Boston Scientific lifts annual profit forecast on heart devices strength

 Boston Scientific Corp raised its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday, after strong sales in its cardiovascular devices unit helped the company beat first-quarter estimates.

As the pandemic-induced staffing shortages ease, hospital operators have begun to see a much-awaited recovery in elective surgeries, boosting the demand for medical devices, such as the pacemakers, stents and catheters the company makes.

While analysts were expecting good results stemming from a recovery in medical procedures and product momentum, "this result well exceeded our expectations", J.P.Morgan analyst Robbie Marcus wrote in a note.

Also, at a time when supply chain disruptions and high raw material costs weighed on profit for peers, Boston Scientific in February said its own global supply chain organization helped to reduce costs and improve volumes.

Shares of the Marlborough, Massachusetts-based company rose 4.85% to $53.59 in premarket trading.

The company now expects its full-year adjusted profit between $1.90 per share and $1.96 per share, compared with its prior forecast of $1.86-$1.93 per share.

It expects revenue growth of 8.5%-10.5% for 2023, compared with its prior outlook of 5%-7%.

Quarterly sales of Boston Scientific increased 12% to $3.39 billion. Analysts on average estimated $3.16 billion, according to Refinitiv data.

The company's sales in the cardiovascular segment increased 12.7% to $2.1 billion.

Larger rivals Abbott Laboratories and Johnson & Johnson, too, saw a recovery in their medical devices sales in the first quarter.

Excluding items, Boston Scientific earned 47 cents per share in the quarter ended March 31, compared with analysts' average estimate of 44 cents per share.

Separately, on Friday, Bloomberg News reported that Boston Scientific is exploring a deal to buy medical device company Shockwave Medical Inc to boost its portfolio of cardiovascular devices.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/boston-scientific-lifts-annual-profit-121958066.html

Evelo trial topline data misses endpoint

  Topline Data from fourth cohort of EDP1815 Phase 2 trial in atopic dermatitis did not meet primary endpoint –

– Company will focus on development of extracellular vesicles (EVs) –
– First EV candidate, EDP2939, in Phase 2 moderate psoriasis study fully enrolled; data anticipated in early Q4 2023 –
– Management to host conference call today at 8:30 a.m. ET –

Evelo will host a conference call and webcast at 8:30 a.m. ET today. To listen to the conference call by phone, participants must pre-register here. A live webcast can be accessed under "News & Events" in the investors section of Evelo’s website, https://ir.evelobio.com/news-events. The archived webcast will be available on Evelo’s website for approximately 90 days following the event.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/evelo-biosciences-provides-clinical-updates-113000957.html

Danaher cut to Neutral from Buy by B of A

 Target to $250 from $310

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=DHR&p=d

Thermo Fisher life sciences unit's weakness eclipses upbeat overall revenue

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc's upbeat first-quarter sales were overshadowed by soft demand in its life sciences unit, sending the medical equipment maker's shares down 4% in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Sales in its life sciences unit, which makes tools and compounds used to make therapeutics and vaccines, came in at $2.61 billion, missing analysts' average estimate of $2.92 billion.

The company reported weak life sciences segment revenue a day after rival Danaher Corp trimmed its annual sales growth forecast and flagged weak demand for its bioprocessing tools and services as the sector grapples with a funding crunch.

Thermo Fisher has benefited from demand for lab equipment including COVID-19 testing tools during the pandemic years, but with the U.S. public health emergency status set to expire next month, the company's COVID-related business faces uncertainties.

However, strong sales in its largest unit which provides contract manufacturing services helped drive better-than-expected total revenue of $10.71 billion. Analysts were expecting overall sales of $10.67 billion.

Excluding items, Thermo Fisher reported earnings of $5.03 per share in the quarter, in-line with Wall Street estimates.

The company said it would provide updates on its annual forecast in its earnings conference call.

https://news.yahoo.com/thermo-fisher-beats-revenue-estimates-102229147.html

Novartis Culls 10% of Pipeline, Doubles Down on 5 Core Therapeutic Areas

 To sharpen its focus on its core therapeutic areas, Novartis is discontinuing or licensing out 10% of its clinical development programs, the company announced Tuesday during its first-quarter financial report call with investors.

The cull will leave Novartis with 136 clinical-stage assets across its five focus areas – solid tumors, hematology, immunology, neuroscience and cardiovascular diseases – and a sixth area called TAX, which the company uses to refer to other therapeutic fields it is interested in exploring. The company had 152 candidates at the end of 2022.

In the investor call, Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, said the company decided to pare down its pipeline after a review of its biotech peers showed that it had more projects in general than others, which led to a lower per-project investment.

Novartis picked out which assets to drop based on how well they matched the company’s R&D and therapeutic strategy, their commercial potential and overall value, and the competitive landscape.

