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☆ IPG Posts 3.8% Organic-Revenue Growth, Flags Tech-Sector Challenges
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Megan Graham | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Interpublic Group of Cos. reported organic-net-revenue growth of 3.8% for the fourth quarter, saying that growth continued—albeit at a slower pace—despite a more cautious marketing and media environment due to macroeconomic and geopolitical factors worldwide. Net revenue in the fourth quarter of 2022 was $2.55 billion, relatively flat when compared with the fourth quarter of 2021. For all of 2022, IPG reported organic-net-revenue growth of 7%. “As expected, growth slowed in the fourth quarter, consistent with global macroeconomic and geopolitical crosswinds which we are all aware of,” Chief Executive Philippe Krakowsky said on the company’s earnings call Thursday. Earlier this week, IPG competitor Omnicom Group Inc. reported organic-revenue growth of 7.2% for the fourth quarter.

☆ Alignment Healthcare's CEO shared 3 reasons he thinks the upstart will win in health insurance — and why it won't unravel like Bright Health
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Young health insurers that went public in 2021 have bled money. Some health insurers that went public in 2021 at high valuations have struggled since then. Several young insurers have bled money as they've grown quickly. Bright Health, another Medicare Advantage insurer, came close to insolvency and had to shut down its health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Growing steadily with a narrow focusBefore the recent market slowdown, growing fast had been a common strategy for newly public health insurers and digital health broadly.

☆ The era of health insurance disruptors is over
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

Today, they're mostly the poster children of just how challenging it is to break into the insurance industry. Clover Health; Bright Health; Oscar Health; Olivia Reaney/Business InsiderOscar, founded in 2012, and Bright, in 2015, set out to sell health plans to people buying coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplace. Elevance Health, the parent company of Anthem health plans, is No. Health insurance remains overly complex and mind-numbingly frustrating. Established health insurers haven't been able to stem the rise in health costs, which are mostly determined by the prices for medical care.

☆ Eli Lilly investors spooked by weak Mounjaro sales, but it's the obesity drug approval that will unlock its value
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Christina Cheddar Berk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Lilly said slightly more than 50% of commercial and Part D subscribers have access to the drug via their insurance plans. But new classes of weight loss medications are helping to change this mindset. Still, legislation will be necessary to get coverage of Mounjaro for obesity and overweight treatment by Medicare plans. By law, these plans are banned from paying for weight loss medications. Wegovy and Mounjaro One encouraging sign: Lilly competitor Novo Nordisk has gained access to more than 80% of insurance company formularies for their obesity treatment, Wegovy.

☆ Depression treatments haven't changed much in decades. Here are the promising new drugs that could be more precise, work faster, and help more people.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-02 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Advances in depression treatment have been rare over the past few decades. But treatments for mental-health illnesses, like depression, haven't changed much over the past few decades. Insider put together a roundup of the most promising depression treatments today, both those that have won approval and those that are in the later stages of the research process. Unlike most depression treatments on the market, Auvelity is rapid-acting, which means it offers faster relief for patients. MDD is also known as clinical depression and is defined by persistent depressive symptoms.

Companies Humana Inc FollowFeb 1 (Reuters) - Humana Inc (HUM.N) on Wednesday beat Wall Street estimates for quarterly profit as the health insurer's investment income jumped, even as the company reported higher-than-expected medical costs. Health insurers' costs were expected to decline on lower COVID-19-related hospitalizations, though there were concerns around a surge in flu and respiratory syncytial virus cases in the last quarter of 2022. The health insurer said it expects to add at least 625,000 members to its Medicare Advantage plan this year. Excluding one-off items, the health insurer reported a profit of $1.62 per share, higher than analysts' average estimate of $1.46 per share, according to Refinitiv data. The company's $160 million investment income was higher than Wall Street estimates of $136.7 million, Oppenheimer analyst Michael Wiederhorn said.

☆ Here's where to look for the next developments in the fight against Alzheimer's disease
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Christina Cheddar Berk | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +10 min

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 5.8 million Americans were living with the disease in 2020 . BIIB 6M mountain Biogen's stock is trading well above its lows Leqembi treats Alzheimer's disease by targeting amyloid-beta plaques in the brain. Attention shifts to Eli Lilly Shares of other Alzheimer's drug developers have often mirrored Biogen's moves. Small drug developers Smaller Alzheimer's drug developers have also been boosted by research developments. Still in an early stage of its research, Prothena has traded as a proxy for developments in Alzheimer's treatment.

