Target $35
Monday, January 22, 2024
KUDLOW: Cutting benefits and raising taxes from another fiscal commission would be fiscal insanity
Here’s a very bad idea: something called a "fiscal commission" coming out of Washington. For some reason, there are some Republicans – like Texas Congressman Jodey Arrington, head of the House Budget Committee – that are looking to get hoodwinked and are pushing to get this through. It’s an absolutely terrible idea. It's a tax trap.
We've had these goofy commissions down through the years. Paul Ryan chaired one that raised taxes and damaged the economy. Then, there was Simpson-Bowles that was never implemented but would've raised taxes significantly.
Going way back, President George H.W. Bush agreed to a tax hike in the 1990 budget summit that probably cost him the 1992 election. The Congressional Budget Office projected that the tax hikes would yield $159 billion of new revenue, but lose $206 billion from economic damage inflicted by higher taxes – for a net loss of $47 billion.
It didn't help the deficit at all. Bill Clinton raised taxes in 1993, but CBO estimates later on showed the weaker economy lost almost all of the projected revenue increase.
Barack Obama raised taxes in 2010 and 2013. Then, later, the CBO showed a nearly $4 trillion revenue loss because of a falling economy. Clinton wised up in 1996 and 1997 by cutting taxes and reforming welfare and the deficit disappeared for four years with real growth – a massive 4.5% gain per year.
Hat tip to former Texas Congressman Jeb Hensarling for his excellent op-ed piece on this subject last week in the Wall Street Journal: "The best way to avert a crisis is to reform entitlements. The next best way is growth." The trouble with these so-called bipartisan commissions is that they start raising taxes at the very first meeting, even before the first cup of coffee has been poured.
Whether it was JFK in the 1960s, Ronald Reagan in the 1980s, Bill Clinton in his second term, or Donald Trump – lower taxes have always been a successful policy ingredient to boosting economic growth and more growth, with more people working, with higher wages, generates more tax revenues to lower deficits by a factor of at least two- or three-to-one.
That's the historical evidence and Republicans should not be lulled into falling for yet another phony fiscal commission. Better to give President Trump a strong Republican Senate and House, so that the fiscal committees can do their job, rather than rely on left-wing Democrats and, finally, any moves to strengthen Social Security should focus on market-based investment choice.
Just like the federal Thrift Savings Plan, Social Security participants should have the option of purchasing approved stock or bond index funds that, over the long run, will yield far higher returns and create more wealth than the current system, which invests only in Treasury bills. Just like private retirement accounts, Social Security should create more wealth for more people over the longer run. Cutting benefits and raising taxes from another fiscal commission would be nothing but more fiscal insanity.
EU drug watchdog to consider wider use of Wegovy weight-loss drug
The European Union's drug regulator will this week consider wider use of Novo Nordisk's weight-loss drug Wegovy to include reducing the risk of strokes and heart attacks.
Approval could help the Danish drugmaker better argue its case for making the drug available via public sector health systems in Europe.
The possible new use of Wegovy, based on a drug trial known as SELECT, will be assessed during the monthly meeting of a drug assessment panel of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), according to the meeting's agenda posted on the watchdog's website on Monday.
Ballooning demand for Wegovy, and for diabetes drug Ozempic which is based on the same active ingredient, has led to a doubling of Novo's share price over the past two years but it has also overwhelmed the company's ability to ramp up production of the weekly injections.
For now, people willing to pay for the drugs out of their own pockets have been a major driver of sales growth but public-sector insurers and health systems could underpin the longer-term momentum, analysts have said.
Many European countries have kept a restrictive stance when it comes to health system coverage of drugs that are primarily for weight loss with some, including Germany, even ruling out such payments by law.
The SELECT trial results, published last year, showed that the lower cardiovascular risk ascribed to Wegovy began to appear almost immediately after the obese trial participants starting treatment.
Wegovy had previously been shown to help obese patients lose an average of 15% of their weight, while the SELECT trial separately showed that the drug can reduce the incidence of heart attacks, strokes or death from heart disease by 20%.
Novo submitted applications to both European Union and U.S. authorities last year for a label expansion for Wegovy after the trial data.
Ionis Pharma's genetic disease drug succeeds in late-stage study
Ionis Pharmaceuticals said on Monday its experimental drug reduced the occurrence of painful attacks in patients with a rare genetic disease that triggers frequent episodes of swelling.
The life-threatening genetic disease called hereditary angioedema causes unpredictable and frequent severe swelling of the skin, gastrointestinal tract, upper respiratory system, face and throat.
Shares of the drugmaker rose as much as 3% in premarket trading.
Stifel analyst Paul Matteis said questions remain over the commercial opportunity for donidalorsen, given competition from both existing drugs made by Takeda Pharmaceuticals and BioCryst Pharmaceuticals and other experimental treatments.
He added that the results from the late-stage study represent a clear win for Ionis, but would await for more data on the Ionis drug, expected to be presented in the future, to fully understand its differentiation versus rivals.
Takeda and BioCryst's drugs combined brought in sales of about $1.5 billion in 2023. Other companies such as CSL are also developing drugs to treat the condition.
In the study, patients received an 80 milligram dose of the Ionis drug, donidalorsen, through subcutaneous or under-the-skin injection every four weeks or every eight weeks.
Meeting the main goal of the trial, the drug showed statistical significant reduction in the rate of the attacks when compared to placebo.
Ionis said it is preparing to submit a marketing application with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration based on the data.
Japan-based Otsuka, which has exclusive rights to commercialize donidalorsen in Europe, is preparing to submit an application to the European Medicines Agency, the company said.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-ionis-pharmas-genetic-disease-122619441.html
Cellectar: Complete CNS Clearance in Relapsed/Refractory Waldenstrom’s Macroglobulinemia Patient
Iopofosine I 131 Active in Treating Malignancies in the Brain; Confirmed Response in CNS Lymphoma Provides Additional Validation for Continued Development of Iopofosine in Multiple CNS Malignancies
In its Phase 2b CLOVER WaM pivotal trial.
60 Degrees Pharma Plans Pivotal Babesiosis Study with Tafenoquine After Jan 17 FDA Meeting
60 Degrees Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: SXTP; SXTPW) (“60P” or the “Company”), a pharmaceutical company focused on developing new medicines for infectious diseases, announced today that, following a Type C meeting held on January 17, 2024 with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Company will move forward with a pivotal clinical study of tafenoquine in hospitalized babesiosis patients in the U.S.
In advance of the meeting, 60P provided to the FDA an information package that included a presentation of the unmet medical need for a new therapeutic for hospitalized babesiosis patients. It also included a detailed outline of the proposed study protocol. The FDA indicated in remarks during the meeting that the proposed study could be sufficient for regulatory approval, provided the Company uses a clinical endpoint rather than a surrogate marker. 60P is now revising the study protocol in light of that feedback, with the goal of initiating patient enrollment in the summer of 2024.
ClearPoint Neuro: First EU MDR Certification Success and Approval to Ship Product to Europe
ClearPoint Neuro, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLPT) (the “Company”), a global device, cell, and gene therapy-enabling company offering precise navigation to the brain and spine, today announced receipt of European Medical Device Regulation (EU MDR) clearance for the manual SmartTwist® MR Hand Drill and SmartTip® MR Drill Kit. Additionally, the Company received updated certification from its Notified Body allowing for shipment of products manufactured at its new Carlsbad, California facility to Europe.
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