Revenue of $845.92M (-0.6% Y/Y) misses by $4.96M.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3570897-mednax-eps-misses-0_22-misses-on-revenueThursday, May 7, 2020
Integra LifeSciences Holdings EPS misses by $0.15, beats on revenue
Integra LifeSciences Holdings (NASDAQ:IART): Q1 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.48 misses by $0.15; GAAP EPS of $0.11 misses by $0.09.
Revenue of $354.32M (-1.5% Y/Y) beats by $1.17M.
https://seekingalpha.com/news/3570902-integra-lifesciences-holdings-eps-misses-0_15-beats-on-revenueNovartis Gets FDA Accelerated Approval for Lung-Cancer Treatment, Diagnostic
Novartis AG said Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration has
approved its lung cancer treatment Tabrecta and the associated
diagnostic FoundationOne.
“This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials,” the pharma giant said.
Tabrecta is a MET kinase inhibitor for adult patients with metastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer whose tumors have a mutation that leads to MET exon 14 skipping.
FoundationOne is a diagnostic that helps detecting mutations leading to MET exon 14 skipping in tumor tissue.
https://www.marketscreener.com/NOVARTIS-9364983/news/Novartis-Receives-FDA-Accelerated-Approval-for-Lung-Cancer-Treatment-Diagnostic-30555098/
“This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on overall response rate and duration of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in confirmatory trials,” the pharma giant said.
Tabrecta is a MET kinase inhibitor for adult patients with metastatic nonsmall cell lung cancer whose tumors have a mutation that leads to MET exon 14 skipping.
FoundationOne is a diagnostic that helps detecting mutations leading to MET exon 14 skipping in tumor tissue.
https://www.marketscreener.com/NOVARTIS-9364983/news/Novartis-Receives-FDA-Accelerated-Approval-for-Lung-Cancer-Treatment-Diagnostic-30555098/
UnitedHealth to issue premium credits as part of $1.5 billion spending plan
U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth Group Inc said on Thursday it plans
to spend $1.5 billion on its customers in part by issuing credits
against some commercial health insurance premiums in June due to the new
coronavirus pandemic.
Insurers have gained financially as Americans have cut back on medical appointments under stay-at-home orders designed to help slow the spread of the virus and allow hospitals and doctors to focus on COVID-19 patients.
UnitedHealth said it would issue credits ranging from 5% to 20% of June monthly premiums to commercial fully-insured employer-based and individual insurance customers.
As part of its plan, UnitedHealth will also waive cost-sharing for specialist and primary physician visits in Medicare Advantage, the government healthcare program for people 65 and older or with disabilities that is managed by private insurers. UnitedHealth will stabilize premiums in its supplementary Medicare plans and expand Medicaid coverage. It has nearly 16 million members in these government plans.
UnitedHealth has 8.2 million members in at-risk insurance plans offered through employers and in individual plans created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. The rebates do not apply to its largest business in which it manages health benefits for large employers for a fee and the employer covers the medical costs.
Under the 2010 health law, fully insured health plans are required to spend no less than 80% of the premiums they collect on medical care or must send rebates to customers. But the process to determine rebates takes place over several years, Chief Executive Officer David Wichmann told reporters.
“As you know, people are hurting right now,” Wichmann said.
He said only a portion of the credits are related to the ACA requirement.
Wichmann said the company expected that deferred medical care would continue in the second quarter before returning in the second half of the year, an outlook he gave last month when announcing UnitedHealth’s first-quarter profit.
“Some of it obviously is permanently deferred,” he said, adding that was part of the reason for UnitedHealth’s $1.5 billion spending plan.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/UnitedHealth-to-issue-premium-credits-as-part-of-1-5-billion-spending-plan–30556144/
Insurers have gained financially as Americans have cut back on medical appointments under stay-at-home orders designed to help slow the spread of the virus and allow hospitals and doctors to focus on COVID-19 patients.
UnitedHealth said it would issue credits ranging from 5% to 20% of June monthly premiums to commercial fully-insured employer-based and individual insurance customers.
As part of its plan, UnitedHealth will also waive cost-sharing for specialist and primary physician visits in Medicare Advantage, the government healthcare program for people 65 and older or with disabilities that is managed by private insurers. UnitedHealth will stabilize premiums in its supplementary Medicare plans and expand Medicaid coverage. It has nearly 16 million members in these government plans.
