews) - On the face of it, Pascal Soriot’s new deal ought to raise his shareholders’ blood pressure. The boss of $221 billion pharma giant AstraZeneca (AZN.L) has agreed to buy CinCor Pharma (CINC.O) for up to $1.8 billion. Yet paying $26 in cash per CinCor share and an extra $10 per share if a key drug is submitted for regulatory approval represents a 206% bump to CinCor’s closing share price on Friday. The pharma industry has a war chest of over half a trillion dollars to splurge on knock-down biotech stocks this year. If the next trial goes better, Astra’s deal may not look so toppy.

☆ Wall Street analyst calls on Thursday including Tesla & Amazon
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-05 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Barclays names Starbucks a top 2023 pick Barclays said the coffee giant is a "best-in-class" stock for 2023. UBS names Chipotle a top 2023 pick UBS said the Mexican chain restaurant is defensive in a "tough macro." Bank of America downgrades PNC to underperform from neutral Bank of America said shares of PNC are trading at a premium. Bank of America downgrades Ally Financial to underperform from buy Bank of America said Ally is most exposed to auto loans. Bank of America reiterates Amazon as buy Bank of America said Amazon layoffs are "not a positive signal, but good for sentiment."

In 2022, drugmakers raised prices on more than 1,400 drugs according to data published by 46brooklyn, a drug pricing non-profit that is related to 3 Axis. The median drug price increase was 4.9% last year, while the average increase was 6.4%, according to 46brooklyn. Antonio Ciaccia, president of 3 Axis, said that drugmakers have focused on launching their drugs at higher prices because of the attention paid to annual price increases. More drug prices are likely to be announced over the course of January - historically the biggest month for drugmakers to raise prices. Sanofi plans to raise prices on 14 of its drugs or vaccines.

RIO DE JANEIRO, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Brazilian President-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will appoint Senator Jean Paul Prates of his Workers Party to be the next chief executive of state-run oil company Petrobras (PETR4.SA), a member of his transition team said on Thursday. Deyvid Bacelar, head of oil workers' union FUP, said on social media that Lula had picked Prates based on the labor group's recommendations. He added that Senator Alexandre Silveira would be chosen to be mines and energy minister. The transition team, Prates and Petrobras did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Preferred shares of the oil company rose more than 2% after Bacelar's post, outperforming Brazil's benchmark stock index Bovespa <.BVSP>, before ceding half the gain.

☆ Biden blacklists China's YMTC, crackdowns on AI chip sector
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Alexandra Alper | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

WASHINGTON, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Thursday added Chinese memory chipmaker YMTC and 21 "major" Chinese players in the artificial intelligence chip industry to a trade blacklist, broadening its crackdown on China's chip industry. It also comes as Congress prepares to finalize legislation to bar the U.S. government from buying products that contain semiconductors made by YMTC, Chinese memory chipmaker CXMT or China's top chip manufacturer SMIC. The Commerce Department on Thursday also targeted nine Chinese entities for allegedly seeking to support China's military modernization, including Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co Ltd (SMEE), China's only lithography company. Two of the Chinese companies removed from the unverified list - YMTC and SMEE- were added to the entity list. Being added to the unverified list forces U.S. suppliers to perform greater due diligence before shipping to the targeted companies.

"This falls into the category of a game changing view of Chinese companies because the threat of their delisting seems to have been eliminated," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Financial. However, the relief was not seen in Thursday's trading for U.S.-listed shares of Chinese companies, which were higher amid the news, but gave up gains and some ended sharply lower. Washington and Beijing reached a landmark deal in August to settle a long-running dispute over auditing compliance of U.S.-listed Chinese firms. Authorities in China have long been reluctant to let overseas regulators inspect local accounting firms, citing national security concerns. U.S. lawmakers in 2020 agreed to legislation that would oust Chinese companies from U.S. stock exchanges unless they adhere to American auditing standards.