☆ The FDA just approved a new Alzheimer's drug that's set to be a blockbuster
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Yeji Jesse Lee | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The FDA just approved a new treatment for Alzheimer's disease from Eisai and Biogen. Alzheimer's disease affects roughly 6.5 million Americans and has no cure. The FDA granted an accelerated approval of the drug, meaning the companies will have to conduct additional follow-up studies. While the drug has been approved, questions about cost remainWhile Leqembi has been approved by the FDA, the drug will have to face other key hurdles before it becomes widely available to patients. Aduhelm, an Alzheimer's drug also developed by Biogen and Eisai and approved by the FDA in 2021, failed to garner support from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, even after it was approved by the FDA.

☆ Creator economy experts say 2023 will be a buyer's market for M&A. Here are 5 themes to watch, from tech buyers like Shopify to startup consolidation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Marta Biino | Sydney Bradley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +12 min

"As a result, institutional acquirers, like PE firms who still have dry powder to spend, will start snatching up mid-to-large sized creator startups at much more advantageous prices." Insider spoke with creator-economy and market experts about what deals and the broader M&A landscape in 2023 may look like. "They're going to see that the creator economy exists as a direct failure of them to support creators," Gestetner said. "But if an opportunity arises for us to significantly enhance our capabilities to make us a better business powering the creator economy, we'll consider it." Startups can expect consolidation in saturated marketsThe crowded niches within the creator economy startup sphere could also face a wave of consolidation.

☆ Stocks are headed for their worst year since 2008, but some names doubled or more in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Stocks may be careening toward their worst year since 2008, but some names are completing a remarkable run after doubling or more in 2022. In 2022, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has lost 8.4%, while the S & P 500 shed 19.2%. These stocks are up more than 100% this year, and include tankers for petroleum products, energy companies such as coal firms, and biotech and pharmaceutical names, according to CNBC. Ardmore Shipping and Scorpio Tankers were the top tanker stocks, both up about 316% for the year. Energy companies came out on top in 2022 following a surge in oil and gas prices — which market participants say will remain elevated given expectations of tight supply ahead.

☆ A top healthcare banker predicts some digital-health startups will be able to go public in 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

SVB Securities' Jon Swope thinks some digital-health startups will IPO in the second half of 2023. In 2021, 15 US-based digital-health companies went public via IPO, according to Rock Health. Only one digital-health company has gone public this year: Akili Interactive Labs, which went public in August in a SPAC deal. Seeing the writing on the wall, digital-health companies like Komodo Health that sought to IPO this year are now putting those plans on hold. But SVB Securities' Jon Swope said he thinks the IPO market will reopen for certain digital-health companies in the second half of 2023.

☆ Amazon has only gotten started with its ambitions to be a serious player in healthcare. Here are 3 acquisitions it could make next year.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The next month, it abruptly announced it would shut down Amazon Care, its app-based primary-care service for employers, three years after launch. In November, Amazon launched Amazon Clinic, a virtual service where patients can pay Amazon directly to get treatment for common conditions like allergies and acne. Natalie Schibell, a vice president and research director at Forrester, said that was a sign Amazon had learned from its mistakes at Amazon Care. When Amazon shuttered Amazon Care, it put those mental-health ambitions on hold. Lennox-Miller said Amazon could buy health data startups the company had already invested in, like the health-equity-focused Harmony Health or the value-based-care data company Clinify Health.

☆ Guardant DNA blood test finds 83% of colorectal cancers in trial, shares fall 39%
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Deena Beasley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Cologuard, a stool-based DNA test, identifies 92% of colorectal cancers and 42% of pre-cancerous polyps, according to data from Exact Sciences (EXAS.O), which markets the test. Guardant said that a subsequent colonoscopy ruled out colon cancer in 10% of people who tested positive with its DNA blood test. "This is a huge unmet clinical need," Talasaz said of a blood test for detecting colon cancer. "There are still 50 million people out there who are not complying with colorectal cancer screening." Guardant is currently enrolling patients in a different trial of its DNA blood test for detecting lung cancer, Talasaz said.

