Pfizer forecasts big drop in revenue after record $100M COVID-led haul

 Pfizer on Tuesday forecast a bigger-than-expected drop in sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and treatment for 2023, intensifying investor concerns over demand for the products as governments cut orders and work through inventories.

Chief Executive Albert Bourla said that 2023 should be a “transition year” for Pfizer’s COVID products, before potentially returning to growth in 2024.

Pfizer’s total annual sales crossed the $100 billion mark for the first time in 2022, driven by the more than $56 billion in sales of its COVID-19 vaccine and Paxlovid antiviral treatment. It expects total 2023 revenue of $67 billion to $71 billion.

“We are building on a significant capital position that we know how to deploy to create growth,” Bourla told analysts and investors on conference call. “We are building an R&D engine that is more productive than ever.”

The company launched five new products last year and hopes to introduce as many as 14 more over the next year and a half, including a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and an mRNA flu vaccine.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that 2023 should be a “transition year” for Pfizer’s COVID products, before potentially returning to growth in 2024.

REUTERS

Pfizer shares rose 1.4% to $44.16. The stock had tumbled 15% this month, through Monday’s close.

Citi analyst Andrew Baum said the company is struggling to escape its dependence on COVID drugs.

“We see little here to change our cautious view on Pfizer’s ex-COVID business,” Baum said in a research note.

The decline in COVID-related revenue is not the only headwind Pfizer is facing.

The US drugmaker will lose patent protections for some big-selling drugs after 2025, including cancer treatment Ibrance and arthritis drug Xeljanz, and has said it expects to lose $17 billion in annual sales between 2025 and 2030 due to patent expirations.

Pfizer has turned to acquisitions such as its $5.4 billion buyout of Global Blood Therapeutics and its $11.6 billion purchase of migraine drugmaker Biohaven to bolster its pipeline of future products.

Pfizer forecast 2023 sales of $13.5 billion for its COVID-19 vaccine, below analysts’ estimates of $14.4 billion.

AFP via Getty Images

Citi’s Baum said he expects Pfizer will use the spike in revenue from its COVID products to “intensify and upscale” its efforts to buy other companies or new products to fill its pipeline.

Excluding COVID-related sales, Pfizer expects 2023 revenue to grow 7% to 9%.

Pfizer developed its COVID-19 vaccine with German partner BioNTech, and the companies split the profits. Pfizer forecast 2023 sales of $13.5 billion for their vaccine, below analysts’ estimates of $14.4 billion, and projected $8 billion in Paxlovid sales, short of Wall Street’s expectation of $10.33 billion.

Bourla said the company expects to start selling its COVID vaccine Comirnaty through commercial channels in the United States in the second half of 2023, rather than selling the shots directly to the government. After that transition, the company hopes to roughly quadruple the US price of the vaccine.

Analysts and investors have been looking for clarity on China demand for Paxlovid, where the drug is only covered by the country’s broad healthcare insurance plan until late March.

Pfizer said its current 2023 forecast for sales does not assume any revenue from China after April 1, but Bourla said the company expects to offer Paxlovid in the private market there thereafter.

“There is still an opportunity for a market in China which could be meaningful” outside of the country’s main insurance channels, said BMO Analyst Evan Seigerman.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/31/pfizer-forecasts-big-drop-in-revenue-after-record-100m-covid-led-haul/

SUNY makes new racial equity class mandatory for graduation at all schools

 The 64-campus SUNY college system is turning into the Woke University of New York — ordering incoming freshman at all of its colleges they will have to pass a new “Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Social Justice”-themed class to earn a diploma.

The new college racial equity courses must, according to State University of New York documents:

• Describe the historical and contemporary societal factors that shape the development of individual and group identity involving race, class and gender.
• Analyze the role that complex networks of social structures and systems play in the creation and perpetuation of the dynamics of power, privilege, oppression and opportunity.
• Apply the principles of rights, access, equity, and autonomous participation to past, current, or future social justice action.

While the primary focus is on equity and social justice in the US, courses can also look at what has happened or is currently happening in other countries for comparison, the mandate reads.

Critics say such mandated “equity” training actually flies in the face of goals for racial “equality.”

SUNY Suffolk Community College political science professor Nicholas Giordano slams the university’s new racial equity curriculum as divisive.

Courtesy of Nicholas Giordano

“This is nuts,” Nicholas Giordano, a political science professor at SUNY’s Suffolk Community College told The Post. “SUNY is one of the best university systems in the country. Why are they doing this?!”

“DEISJ is a cultural movement, not based on academics. Unfortunately, SUNY responded to the mob.”

Giordano, a fellow at the conservative watchdog group Campus Reform, said the new DEISJ coursework seeks to portray the US as “inherently racist” and tries to undermine the American identity that unifies all citizens by “creating groups and pitting them against each other.”

He said the curriculum seeks to have students “defined by the color of their skin.”