UnitedHealth has 8.2 million members in at-risk insurance plans offered through employers and in individual plans created by the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare. The rebates do not apply to its largest business in which it manages health benefits for large employers for a fee and the employer covers the medical costs.
Under the 2010 health law, fully insured health plans are required to spend no less than 80% of the premiums they collect on medical care or must send rebates to customers. But the process to determine rebates takes place over several years, Chief Executive Officer David Wichmann told reporters.
“As you know, people are hurting right now,” Wichmann said.
He said only a portion of the credits are related to the ACA requirement.
Wichmann said the company expected that deferred medical care would continue in the second quarter before returning in the second half of the year, an outlook he gave last month when announcing UnitedHealth’s first-quarter profit.
“Some of it obviously is permanently deferred,” he said, adding that was part of the reason for UnitedHealth’s $1.5 billion spending plan.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/UnitedHealth-to-issue-premium-credits-as-part-of-1-5-billion-spending-plan–30556144/
China Counters Coronavirus Crunch With a Surprise Rise in Exports
Chinese exports rose unexpectedly in April, bucking a
pandemic-induced economic slump that has crimped demand and disrupted
supply chains world-wide.
But economists warned that Chinese exporters may be enjoying a temporary reprieve and they aren’t likely immune to a global downturn that remains highly uncertain–a reality underscored by a surprise plunge in Chinese imports.
China’s outbound shipments rose 3.5% in April compared with a year earlier, better than the 6.6% year-over-year decline in March, data from the General Administration of Customs showed Thursday. The result was far better than an 18.8% year-over-year drop expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
China’s April export figure reflected a clearing of backlogs of delayed orders from earlier this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, economists said. Southeast Asia, which as a bloc surpassed the European Union and the U.S. as China’s largest export destination earlier this year, continued to offset losses from more advanced Western economies.
Chinese officials also highlighted increased demand from countries that signed on to Beijing’s infrastructure-and-trade project, the Belt and Road Initiative, which are primarily clustered in Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Chinese imports, meantime, fell 14.2% last month, far sharper than March’s 0.9% drop and the biggest decline since February 2016, indicating rapidly weakening demand at home.
The unexpected surge in exports and drop in imports helped China’s trade surplus balloon to $45.34 billion last month, compared with a $19.9 billion surplus in March.
Economists, and Chinese government officials, are generally pessimistic about China’s ability to sustain the April export strength, particularly as the growth picture sours further in the U.S. and Europe.
“The risks and challenges for foreign trade are unprecedented,” said Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, in a briefing in reference to China’s foreign trade.
Major exporters surveyed by the commerce ministry are still facing order cancellations and delays, or are having difficulties winning new orders and delivering products to their customers, Mr. Gao said. He said the government would roll out targeted measures to help exporters win new orders and help some of them sell more at home.
“While demand in emerging markets is resilient, it’s not enough to offset declines from other major trading partners in European and the U.S., which will feed through to weaker exports in coming months,” said Liu Xuezhi, an economist with Bank of Communications.
Underscoring the challenges ahead, official and private surveys of Chinese purchasing managers in April showed new export orders falling deeper into contractionary territory.
In data released Thursday, a private gauge of China’s service-sector activity–the Caixin services purchasing managers index–improved slightly in April, though it remained in contraction territory, a gloomy result that reflects quickly weakening foreign demand.
Another major cause of concern is rising geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing over China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
President Trump said Wednesday he was “watching closely” to see if China would fulfill its commitment under the “phase one” trade deal signed earlier this year, which commits Beijing to purchasing an additional $200 billion in U.S. goods and services over the next two years.
The goal now appears out of reach, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, and some economists–including Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist for Capital Economics–see rising risks that the phase one trade deal “soon falls apart.”
Mr. Trump has hinted at levying additional tariffs on Chinese goods, which could heighten tensions between the world’s two largest economies at a time of great vulnerability for the global economy.
As new coronavirus cases have ebbed in China, where the first outbreak emerged late last year, Beijing has moved to restart its economy by reopening factories and businesses, resuming construction projects and handing out consumer vouchers to boost spending.
However, high-frequency data shows the recovery’s pace remains slow. Restrictions on human movement remain in place, tens of millions of workers have lost their jobs and a cloud of uncertainty hovers over the economic outlook.