☆ A Silicon Valley biotech just showed a simple blood test can detect a hidden and deadly type of cancer. But the results fell short of investors' hopes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Leah Rosenbaum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Guardant Health said that its blood test to screen for cancer caught 83% of colorectal cancer cases. On Thursday, Silicon Valley-based biotech Guardant Health announced that its blood-based cancer screening test correctly caught colorectal cancer cases in 83% of people who had the disease. The company already has several products on the market, including Guardant360CDx, an FDA-approved blood test to test cancer genomic markers that could help show what treatments the cancers are susceptible to. Colonoscopies are still the gold standard of colorectal cancer screening, despite involving sedation and hours of unpleasant physical preparation. And while colorectal cancer is the first cancer that is being studied for a blood-based screening, it certainly won't be the last.

☆ Moderna's CEO predicts how the biotech's work in cancer vaccines could transform healthcare, starting with your annual physical
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Personalized cancer vaccines could provide a new way to fight early cancer cases. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told Insider he thinks cancer vaccines can upend cancer care. In an interview, Bancel shared his vision on how these personalized cancer vaccines could transform cancer care. Based off the blood work, Moderna would design vaccines that target the genetic mutations in cancerous cells that stand out from healthy cells. The blood tests could find cancer before it grows too much, and mRNA vaccines could squash it.

☆ Moderna just used a personalized vaccine to treat cancer, and it could signal a major breakthrough in how we treat the disease
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-13 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Moderna's cancer vaccine lowered the risk of death or skin-cancer recurrence in a midstage study. Moderna's CEO Stéphane Bancel compared the cancer study results to the initial outbreak of COVID-19, when Moderna scrambled to respond and develop a vaccine. Bancel said Moderna and its partner, Merck, would launch multiple late-stage studies in 2023 to test the cancer vaccine in not just melanoma patients but other types of cancer. Merck paid $250 million earlier this year to jointly develop Moderna's vaccine, extending a partnership between the two drugmakers that began in 2016. Study results have yet to be presented at a conference or published in a journal.

☆ Buzzy startups failed to fix mental-health care. Now their mistakes are fueling the space's next generation.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Blake Dodge | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

In the past two years, highly funded startups have tried to disrupt mental-health care. The startups said they wanted to help solve the industry's biggest problems: Mental-health care is too expensive, and there isn't enough of it to go around. Talkspace's priority is now its division that sells mental-health care to employers, which pay recurring fees for employee access. Startups tackling more serious mental-health conditions are working with health plansThere's also a rising crop of mental-health companies tackling the costliest mental-health conditions, something the direct-to-consumer firms tend to shy away from. About half of Bicycle's patients pay with their insurance, a number he's looking to increase.

Dec 1 (Reuters) - Biotech firm Roivant Sciences (ROIV.O) on Thursday launched a company with Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) focused on an experimental bowel disease treatment, as the drugmakers seek to tap into a multibillion dollar market. The drug, RVT-3101, was originally developed by Pfizer, which will hold a 25% stake in the new business, with Roivant holding the majority interest. SVB Securities analyst David Risinger says the deal shows how Pfizer is prioritizing research spending for its oral ulcerative colitis drug, etrasimod, which holds a near-term blockbuster opportunity. RVT-3101 could represent a nearly $15 billion commercial opportunity in the United States for Roivant as a treatment for both ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease, said Risinger. Pfizer has also licensed its inflammatory autoimmune disease drug brepocitinib to Roivant in exchange for a 25% stake in another jointly held company called Priovant.

☆ A former Harvard chemist just raised $178 million for a biotech startup that plans to treat previously untreatable cancers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The biotech FogPharma has raised $178 million in a Series D round. The longtime Harvard chemist Greg Verdine founded Fog to tackle "undruggable" cancers. Fog's drugs, known as polypeptides or short fragments of proteins, blur the line between small molecules and biologics, sharing characteristics of both types of medicines. Verdine calls it "the magic structure" for Fog's drugs. "I thought he'd be able to find things that bind, but I was very skeptical that he could turn them into drugs," Klausner told Insider.