☆ Amgen’s $28 bln deal is a reasonable gamble
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-12 | by ( Robert Cyran | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Dec 12 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Biotechnology deals are always a gamble, and, on the face of it, Amgen’s (AMGN.O) $28 billion purchase of Horizon Therapeutics (HZNP.O) looks both risky and pricey. Investors in the $150 billion drug buyer should give it the benefit of the doubt. Amgen is largely buying Horizon for a drug named Tepezza, which helps a thyroid disease that affects eyesight. Sales in Alexion’s drug this year should be $7 billion, a 16% jump from where they were when AstraZeneca bought it. If Amgen similarly helps Horizon, its deal will look like a reasonable wager.

☆ Expect more choppiness ahead after a week of mixed market signals
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Driving the action were several key economic reports, including the November ADP employment and nonfarm payrolls reports and the October personal spending report. The comments came after a softer-than-expected ADP employment report, but before a stronger-than-expected nonfarm payrolls report. With these kinds of mixed signals, expect more market choppiness as investors remain on the hunt for more definitive signs that the Fed is winning its war on inflation and can therefore definitively ease up on their hawkish stance. Initial jobless claims for the week ending Nov. 26 were 225,000, a decrease of 16,000 from the prior week and below expectations of 235,000. Finally, on Friday the all-important nonfarm payrolls report was released, indicating a 263,000 payrolls increase in November, above the 200,000 expected.

☆ AstraZeneca boosts cancer portfolio with $320 mln Neogene deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 29 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca (AZN.L) will acquire biotechnology company Neogene Therapeutics for up to $320 million, the London-listed drugmaker said on Tuesday, seeking to build its pipeline of cell-based cancer treatments. Though AstraZeneca's oncology portfolio accounted for more than a third of the company's revenue last year, it does not have an approved cell-based cancer therapy and is behind rivals such as Novartis (NOVN.S) and Gilead (GILD.O). Neogene's approach goes one step further in that its experimental T-cell receptor therapies seek to target DNA mutations specific to tumours, not only certain proteins on the surface of cancer cells. Linnemann founded Neogene in the Netherlands in 2018 along with the Netherlands Cancer Institute's Ton Schumacher. AstraZeneca will make an initial payment of $200 million to Neogene, with a further $120 million dependent on the company meeting certain targets.

☆ Big Pharma will muscle in on obesity gold rush
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-28 | by ( Aimee Donnellan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

LONDON, Nov 28 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Obesity drugs are a modern day gold rush for drugmakers. By then, the obesity market could total $50 billion, according to Morgan Stanley. But a plausible 50% price cut would lower annual sales to $25 billion. Reuters GraphicsFollow @aimeedonnellan on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSSales of Novo Nordisk’s obesity drugs Wegovy and Saxenda reached nearly $1.2 billion in 2021, up 50% versus the previous year. Morgan Stanley analysts expect the obesity market to grow to $50 billion in annual sales by 2030.

☆ U.S. FDA declines to approve Spectrum's lung cancer drug
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 25 (Reuters) - Spectrum Pharmaceuticals Inc (SPPI.O) said on Friday the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declined to approve its experimental lung cancer drug due to inadequate data, prompting the drugmaker to cut jobs. The company said it will no longer focus on developing the drug, poziotinib, for treating non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with a rare genetic mutation that affects 2%-4% of the cancer patients. They have fallen 42.5% since an expert panel to the FDA recommended against the drug's approval in September. Nevada-based Spectrum said it will cut 75% of its research and development workforce and focus on its other cancer drug, Rolvedon. Reporting by Khushi Mandowara; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri, Shounak Dasgupta and Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Morningstar: Buy these 14 cheap stocks that still have room to rally in a bear market
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-24 | by ( Lisa Kailai Han | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Contrary to intutition, bear market rallies may make it tougher for investors to do their jobs. Morningstar shared 14 stocks that are still cheap, despite beating the market. Then, they whittled that list down to the stocks that Morningstar analysts considered undervalued. Finally, Morningstar analysts highlighted AstraZeneca (AZN), noting its strong pipeline and its development of drugs that carry high pricing power. The full list of Morningstar's 14 undervalued bear market stars is below, along with each firm's ticker, sector, bear market return, and price discount.