In one recent indicator, official data showed economic activity during a recent five-day holiday, from May 1 to May 5, fell well short of last year’s levels, despite being a day longer.
When April data on fixed-asset investment and retail sales are released next week, they are likely to show continued contraction, economists polled by The Wall Street Journal have said. These economists remain optimistic, however, that industrial production could show a small increase from a year earlier.
Economists, investors and analysts are looking to a coming annual legislative conclave, set to begin on May 22, for clues about the government’s response. The legislative meeting, which will follow a postponement of more than two months, is typically the venue where Beijing’s leaders unveil their annual economic targets and spending plans.
China’s economy shrank by 6.8% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the first such contraction in more than four decades. Analysts widely question whether Beijing can meet its year-end political goal of doubling the size of the overall economy from a decade ago, a goal that economists say requires at least 5.5% growth this year.
China has pledged to increase the fiscal deficit ratio, issue more government bonds to fund investment and help businesses and individuals that have been hit hard by the coronavirus.
Separately on Thursday, China’s foreign-exchange regulator said the country’s foreign-currency reserves rose by $30.83 billion to $3.091 trillion at the end of April–the product of higher asset prices and a weakening U.S. dollar that drove up valuation of nondollar assets.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/China-Counters-Coronavirus-Crunch-With-a-Surprise-Rise-in-Exports-Update–30556147/
But economists warned that Chinese exporters may be enjoying a temporary reprieve and they aren’t likely immune to a global downturn that remains highly uncertain–a reality underscored by a surprise plunge in Chinese imports.
China’s outbound shipments rose 3.5% in April compared with a year earlier, better than the 6.6% year-over-year decline in March, data from the General Administration of Customs showed Thursday. The result was far better than an 18.8% year-over-year drop expected by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
China’s April export figure reflected a clearing of backlogs of delayed orders from earlier this year due to the coronavirus outbreak, economists said. Southeast Asia, which as a bloc surpassed the European Union and the U.S. as China’s largest export destination earlier this year, continued to offset losses from more advanced Western economies.
Chinese officials also highlighted increased demand from countries that signed on to Beijing’s infrastructure-and-trade project, the Belt and Road Initiative, which are primarily clustered in Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Chinese imports, meantime, fell 14.2% last month, far sharper than March’s 0.9% drop and the biggest decline since February 2016, indicating rapidly weakening demand at home.
The unexpected surge in exports and drop in imports helped China’s trade surplus balloon to $45.34 billion last month, compared with a $19.9 billion surplus in March.
Economists, and Chinese government officials, are generally pessimistic about China’s ability to sustain the April export strength, particularly as the growth picture sours further in the U.S. and Europe.
“The risks and challenges for foreign trade are unprecedented,” said Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce, in a briefing in reference to China’s foreign trade.
Major exporters surveyed by the commerce ministry are still facing order cancellations and delays, or are having difficulties winning new orders and delivering products to their customers, Mr. Gao said. He said the government would roll out targeted measures to help exporters win new orders and help some of them sell more at home.
“While demand in emerging markets is resilient, it’s not enough to offset declines from other major trading partners in European and the U.S., which will feed through to weaker exports in coming months,” said Liu Xuezhi, an economist with Bank of Communications.
Underscoring the challenges ahead, official and private surveys of Chinese purchasing managers in April showed new export orders falling deeper into contractionary territory.
In data released Thursday, a private gauge of China’s service-sector activity–the Caixin services purchasing managers index–improved slightly in April, though it remained in contraction territory, a gloomy result that reflects quickly weakening foreign demand.
Another major cause of concern is rising geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing over China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
President Trump said Wednesday he was “watching closely” to see if China would fulfill its commitment under the “phase one” trade deal signed earlier this year, which commits Beijing to purchasing an additional $200 billion in U.S. goods and services over the next two years.
The goal now appears out of reach, particularly in the wake of the pandemic, and some economists–including Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist for Capital Economics–see rising risks that the phase one trade deal “soon falls apart.”
Mr. Trump has hinted at levying additional tariffs on Chinese goods, which could heighten tensions between the world’s two largest economies at a time of great vulnerability for the global economy.
As new coronavirus cases have ebbed in China, where the first outbreak emerged late last year, Beijing has moved to restart its economy by reopening factories and businesses, resuming construction projects and handing out consumer vouchers to boost spending.
