Target to $94 from $87
Friday, February 3, 2023
FTC Is Preparing Potential Antitrust Case Against Amazon
The US Federal Trade Commission is preparing a possible lawsuit against Amazon.com Inc. that could be filed as soon as this spring, according to people familiar with the investigations.
The allegations the agency is preparing to make and the timeline for filing a complaint are still in flux, said the people, who asked not to be named speaking about a confidential probe.
The agency, which has both antitrust and consumer protection mandates, has been investigating Amazon for several years. A probe into the e-commerce giant’s retail business, which started in 2019 under the Trump administration, later expanded into recent acquisitions, such as the $8.45 billion MGM studio deal, and cancellation policies related to Amazon’s Prime service.
The company also has two deals under antitrust review at the agency: a $3.5 billion acquisition of One Medical parent 1Life Healthcare Inc. and the $1.65 billion deal to buy Roomba vacuum maker iRobot Corp.
Those deals could potentially be included in an FTC antitrust complaint, the people said.
California sued Amazon last fall, saying the company forces third-party merchants to agree to policies that lead to “artificially high prices” for consumers. That case, filed in California state court, accuses Amazon of punishing merchants that offer lower prices on other websites. The lawsuit is ongoing and could take years to resolve. The California attorney general’s office and the FTC have been in contact on their respective probes, the people said.
Small merchants on Amazon’s retail marketplace have complained for years about what they see as a one-sided relationship, accusing the company of arbitrarily enforcing its rules and being slow to respond when something goes wrong. Merchants have said Amazon punishes them by burying their products on its webstore when they offer lower prices elsewhere, such as on Walmart.com.
In a 2019 letter to federal lawmakers, an online merchant accused Amazon of forcing him and other sellers to use the company’s expensive logistics services, which in turn forces them to raise prices for consumers. The letter accused Amazon of “tying” its marketplace and logistics services together, a potential antitrust violation in which a company uses dominance in one market to give itself an advantage in another market where it’s less established.
That complaint drew the attention of regulators in the European Union, who reached a settlement with Amazon in December in which the online retail giant vowed to stop using non-public data on independent sellers on its marketplace for its competing retail business.
Consumer watchdogs have accused Amazon of using deceptive practices to keep shoppers paying for the Prime membership program.
FTC Chair Lina Khan made a name for herself as a law student at Yale University with a groundbreaking 2017 legal paper into Amazon’s potential antitrust violations. She has pushed the agency to take a more aggressive role in challenging mergers and conduct by major tech platforms.
The FTC sued to block Microsoft Corp.’s acquisition of game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. in December. It has an ongoing antitrust case challenging Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. over its acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and sued to block the company from buying a virtual-reality startup. A judge rejected the FTC’s move to block Meta from moving forward with the VR deal this week, though paused the merger from closing until next week to allow the agency time to decide whether to appeal.
Taking a page from Meta, Amazon has asked to recuse Khan from its cases citing her previous work. The agency has so far rebuffed Amazon’s requests as premature. Both a federal judge and the agency found Khan can participate in cases involving Meta, though the FTC’s sole Republican dissented from that decision.
The FTC and Amazon declined to comment. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier that the FTC is preparing a possible complaint.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftc-preparing-potential-antitrust-case-161600595.html
GENE to Launch World’s First Comprehensive Risk Test for Breast & Ovarian Cancer
Genetic Technologies Limited (ASX: GTG; NASDAQ: GENE, “Company”, “GTG”) a global leader in genomics-based tests in health, wellness and serious disease, is pleased to announce the Company will launch a ‘World First’ Comprehensive Risk Assessment Test which evaluates a women’s risk of developing Breast and/or Ovarian Cancer either from a hereditary genetic mutation or from the far more common familial or sporadic cancer. Combined with other clinical risk factors the test provides a comprehensive risk assessment in a simple saliva test.
Highlights:
New test integrates the patented and proprietary GeneType platform for both Breast and Ovarian Cancer.
GTG’s unique approach “appends” the detection of the 13 major “actionable” breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes to the GeneType test platform.
Results in a higher classification rate of women at elevated risk of breast and ovarian cancer than traditional clinical tools by assessing breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility from both rare and common genetic variants in addition to other known clinical risk factors associated with the development of both diseases.
Advances the goal of providing population-based genetic screening for Breast and Ovarian cancer where up to 85% of cancers diagnosed do not have hereditary or family history1.