☆ Macron hosts European CEOs to counter US move temptation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

European leaders have been alarmed by massive anti-inflation measures passed by Joe Biden's administration, which make tax breaks conditional on U.S-manufactured content and which EU industries say make investment in Europe less competitive. Macron, who has called on the European Union to launch its own 'European Buy Act' to subsidise European production, has encountered resistance from the more anti-protectionist members of the bloc. It was unclear what Macron would tell the executives to convince them not to move to the U.S. But France has unveiled a number of measures over the weekend to cushion the impact of high energy bills for French companies. Reporting by Michel Rose Editing by Bernadette BaumOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

LONDON, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Pharmaceutical companies could be made to disclose prices and deals agreed for any products they make to fight future pandemics, under new rules being drawn up by the World Health Organization and reviewed by Reuters. During the pandemic, many deals that governments made with pharmaceutical companies have been kept confidential, giving them little scope to hold drugmakers accountable. A spokesperson for the WHO said it was member states that were driving the current process towards a new agreement. "The process is open, transparent, and with the input from other stakeholders, including any interested stakeholders and public, able to submit comments at public consultations." The draft will be presented to them in full in a meeting on Friday, after being circulated earlier in the week.

☆ Britain's NICE recommends against NHS use of 5 COVID treatments as not cost-effective
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Maggie Fick | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The review, conducted by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and published on Wednesday, is its first involving COVID-19 treatments as the pandemic enters a new phase. The recommendations are a draft, NICE said, and until final guidance is published, access to COVID-19 medicines will continue as is. NICE acknowledged that there is evidence that Merck's molnupiravir and Gilead Sciences Inc's (GILD.O) hospital-administered antiviral remdesivir are effective at treating COVID-19. It also recommended against three other COVID treatments, including GSK (GSK.L) and partner Vir Biotechnology's (VIR.O) sotrovimab, an antibody therapy that the World Health Organization recommended against in September. One expert said that some of the COVID treatments NICE recommended against are an important part of the British government's current strategy.

☆ 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).

☆ U.S. FDA staff flags unclear benefits of Ardelyx's kidney disease drug
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 14 (Reuters) - U.S. Food and Drug Administration staff reviewers on Monday raised concerns over unclear benefits of Ardelyx Inc's (ARDX.O) drug for kidney disease patients, but the company's shares rose 20% on expectations over a possible approval. The FDA's staff reviewers said, "the magnitude of treatment effect appears less than that observed with approved drugs," in briefing documents released on Monday. Ardelyx's oral drug, tenapanor, is aimed at reducing elevated blood phosphate levels in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). The advisers' meeting, set for Nov.16, was called by the FDA following Ardelyx's appeal against the regulator's initial rejection of the drug in July last year, after it identified deficiencies. Around 37 million people, or one in seven people, in the United States have chronic kidney disease, as per a government report last year.

The news marks a second setback for GSK's oncology portfolio this week, after the company on Monday revealed its blood cancer drug Blenrep failed to outperform an older therapy in a key study, calling into question Blenrep's existing U.S. approval. Zejula belongs to a family of drugs called PARP inhibitors - which include AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Merck's (MRK.N) Lynparza and Clovis Oncology's (CLVS.O) Rubraca. In September, GSK withdrew the use of Zejula in certain ovarian cancer patients who had previously undergone three or more chemotherapy regimens. For GSK, Zejula's use in the first-line setting - as a therapy designed to keep cancer at bay in ovarian cancer patients who have partially or fully benefited from platinum-based chemotherapy, remains a priority. Zejula - which GSK acquired through its $5.1 billion acquisition of U.S. cancer specialist Tesaro in 2018 - generated a total of 120 million pounds ($141.4 million) last quarter.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves premarket: Tapestry, WeWork, Rivian and others
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Peter Schacknow | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Tapestry slid 2% in premarket trading. Nio shares jumped 5.5% in premarket trading. AstraZeneca (AZN) – AstraZeneca gained 4.8% in premarket trading after the drug maker reported upbeat quarterly results and raised its full-year profit forecast. Bumble (BMBL) – Bumble slumped 14% in premarket action after issuing a weak current-quarter revenue forecast. ZipRecruiter (ZIP) – ZipRecruiter surged 12.6% in premarket trading after the online jobs site operator posted better-than-expected quarterly results and raised its full-year forecast.