However, high-frequency data shows the recovery’s pace remains slow. Restrictions on human movement remain in place, tens of millions of workers have lost their jobs and a cloud of uncertainty hovers over the economic outlook.
In one recent indicator, official data showed economic activity during a recent five-day holiday, from May 1 to May 5, fell well short of last year’s levels, despite being a day longer.
When April data on fixed-asset investment and retail sales are released next week, they are likely to show continued contraction, economists polled by The Wall Street Journal have said. These economists remain optimistic, however, that industrial production could show a small increase from a year earlier.
Economists, investors and analysts are looking to a coming annual legislative conclave, set to begin on May 22, for clues about the government’s response. The legislative meeting, which will follow a postponement of more than two months, is typically the venue where Beijing’s leaders unveil their annual economic targets and spending plans.
China’s economy shrank by 6.8% in the first quarter from a year earlier, the first such contraction in more than four decades. Analysts widely question whether Beijing can meet its year-end political goal of doubling the size of the overall economy from a decade ago, a goal that economists say requires at least 5.5% growth this year.
China has pledged to increase the fiscal deficit ratio, issue more government bonds to fund investment and help businesses and individuals that have been hit hard by the coronavirus.
Separately on Thursday, China’s foreign-exchange regulator said the country’s foreign-currency reserves rose by $30.83 billion to $3.091 trillion at the end of April–the product of higher asset prices and a weakening U.S. dollar that drove up valuation of nondollar assets.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/China-Counters-Coronavirus-Crunch-With-a-Surprise-Rise-in-Exports-Update–30556147/
China, U.S. trade negotiators to hold talks as early as next week
Trade negotiators from the United States and China will hold a phone
call as early as next week, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing
people familiar with the matter.
The call will include Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, according to the report https://bloom.bg/3dpgPyo.
The talks will be about progress in implementing a Phase 1 trade deal after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened its termination if China was not adhering to the terms, the report added.
The report comes as tensions have flared up between Washington and Beijing in recent days over the origins of the coronavirus.
The United States had earlier pledged to launch negotiations with China on a Phase 2 trade deal tackling government subsidies and thornier technology transfer issues, but there have been no efforts to start these talks since the coronavirus outbreak has locked down large parts of the U.S. economy.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/China-U-S-trade-negotiators-to-hold-talks-as-early-as-next-week-Bloomberg–30556042/
The call will include Chinese Vice Premier Liu He and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, according to the report https://bloom.bg/3dpgPyo.
The talks will be about progress in implementing a Phase 1 trade deal after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened its termination if China was not adhering to the terms, the report added.
The report comes as tensions have flared up between Washington and Beijing in recent days over the origins of the coronavirus.
The United States had earlier pledged to launch negotiations with China on a Phase 2 trade deal tackling government subsidies and thornier technology transfer issues, but there have been no efforts to start these talks since the coronavirus outbreak has locked down large parts of the U.S. economy.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/China-U-S-trade-negotiators-to-hold-talks-as-early-as-next-week-Bloomberg–30556042/
Glaxo sells $3.35 billion stake in Hindustan Unilever
GlaxoSmithKline
said on Thursday it sold its stake in Unilever’s Indian business for
$3.35 billion, which Refinitiv says is the largest block trade ever to
have been carried out in India.
The funds will help GSK in its goal of reinvigorating its drug development pipeline, having made costly bets on experimental cancer treatments and future cell and gene therapies amid sluggish revenue growth.
The 5.7% stake in Hindustan Unilever was accepted by GSK as payment for the sale of its malted drink brand and other nutrition brands to Unilever, agreed in late 2018.
The 133.77 million shares were offloaded on average for 1,905 rupees, according to a statement from GlaxoSmithKline.
Potential investors were earlier told the shares would be sold in a range of 1,850 to 1,950 rupees, which was a 3%-8%discount to Wednesday’s closing price of 2,010.20 rupees.
In the statement, GSK said it would now receive net proceeds from the Horlicks divestment of 2.9 billion pounds ($3.59 billion), up from its original expectation of 2.4 billion pounds.
It said the recent Hindustan Unilever share price gains led to the better than expected outcome.