The new test platform addresses those women over 30 years of age in the general population that are at higher risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer, not just from rare genetic mutations.
The comprehensive risk assessment test will be clinically validated and have appropriate regulatory approval.
This test will be launched via our Business to Business (‘B2B’) and Consumer Initiated Testing (‘CIT’) channels in the United States.
The Comprehensive Risk Test will be showcased at the BRCA 2023 Symposium in Montreal in early May.
Globally, there are more than 2.26 million cases of Breast Cancer2 and 313,000 cases of Ovarian Cancer3 diagnosed annually. In the USA there are 297,790 new cases of invasive breast cancer that are diagnosed annually4 and 19,880 women diagnosed with ovarian cancer5.
HeartSciences: Further Internationalization of Patent Portfolio
Heart Test Laboratories, Inc. d/b/a HeartSciences (NASDAQ: HSCS; HSCSW) (“HeartSciences” or the “Company”), a medical technology company focused on saving lives by making an ECG (also known as an EKG) a far more valuable screening tool through the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), today announced it has been granted Korean Patent No. 10-2490960 from the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO).
To date HeartSciences has been granted nine US patents and 30 international patents for a total of 39 granted patents. The Company has nine additional patents pending across the US and international markets. Issued international patents are across key countries including China, Brazil, Canada, India, South Korea, Mexico, and key European markets such as Germany, France, UK, Italy and the Netherlands.
Gracell IND Application for Phase 1b/2 for Relapsed/Refractory Multiple Myeloma OKd
BCMA/CD19 dual-targeting FasTCAR-T GC012F has demonstrated deep responses and favorable safety profile in proof of concept clinical studies
Company plans to initiate Phase 1b/2 clinical trial in the U.S. in second quarter of 2023
Canada moves to extend exclusion of mental illness from assisted death
Canada's federal government on Thursday introduced a law that would exclude people suffering solely from mental illness from pursuing assisted death for an additional year.
Legislation passed in 2021 temporarily excluded people whose only underlying condition is a mental illness from accessing assisted death - a provision that expires on March 17. If the bill tabled Thursday passes, it will extend that until March 17, 2024.
The government says extending the exclusion is necessary to ensure assisted death providers have the information and resources they need and to let the government consider a parliamentary committee report on the topic.
"It is clear that more time is needed to get this right," Justice Minister David Lametti told reporters Thursday, adding that this would give additional time for provinces and providers to "internalize" guidelines.
"We would have met the deadline. But in order to be prudent, in order that everybody be on the same page, we heard a number of different voices saying, 'Slow this down.'"
Canada's assisted dying framework has come under fire from disability advocates who say it has become easier to access assisted death than it is to access resources or supports that would make life more bearable.
People with non-mental disabilities or chronic health conditions that cause them intolerable suffering can still access assisted death if clinicians find them eligible and having the capacity to make that decision.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/canada-moves-extend-exclusion-mental-163522601.html
High-Altitude Chinese Spy Balloon Tracked In Montana Airspace Near ICBM Fields
US military commanders have advised President Biden against shooting down a Chinese spy balloon flying over the US.
Reuters said the US military took "custody" of the "high-altitude surveillance balloon" and deployed military aircraft, including stealth fighter jets, to observe it.
Such balloons operate at an altitude of 15-22 miles, well above commercial air traffic. The balloon's size is estimated to be equivalent to three buses.
"The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now," Pentagon spokesperson Brigadier General Patrick Ryder told reporters Thursday.
"The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical threat to people on the ground," Ryder continued.
Right now, the spy balloon appears to be occupying Montana airspace. This alarmed the state's Republican Senator Steve Daines, who sent an alarming letter to the Department of Defense (DOD). He said the spy balloon is a "concerning event": because Montana airspace includes "Malmstrom Air Force Base (AFB) and the United State's intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) fields."
Daines wrote that given "the serious nature of the event," he is "requesting a full security briefing from the administration on this situation."
"It is vital to establish the flight path of this balloon, any compromised US national security assets, and all telecom or IT infrastructure on the ground within the US that this spy balloon was utilizing," he continued.
"As you know, Montana plays a vital national security role by housing nuclear missile silos at Malmstrom AFB," the senator said.
Separately, Canada's defense ministry is monitoring a "potential second incident" but declined to give further details.
News of the spy balloon followed CIA Director William Burns' speech at a Georgetown University event, where he called China the "biggest geopolitical challenge" facing the West.
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