Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. is reaching out to potential buyers of the £7 billion ($8.8 billion) Boots drugstore chain in the UK, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Deerfield, Illinois-based company is working with advisers to hold early-stage discussions with would-be bidders, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. No formal sale process has begun, they said.
Hedge funds ramped up their selling of financial stocks as US economic growth shows signs of weakness and the sector approaches a key technical level.
Despite financials notching their best weekly gain of 2024, hedge fund managers net sold for the third straight week — the largest bout of net selling in two months — data compiled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.’s prime brokerage desk for the week ended May 10 show. The funds have sold the sector short in 14 of the last 16 weeks. Capital markets, financial services, and insurance were some of the worst hit subsectors with every area, excluding mortgage REITs, net sold over the period.
Kenvue (NYSE:KVUE) stock is in the news Monday after the company announced that Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is selling its stake in the business.
Kenvue has announced a secondary offering in which Johnson & Johnson will sell its entire stake of 182,329,550 shares of KVUE stock. It is exchanging these shares for the JNJ debt held by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan.
After this debt-for-equity exchange, the selling shareholders will sell the shares of KVUE stock to the underwriters of the secondary offering. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, JPMorgan and BofA Securities are the joint lead book-running managers for the offering.
Investors will likely remember that Kenvue was spun off from Johnson & Johnson last year. Following that, the company took further actions to reduce its exposure to the business by selling some of its stock. With today’s news, Johnson & Johnson is now completely cutting off its ties to the company.
KVUE stock is up slightly on Monday alongside the secondary offering news. That comes with some 4.4 million shares traded, as compared to its daily average of about 16.9 million shares.
JNJ stock is also getting a slight boost today on the news. This comes with almost 1 million shares traded, as compared to its daily average of about 7.6 million units.
https://investorplace.com/2024/05/johnson-johnson-is-officially-getting-out-of-kenvue-kvue-stock/
Q: Can you give us a little clarity around the reimbursement for the co-development among commercial and regulatory costs, particularly for 2024 and 2025 and how you think about the cost of moving forward after 2025? A: James Kelly, Novavax Inc - Chief Financial Officer, Executive Vice President, Treasurer, explained that the categories of cost reimbursement under the agreement include R&D activities that Novavax may do under the joint budget to support the COVID-19 program from 2025 forward. This includes pediatric studies, select medical affair activities, and activities related to the technology transfer. He noted that reimbursement could be up to $100 million for 2025, targeting a reduced R&D plus SG&A to below $500 million after reimbursement.
Q: In terms of the milestone payments for the COVID side, how much near-term cash or milestones should we look at, and are those back-ended on milestone? A: James Kelly highlighted that the $350 million milestones are across both product development and approval milestones, which are non-sales based and related to near-term development and approval of those programs. He did not provide specific timing but emphasized these are strategic activities prioritized in the agreement.
Q: Could you maybe shed some light on the branding message and the future commercialization of Sanofi and Novavax branded products? A: John Trizzino, Novavax, Inc. - President & Chief Operating Officer, discussed leveraging Sanofi's brand and infrastructure to enhance public health and revenue generation. He emphasized the significant opportunity with Sanofi as the market leader in flu vaccinations to potentially increase market share and vaccination rates through the combination of COVID and flu vaccines.
Q: What are the potential milestones in the upcoming year or two that we could see for your company to receive from the new Bax agreement? A: James Kelly mentioned that the $350 million in future milestones are expected within the next 12 to 24 months, focusing on near-term strategic activities including COVID-19 manufacturing tech transfer and other key development activities.
Q: Regarding the Phase three trial design for the standalone flu and added, could you talk about the key immunogenicity objectives agreed upon with the FDA? A: Filip Dubovsky, Novavax Inc - President, Research and Development, stated that the trial will target specific age populations where medical need and market opportunity are greatest. He mentioned that the comparators chosen are positioned for commercial success, but did not provide specific criteria for establishing superiority or non-inferiority.
Q: Could you comment on your expectations for breakeven and the OpEx ramp down continuing into next year, considering the broader respiratory pipeline infrastructure long-term? A: James Kelly emphasized building an enterprise towards cash flow positivity and value creation, highlighting that the economics and cash flow under the Sanofi agreement are superior to what Novavax could have achieved independently. He reiterated the focus on driving shareholder value through strategic financial management.
For the complete transcript of the earnings call, please refer to the full earnings call transcript.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/novavax-inc-nvax-q1-2024-070306594.html
Merus N.V. (Nasdaq: MRUS), a clinical-stage oncology company developing innovative, full-length multispecific antibodies (Biclonics® and Triclonics®) for cancer, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) for petosemtamab for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) whose disease has progressed following treatment with platinum based chemotherapy and an anti-programmed cell death receptor-1 (PD-1) or anti-programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) antibody. This designation follows receipt of Fast Track Designation for petosemtamab for the treatment of patients with recurrent or metastatic HNSCC whose disease has progressed following treatment with platinum-based chemotherapy and an anti-programmed cell death protein 1 (anti-PD-1) antibody announced in August 2023.
Interim data from initial dose escalation cohorts from Phase 1 CARDINAL trial of TERN-701 (allosteric BCR-ABL) in CML expected in 2H24
Top-line data from Phase 1 trial of TERN-601 (oral GLP-1) for obesity expected in 2H24
Cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $241million, expected to provide runway into 2026
