Pharmaceuticals

Capital Calls: Big Oil, Intel

27 Oct 2023

Concise views on global finance: Exxon returned $8 bln of cash to investors in the quarter, while Chevron returned some $6 bln. With investment rising and M&A on the table, investors are competing with new priorities; Intel shares jumped 10% after slowing declines in revenue.

Capital Calls: Roche’s $7 bln partial cure

23 Oct 2023

Concise views on global finance: The Swiss pharma giant’s deal for rights to develop a bowel disease treatment in the US and Japan can help diversify its portfolio. But new boss Thomas Schinecker will need more such purchases to fill out his depleted pipeline.

Capital Calls: Merck aims at targeted cancer drugs

20 Oct 2023

Concise views on global finance: Merck’s giant deal for rights to three Daiichi therapies, which could be worth up to $22 bln, illustrates the frenzy around drugs that can deliver toxins directly into cancerous cells. A stampede into the area may lead to lower returns.

Risky biotech M&A therapy will heal more fractures

19 Oct 2023

Bristol Myers is paying $5 bln upfront for Mirati, and will fork out another $1 bln if the target’s lung-cancer drug makes headway. Such contingent value rights often end up worthless, sowing discord. As valuation spats gum up deals, however, the sweeteners hold greater appeal.

Capital Calls: Merck aims at targeted cancer drugs

19 Oct 2023

Concise views on global finance: Merck’s giant deal for rights to three Daiichi therapies, which could be worth up to $22 bln, illustrates the frenzy around drugs that can deliver toxins directly into cancerous cells. A stampede into the area may lead to lower returns.

Rite Aid can do more wrong in bankruptcy

17 Oct 2023

Ill-advised acquisitions, mismanagement, and the growth of more diversified rivals contributed to the drugstore chain’s demise. But its role in the US opioid epidemic was the real killer. Rite Aid wants to restructure, but an eventual sale may be the end game.

Obesity revolution gorges on dialysis maker

11 Oct 2023

Shares of Fresenius Medical Care fell 20% after a trial showed a Novo Nordisk drug reduced the risk of kidney failure. It highlights how fast-growing weight-loss treatments will pummel other areas of medicine. The blow may push Fresenius and its parent into corporate surgery.

Pepsi has long way to go to win Ozempic challenge

10 Oct 2023

The $222 bln maker of Mountain Dew and Cheetos increased operating profit 14% after its seventh consecutive quarter of jacking up prices by at least 10%. Volume is slumping, however, and anti-obesity drugs are just starting to make their mark. Growth is bound to get tougher.

Capital Calls: Sandoz

4 Oct 2023

Concise views on global finance: Shares in the generic drugs maker, which Swiss pharma giant Novartis has handed to investors in a spinoff, have started trading in Zurich.

Covid-induced Nobel Prize is on brand

2 Oct 2023

Two scientists won the award in a relatively quick 18 years after publishing seminal work for vaccines that helped stop the pandemic. Global disasters often speed up scientific advances. The balance in pushing for rewards and possible consequences changes when more is at stake.

Anti-obesity drugs can shrink more than patients

20 Sep 2023

Wegovy and other weight-loss treatments could transform public health. That may hurt medical, food and fitness companies, while potentially affecting activities from drinking to gambling. This shrinking revenue demands a new investment concept: total unaddressable markets.

Bausch pushes debt escape plans to extremes

19 Sep 2023

BHC’s CFO just quit as the drugmaker mulls a dicey plan to spin off its $5.5 bln Bausch + Lomb stake. Such engineering increasingly pits creditors against shareholders, in this case Carl Icahn and John Paulson. Stronger covenants would help, but CEOs keep getting more creative.

AstraZeneca succession sickness demands urgent fix

15 Sep 2023

The drug giant’s shares lost $9 bln after a report that Pascal Soriot will retire next year. His track record of drug discovery, savvy dealmaking and a 448% return since 2012 suggest investors are right to be worried. A clearer plan for his replacement would help.

Smucker takes big fat chance on anti-obesity drugs

11 Sep 2023

The peanut butter and jelly company is paying an unhealthy $5.6 bln to buy Twinkies maker Hostess. Boss Mark Smucker makes no bones about doubling down on sweet snacks. As Ozempic and other treatments threaten demand, it’s a strategy that would work if it weren’t so expensive.

Novo Nordisk heft worsens Danish surplus disease

8 Sep 2023

Sales of the pharma group equal 8% of Danish GDP and its $440 bln market value is Europe’s highest. Hosting corporate behemoths can be a problem for small countries, as shown by Finland’s Nokia. But Copenhagen can use the drug bounty to spend more on the rest of the economy.

Drugstores lack obvious remedy for what ails them

5 Sep 2023

Walgreens boss Roz Brewer is leaving after her efforts to diversify the $20 bln company, including in-house doctors, delivered only spotty results. Rivals had the same idea, lifting the cost. Online retailers also are squeezing the business. More urgent care looks necessary.

Novartis $16 bln spinoff starts on a sickly note

5 Sep 2023

The $229 bln drugmaker is handing shareholders Sandoz, its generic-medicine unit and perennial problem child. High growth targets may work if the newly listed group revives its US business. But intense competition gives investors a reason to sell the stock they’re about to get.

The obesity drug boom is just getting started

5 Sep 2023

Over 1 bln people are obese, the WHO reckons. Denmark’s Novo Nordisk is ahead of the pharma pack with its Wegovy weight-loss drug. In this Exchange podcast, recorded in August as a Reuters Newsmaker, CEO Lars Jorgensen says the market will be big enough for other players too.

UK biotech sale offers cautionary spin on US pivot

29 Aug 2023

Abcam, a Cambridge-based maker of proteins for research, is selling to Danaher for $5.7 bln. Shifting listing venues from London to New York, as the seller did recently, is in vogue. But given its US buyer has got a good price, it’s a sign that doing so is far from a panacea.

Capital Calls: Pharma’s ills

28 Aug 2023

Concise views on global finance: The Biden Administration will announce 10 drugs that face Medicare price negotiations on Tuesday. The hits to individual firms will be manageable, but new announcements every year means over a $250 billion blow to the industry.