The deal, at $3.35 billion, eclipses the previous block trade record in India when Daiichi Sankyo sold its $3.18 billion stake in Sun Pharmaceuticals in April 2015, according to Refinitiv.
On a global basis, the Glaxo block trade will be the 10th ever biggest, according to the data provider.
The largest ever block trade remains Naspers selling $9.8 billion worth of Tencent stock in Hong Kong in March 2018.
MORE DIVESTMENTS
GSK’s decision could also inject some momentum into India’s equity capital markets which have struggled in line with other major financial markets as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been $6 billion worth of equity capital market deals in India so far in 2020, down from $8.52 billion during the same time list year, according to Refinitiv.
The data showed the rate of activity in 2020 is the slowest since 2017.
In comparison, Hong Kong’s equity capital markets have seen $12.8 billion worth of activity this year.
GSK struck a deal in 2018 to fold its Indian business – whose main product is Horlicks – into Unilever’s Indian unit Hindustan Unilever in exchange for shares in the combined group.
According to GSK’s first-quarter report, it completed the Horlicks deal on April 1, receiving the 5.7% equity stake in Hindustan Unilever plus about 400 million pounds in cash.
Earlier this year, GSK launched a two-year programme to split into two entities, separating the core prescription drugs and vaccines business from an enlarged over-the-counter products business that was merged with a Pfizer unit.
It is considering more divestments to fund the costs of the separation.
Having sold travel vaccines to Bavarian Nordic for up to 955 million euros ($1.03 billion)in October last year, the British group is looking into shedding more assets, starting with a review of its prescription dermatology business with about 200-300 million pounds in annual sales.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/GSK-sells-3-35-billion-stake-in-Hindustan-Unilever–30549900/?countview=0
The funds will help GSK in its goal of reinvigorating its drug development pipeline, having made costly bets on experimental cancer treatments and future cell and gene therapies amid sluggish revenue growth.
The 5.7% stake in Hindustan Unilever was accepted by GSK as payment for the sale of its malted drink brand and other nutrition brands to Unilever, agreed in late 2018.
The 133.77 million shares were offloaded on average for 1,905 rupees, according to a statement from GlaxoSmithKline.
Potential investors were earlier told the shares would be sold in a range of 1,850 to 1,950 rupees, which was a 3%-8%discount to Wednesday’s closing price of 2,010.20 rupees.
In the statement, GSK said it would now receive net proceeds from the Horlicks divestment of 2.9 billion pounds ($3.59 billion), up from its original expectation of 2.4 billion pounds.
It said the recent Hindustan Unilever share price gains led to the better than expected outcome.
The deal, at $3.35 billion, eclipses the previous block trade record in India when Daiichi Sankyo sold its $3.18 billion stake in Sun Pharmaceuticals in April 2015, according to Refinitiv.
On a global basis, the Glaxo block trade will be the 10th ever biggest, according to the data provider.
The largest ever block trade remains Naspers selling $9.8 billion worth of Tencent stock in Hong Kong in March 2018.
MORE DIVESTMENTS
GSK’s decision could also inject some momentum into India’s equity capital markets which have struggled in line with other major financial markets as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
There has been $6 billion worth of equity capital market deals in India so far in 2020, down from $8.52 billion during the same time list year, according to Refinitiv.
The data showed the rate of activity in 2020 is the slowest since 2017.
In comparison, Hong Kong’s equity capital markets have seen $12.8 billion worth of activity this year.
GSK struck a deal in 2018 to fold its Indian business – whose main product is Horlicks – into Unilever’s Indian unit Hindustan Unilever in exchange for shares in the combined group.
According to GSK’s first-quarter report, it completed the Horlicks deal on April 1, receiving the 5.7% equity stake in Hindustan Unilever plus about 400 million pounds in cash.
Earlier this year, GSK launched a two-year programme to split into two entities, separating the core prescription drugs and vaccines business from an enlarged over-the-counter products business that was merged with a Pfizer unit.
It is considering more divestments to fund the costs of the separation.
Having sold travel vaccines to Bavarian Nordic for up to 955 million euros ($1.03 billion)in October last year, the British group is looking into shedding more assets, starting with a review of its prescription dermatology business with about 200-300 million pounds in annual sales.
https://www.marketscreener.com/news/GSK-sells-3-35-billion-stake-in-Hindustan-Unilever–30549900/?countview=0
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