☆ Komodo Health is putting off its IPO after a rocky market shot down the startup's plans for a summer exit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Rebecca Torrence | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Komodo Health has ditched its plans for an initial public offering in the near future. Digital health's IPO desertGlobally, only six digital health companies have gone public via IPO in 2022 so far, according to a report by Galen Growth and Finn Partners. Besides Komodo, two other digital health companies were said to be pursuing an IPO earlier this year before the market slipped. "The IPO market is shut right now, for all intents and purposes," said Jon Swope, who leads SVB Securities' digital health and healthtech business. "How soon will we see the return of that for the IPO market?"

☆ It's 'early innings' in the fertility market. Here's how to play the booming business with under-the-radar names
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +13 min

The multibillion dollar global fertility market is ripe with opportunity. For investors thinking about the fertility market, pharma firms may come to mind. In fact, the number of employers looking at fertility benefits as a "must have" has skyrocketed, she said. The global market size for fertility within the private women's health market should reach $72 billion by 2027, a report by FemTech Focus and Coyote Ventures found. Just like there were a wave of fintech companies going public, she expects fertility companies to eventually follow suit.

☆ Eli Lilly's growth tied to nascent diabetes drug sales
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 31 (Reuters) - Wall Street analysts will be focusing on sales of Eli Lilly and Co's (LLY.N) newly approved diabetes drug Mounjaro when the company reports results on Tuesday, as sales of its older drugs come under pressure from increased competition and low pricing. The company's sales could quickly jump once Lilly gets more insurers to cover its costs, according to Risinger. Analysts expect Mounjaro sales of $81 million in the third quarter, months into its U.S. launch, according to Refinitiv data. Lilly's sales are expected to increase to $30.23 billion in 2023, versus reported sales of $24.54 billion in 2021, with Mounjaro expected to bring in $1.34 billion in sales and become the company's third-biggest selling drug, according to Refinitiv data. Growth from older drugs such as Humalog and Alimta has slowed downTHE FUNDAMENTALS** Q3 sales expected to grow 1.8% to $6.89 billion.

☆ Here are Friday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Netflix, Bank of America, Amazon, AT&T, Snap & more
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Telsey downgrades Under Armour to market perform from outperform Telsey said it's concerned about too much inventory weighing on the stock. Bank of America downgrades Snap to neutral from buy Bank of America downgraded the stock after its "mixed" earnings report. " JPMorgan reiterates Apple as overweight JPMorgan said investors are too focused on iPhone growth heading into Apple earnings next week. Raymond James downgrades KB Home, Toll Brothers and PulteGroup to market perform from strong buy and D.R. Horton to outperform from strong buy and Lennar to market perform from outperform Raymond James downgraded several homebuilders due to rising mortgage rates.

☆ Pfizer COVID vaccine price hike seen giving revenue boost for years
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Michael Erman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Oct 21 (Reuters) - Pfizer's plan to as much as quadruple current U.S. prices for its COVID-19 vaccines going forward could spur revenue for years, analysts said. Outside the United States, Pfizer said it already has contracts with governments in many developed markets that extend through 2023 with prices that have already been set. Moderna had previously suggested commercial price expectations in a range of $64 to $100 a shot. Wall Street was expecting such price hikes due to weak demand for COVID vaccines, which meant manufacturers would need to hike prices to meet revenue forecasts for 2023 and beyond. Around 19.4 million people in the United States received the updated booster over the first seven weeks of its rollout.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Snap, American Express, Verizon, Twitter and more
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Samantha Subin | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Snap — Shares of the Snapchat parent company cratered 30% after missing revenue estimates and sharing its slowest sales growth since going public as advertising spending slows. The results from Snap hit other ad-reliant stocks, sending shares of Pinterest and Meta Platforms down about 7.7% and 2.6%, respectively. Twitter — The social media stock sank more than 4% Friday amid a slew of media reports surrounding Twitter and Elon Musk. American Express – Shares of American Express fell about 3.5% even after the bank reported quarterly earnings and revenue that beat analysts' expectations. Huntington Bancshares — Shares gained 8% after the bank operator topped earnings estimates for the third quarter and upped its net interest income outlook for 2022.

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