☆ AstraZeneca lifts 2022 earnings outlook as cancer drugs boost results
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

AstraZeneca is seen as a bellwether for the pharmaceutical sector in China, which accounted for about 16% of the company's total revenue last year. Sales in China have been hurt by lower drug prices while COVID lockdown measures have kept some patients from being diagnosed and seeking care. Better-than-expected sales of AstraZeneca's cancer medicines, including Tagrisso, Imfinzi and Enhertu, helped the company's quarterly revenue beat, with sales of its broader oncology portfolio rising 24%. But global sales of the company's COVID therapy, Evusheld, have steadily grown, partially offsetting the rapid decline in COVID vaccine sales. Evusheld continues to demonstrate strong efficacy but there are a couple of variants that are resistant to it, Soriot said.

☆ AstraZeneca withdraws U.S. application for COVID vaccine
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - AstraZeneca (AZN.L) is no longer pursuing U.S. approval of its COVID-19 vaccine, Chief Executive Pascal Soriot said in a media call on Thursday. Demand for vaccines in the country is declining and the market is well served by the mRNA shots, he said. Reporting by Natalie Grover in London; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ AstraZeneca tops quarterly estimates buoyed by cancer drug sales
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Sales of AstraZeneca's key cancer medicines — Tagrisso and Imfinzi — helped the company's revenue beat, with sales of its broader oncology portfolio rising 24%. Previously, it had forecast a 2022 gain in the "mid-to-high twenties percentage". Novartis in late October said strong U.S. currency was a drag on the value of its quarterly sales generated outside the United States. AstraZeneca on Thursday said its anticipated 2022 revenue growth would be impacted by a currency headwind of a "mid single-digit percentage". Core earnings per share for the year will also be negatively affected by "mid-to-high single-digit percentage," it added.

☆ Cancer drugmaker Clovis flags possible bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Nov 9 (Reuters) - U.S. drugmaker Clovis Oncology (CLVS.O) said on Wednesday it was likely to file for bankruptcy "in the very near term", as the company struggles to sell its cancer drug Rubraca. Sales of Rubraca, Clovis's only approved drug, have been hit in recent years by intensifying competition from rival ovarian cancer treatments, and partly by lower cancer diagnoses during the COVID-related lockdowns. Colorado-based Clovis also highlighted future regulatory uncertainty around Rubraca, as health regulators have increasingly focused on data that shows cancer treatments help extend the survival in patients. "It appears increasingly unlikely that additional funding will be available on acceptable terms or at all outside of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy process," Clovis said in a filing. Shares of Clovis, which had a market capitalization of $141.59 million as of Tuesday's closing, slumped 71.9% to 28 cents on Wednesday.

☆ Much of biopharma industry yet to set any climate impact targets - report
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Natalie Grover | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

The report, authored by My Green Lab in collaboration with with Urgentem, an independent provider of emissions data, examined direct and indirect carbon emissions created by hundreds of companies in the biopharma industry from publicly available and inferred data. Reporting of scope 3 emissions remains imperfect, there is no standardisation on how this data is gathered and measured, said Connelly. "So some companies do have significantly higher carbon emissions for scope 3, while others are significantly lower, or it may just be that they are reporting quite differently from their peers." Executives from companies big and small told Reuters they were optimistic about strides being made towards cutting carbon output in the industry. The report was supported by the United Nation's High Level Climate Champions team.

☆ The Fed, earnings, jobs and China: How we think about this week's deluge of data
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

It is very premature, in my view, to think about or be talking about pausing our rate hikes. The news sent those stocks reliant on China for growth — Starbucks, Estee Lauder and Wynn Resorts, among many others — higher. Or bad news could just be bad news if weak data signals a recession ahead. And good news could be good news: for example, if China reopens and U.S. companies exposed to the region see a boost in demand. As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

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