The pipeline cuts come 10 months after Novartis launched a sweeping global restructuring initiative to save at least $1 billion by 2024 in which the company estimated about 8,000 Novartis staffers would lose their jobs. The company is also gearing up to spin off its generics unit Sandoz as a separate entity.

Novartis’s oncology business suffered the heaviest blow, losing 10 developmental molecules, most of which were in early-stage development. Much of the cuts were also focused on Phase I/II candidates across the hematology, immunology and cardiovascular disease areas.

“We have identified five tumor types we're particularly interested in, and we're trying to focus our energy there,” Narasimhan said during the call, explaining the deep cuts to its cancer pipeline.

“We also want to pivot much harder to radioligand therapy-based therapies where we see the strong performance of Pluvicto and Lutathera,” Narasimhan said.

Pluvicto (lutetium Lu 177 vipivotide tetraxetan), in particular, is one of Novartis’s highest-growth assets, earning $211 million in the first quarter of 2023. The FDA approved the targeted radiotherapy in March 2022 for metastatic prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Along with Pluvicto, Novartis’s highest-selling drugs in the first quarter of 2023 included the heart failure drug Entresto (sacubitril/valsartan), which brought in nearly $1.4 billion in sales and the breast cancer therapy Kisqali (ribociclib), which earned $415 million in revenue.

https://www.biospace.com/article/novartis-culls-10-percent-of-pipeline-doubles-down-on-five-core-therapeutic-areas/

Biden Preparing For Ukrainian Offensive To Fail

 by Dave DeCamp via AntiWar.com,

The Biden administration is preparing for the possibility of Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive failing, Politico reported on Monday.

Pentagon documents allegedly leaked by Airman Jack Teixeira revealed that the US doesn’t believe Ukraine can regain any significant territory in its counteroffensive, which is expected to be launched in the spring. The information in the leaks was based on an assessment made in February.

According to Politico, more current assessments also don’t expect much Ukrainian success. Two Biden administration officials said they don’t think Kyiv has the ability to sever Russia’s land-bridge to Crimea in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

The report said US intelligence "indicates that Ukraine simply does not have the ability to push Russian troops from where they were deeply entrenched." Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in March that his forces need more Western weapons before they can launch a counteroffensive.

The administration is expected to face criticism from hawks who believe Biden hasn’t given Ukraine enough weapons, as well as those who have been calling for the US to push for diplomacy. The US is also worried that many of its European allies will favor negotiations between the warring sides if Ukraine’s offensive fails.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the administration has discouraged peace talks and recently came out against the idea of a ceasefire in Ukraine. The administration has left it up to Zelensky when to pursue peace talks, and he still maintains they can’t happen until Russia is driven out of all the territory it controls, including Crimea.

But now, according to Politico, there is a discussion among administration officials about convincing Ukraine to accept more modest goals and agree to a temporary ceasefire. Possible incentives for Kyiv include giving Ukraine NATO-like security guarantees and more military aid.

The issue with the US plan is that Russia has signaled it won’t settle for a frozen conflict and has stated it can only achieve its war goals by military means. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov recently reiterated that one of Moscow’s main priorities is keeping Kyiv out of NATO after NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Ukraine’s “rightful place” is in the alliance.

In the early days of the Russian invasion, Russian and Ukrainian officials were engaged in peace talks, and Moscow’s primary demand was for Ukrainian neutrality. But now Kyiv stands to lose much more as Russia maintains any settlement must include recognizing the areas it annexed in the Donbas and the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts as Russian territory.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/biden-preparing-ukrainian-offensive-fail

China drops PCR test requirement for inbound travelers in efforts to revive tourism

Travelers heading to China have one less obstacle to consider before entering the country.

\Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters on Tuesday that a negative PCR test result is no longer necessary to enter the country starting on Saturday, April 29, The Associated Press reported. 

She said flyers can now show a negative antigen test taken within 48 hours before boarding a plane.

"To further facilitate cross-border travel, China is taking new steps to refine pre-departure testing requirements guided by the principle of ensuring safe and orderly travel and keeping the measures science-based and well-targeted," Mao said.

Since the start of the pandemic, China has imposed a variety of strict measures aimed at controlling COVID's impact in the country – including lockdowns and regular mass testing. 

The dropped requirement is one of a few axed in recent months as the country works to ease its "zero-COVID" policies and revive its tourism industry. Protests also prompted China to roll back some of the measures in December, leading the country to ultimately drop its quarantine rule in January, the AP reported.

Mao also announced that airlines will no longer check passengers' test results before departure.

"We remind both inbound and outbound travelers to do self-health management and monitoring well before traveling, strictly comply with China's national and local requirements on epidemic prevention, and ensure a healthy and pleasant trip and a safe return home," Mao said during a daily press briefing.

In March, China took another step toward pre-pandemic travel by resuming the issuance of all types of visas.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/lifestyle/china-drops-pcr-test-requirement-inbound-travelers-efforts-revive-tourism