“To tell [minority students] they can’t compete with a white person is insulting and racist.”

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Incoming students at Fashion Institute of Technology will be required to take a new diversity and racial equity course to graduate, beginning in the fall.

Stephen Yang for NY Post

Incoming freshmen students at SUNY’s flagship Stony Brook U. campus will have to pass a new diversity and equity course in order to graduate.

Newsday via Getty Images

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State Conservative Party chairman Jerry Kassar said the new SUNY curriculum is reminiscent of the debate raging over whether “critical race theory” should be taught in the lower grades.

“This is a woke, left wing agenda. It’s disturbing. It’s dangerous,” Kassar said.

“They’re treating everybody as having prejudice. It’s like a socialist, communist state. It’s unbelievable. These ideas are best addressed at home.”

Several other campuses across the country — Drake University, Brandeis University, Villanova University and the University of California system among them — have imposed similar racial equity programs.

Incoming freshmen at SUNY campuses will be required to pass a certified DEISJ course to graduate.

The diversity and equity curriculum was approved by SUNY under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s then hand-picked chancellor James Malatras, a former aide.

AP

SUNY’s Board of Trustees approved the sweeping 25-point “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Act” plan aimed at closing “racial equity gaps” in February of 2021 — while New York was grappling with the once in a century coronavirus pandemic. It was crafted under former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his hand-picked chancellor, James Malatras.

The press release then said the new policy called on campuses to “Embed Racial Equity into Curriculum and Toward Racial Equity.” The plan also includes updating the criminal justice curriculum.

SUNY Chancellor John King defended the public university’s new “Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Social Justice” curriculum as necessary in a modern society.

AP

SUNY Chancellor John King defended the new DEISJ curriculum and course work as broadening understanding and tolerance.

“Exposure to, and understanding of, diversity is essential to success in our modern society and economy. As a leader in preparing the future workforce and citizenry, SUNY is committed to embedding diversity into the foundation of all it does – from academics to campus life and everything in between,” said King, the former New York State Education commissioner.

“By recognizing and celebrating our diversity and fostering respectful dialogue and debate, SUNY provides students with the world-class education they deserve.”

The SUNY  Faculty Senate and Faculty Council of Community Colleges recently issued guidance on approving courses to comply with the new DEISJ requirement. 

“Since students need to complete courses prior to transfer or graduation, it is our recommendation that DEISJ content be housed in a single course,” the document says.The guidance says DEISJ will be embedded across many courses and programs and “most campuses will need to make significant changes to existing curriculum to have courses that fulfill the DEISJ learning outcomes.”

SUNY sources said officials consulted with faculty and students on campuses for months before approving the plan, and there’s a broad support for it.

https://nypost.com/2023/01/31/suny-makes-new-racial-equity-class-mandatory-for-graduation-at-all-schools/

ChatGPT owner launches 'imperfect' tool to detect AI-generated text

 OpenAI, the creator of the popular chatbot ChatGTP, has released a software tool to identify text generated by artificial intelligence, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.

ChatGPT is a free program that generates textin response to a prompt, including articles, essays, jokes and even poetry, which has gained wide popularity since its debut in November, while raising concerns about copyright and plagiarism.

The AI classifier, a language model trained on the dataset of pairs of human-written and AI-written text on the same topic, aims to distinguish text that is written by AI. It uses a variety of providers to address issues such as automated misinformation campaigns and academic dishonesty, the company said.

In its public beta mode, OpenAI acknowledges the detection tool is very unreliable on texts under 1,000 characters, and AI-written text can be edited to trick the classifier.

"We’re making this classifier publicly available to get feedback on whether imperfect tools like this one are useful," OpenAI said.

“We recognize that identifying AI-written text has been an important point of discussion among educators, and equally important is recognizing the limits and impacts of AI generated text classifiers in the classroom."

Since ChatGPT debuted in November and gained wide popularity among millions of users, some of the largest U.S. school districts, including New York City, have banned the AI chatbot over concerns that students will use the text generator to cheat or plagiarize.

Others have created third-party detection tools including GPTZeroX to help educators detect AI-generated text.

OpenAI said it is engaging with educators to discuss ChatGPT's capabilities and limitations, and will continue to work on the detection of AI-generated text.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/chatgpt-owner-launches-imperfect-tool-222639232.html

Canadian province tries decriminalizing drugs to fight overdose crisis

 The western Canadian province of British Columbia on Tuesday began a three-year pilot program to stop prosecuting people for carrying small amounts of heroin, meth, ecstasy, or crack cocaine, as part of an effort to fight a drug overdose crisis.

B.C. accounts for about a third of the 32,000 deaths due to overdose and trafficking nationally since 2016, according to official data. The province declared drug overdose a public health emergency that year.

The problem worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which disrupted illicit drug supply chains as well support services, leaving people with more toxic drugs that they used alone.

Preliminary data released Tuesday by the province showed there were 2,272 suspected illicit drug toxicity deaths in 2022, the second largest annual number ever recorded, behind 2021, which had 34 more deaths.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government said in May it would let B.C. decriminalize the drugs in a first-of-its-kind exemption in Canada. By not prosecuting people carrying small amounts of drugs, the B.C. government hopes to tackle the issue as a health problem rather than through the criminal justice system.

The province says the exemption is intended to reduce the stigma associated with substance use and to make it easier for people to approach authorities for guidance.

Robert Schwartz, a professor at the University of Toronto, said the measure was commendable as a first step, but that more needed to be done to tackle the drug problem.

"The problem that we have with these substances is that we have a huge, illicit supply that's causing great harm," Schwartz said. "To really deal with this, we need a comprehensive public health approach. This decriminalization, it's a first step."

The drugs on the exemption list, which also includes fentanyl and other opioids, remain illegal and the exemption from arrest is only for possession of up to 2.5 grams for personal use.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/canadian-province-tries-decriminalizing-drugs-184037306.html

South Korea slides toward recession as Jan exports plunge

 South Korea's economy inched toward its first recession in three years as data on Wednesday showed its January trade deficit soared to a record thanks to a plunge in exports caused by a combination of long holidays and cooling global demand.

Asia's fourth-largest economy, which relies heavily on trade for growth, shrank by 0.4% in the October-December quarter and is now on the brink of falling into what would be its first recession since the middle of 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Exports fell 16.6% in January from a year earlier, trade ministry data showed, worse than an 11.3% decline predicted in a Reuters survey and the fastest drop in exports since May 2020.

Imports fell 2.6% compared with a year earlier, less than a 3.6% drop predicted in the survey. As a result, the country posted a monthly trade deficit of $12.69 billion, setting a record amount for any month.

"I have a zero percent forecast for the first-quarter growth but today's trade figures are definitely a minus to that," said Park Sang-hyun, economist at HI Investment and Securities.

The increasing chances of recession - two consecutive quarters of decline in gross domestic product - also underscore growing bets in markets that the central bank's campaign of raising interest rates since late 2021 has run its course.

Leading the sluggish trade performance in January were a 44.5% dive in semiconductor exports and a whopping 31.4% plunge in sales to China, the trade ministry data showed.

Both were the worst rates of decline since the 2008/2009 global financial crisis.

South Korean bond yields fell across the board on the growing bets for a less restrictive monetary policy ahead, while stock and currency investors largely shrugged off the monthly figures.

Finance Minister Choo Kyung-ho blamed long lunar New Year holidays in China and a steep fall in computer chip prices versus a year ago for the sharp declines in export values, adding China's reopening would help ease the situation over time.

"The government will mobilise all available policy resources to help support a drive to boost exports so that the timing of improvement in trade balance can be advanced," Choo said at a meeting of trade-related officials, without elaborating.

The government has forecast this year's exports would fall 4.5% after posting a 6.1% gain in 2022, and the trade ministry has said it would do what it can to avert a decline.

https://sports.yahoo.com/1-south-korea-jan-exports-001849763.html

U.S. readies $2 billion-plus Ukraine aid package with longer-range weapons -sources

 The United States is readying more than $2 billion worth of military aid for Ukraine that is expected to include longer-range rockets for the first time as well as other munitions and weapons, two U.S. officials briefed on the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The aid is expected to be announced as soon as this week, the officials said. It is also expected to include support equipment for Patriot air defense systems, precision-guided munitions and Javelin anti-tank weapons, they added.

One of the officials said a portion of the package, expected to be $1.725 billion, would come from a fund known as the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows President Joe Biden's administration to get weapons from industry rather than from U.S. weapons stocks.

The USAI funds would go toward the purchase of a new weapon, the Ground Launched Small Diameter Bomb (GLSDB) made by Boeing Co, which have a range of 94 miles (150 km). The United States has rebuffed Ukraine's requests for the 185-mile (297-km) range ATACMS missile.

The longer range of the GLSDB glide bomb could allow Ukraine to hit targets that have been out of reach and help it continue pressing its counterattacks by disrupting Russia further behind its lines.

Reuters first reported on Boeing's proposal to field GLSDB for Ukraine in November. At the time it was expected GLSDB could be in Ukraine by spring.

GLSDB is made jointly by SAAB AB and Boeing. It combines the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) with the M26 rocket motor, both of which are common in U.S. inventories.

GLSDB is GPS-guided, can defeat some electronic jamming, is usable in all weather conditions, and can be used against armored vehicles, according to SAAB's website. The GBU-39 - which would function as the GLSDB's warhead - has small, folding wings that allow it to glide more than 100km if dropped from an aircraft and hit targets as small as 3 feet (1 meter) in diameter.

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/u-readies-2-billion-plus-223944008.html