'Brothers Forever': Putin, Xi Agree Deepened Ties Project Stability Against West's 'Unilateral Hegemony'

 Russian President Vladimir Putin is in Beijing visiting his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

On the first day of the two-day state visit, which includes top Russian defense and security officials, Putin referenced Russia being "brothers forever" with China and Xi. He quoted from a 1940s song, saying "The event is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. There is a famous song from that time, it was created 75 years ago, but is often sung today: there is a quite famous line in it: 'Russian and Chinese are brothers forever'.

"I am sure that we will continue to strengthen the fraternal spirit of the harmonious Russian-Chinese partnership," he emphasized. Xi in response hit upon the 'old friend' theme, and was quoted in Xinhua as saying, "China is ready to work with Russia to stay each other’s good neighbor, good friend and good partner."

As expected, the two presented the Russia-China relationship as a stabilizing force for the region in the world. Speaking a their joint press conference Thursday, Xi said, "China is willing to … jointly achieve the development and rejuvenation of our respective countries, and work together to uphold fairness and justice in the world."

While not naming the United States directly, Xi said that the two countries will grow closer and press on in the face of rising hegemony. XI also said they do no seek to target any third party, and expressed hope that the war in Ukraine would be solved peacefully.

One interesting area of clear agreement was the rejection of foreign military blocs in the region. Putin condemned what he called "closed alliances in the region" - which appeared a reference to to the AUKUS pact of Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Xi agreed, telling a press conference that "In today’s world, Cold War mentality is still raging. Unilateral hegemony, bloc confrontation, and power politics pose a direct threat to the entire world and the security of all countries."

The Chinese leader urged an "immediate" end to Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a two-state solution and also addressed Ukraine: "China hopes for the swift restoration of peace on the European continent and is ready to continue its constructive role."

He said this can come about through a "new, balanced, effective and stable security architecture." Relatedly, the two leaders issued a fresh joint statement which blasts Western imposed restrictions that "obstruct the development of free trade, negatively affect global chains of production and retail."

On US-led sanctions, the statement said: "The sides condemn the shameless actions, undertaken in circumvention of the UN Security Council, which violate the UN Charter and international law, which obstruct the access to justice, as well as measures that contradict the WTO rules." It underscored, "Russia and China decisively oppose this."

The two leaders again upheld the Russia-China relationship as fundamentally "based on the multipolar realities and international law" in a swipe at the West which both Putin and Xi have long deemed hegemonic.

At one point Putin also praised efforts of the two at bypassing the US dollar, saying "A powerful impetus to expand our trade flows was given by our timely joint decision to ensure that transactions are conducted in national currencies. As of today, 90% of all payments are made in rubles and yuan."

* * *

Remember, Blinken was just in Beijing earlier this month, and of course with comparatively very little red carpet fanfare. While there he strongly warned against China's backing Russia's defense industrial sector, immediately after which new US sanctions were unveiled...

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/brothers-forever-putin-xi-agree-deepened-ties-project-stability-against-unilateral

'Biden Invokes Executive Privilege Over Special Counsel Recordings'

 After the DOJ stonewalled over surrendering an audio recording of Special Counsel Robert Hur's interview with President Joe Biden over his handling of classified documents, the White House has invoked executive privilege to block House Republicans from obtaining it.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland requested that Biden assert executive privilege over the recordings following a subpoena from the House Judiciary and Oversight committees.

"Because of the President’s longstanding commitment to protecting the integrity, effectiveness, and independence of the Department of Justice and its law enforcement investigations, he has decided to assert executive privilege over the recordings," said White House counsel Ed Siskel in a letter obtained by The Hill.

The Feb. 27 subpoena requested copies of notes, audio files, video and transcripts related to Hur's probe, and had a deadline of March 7.

"Americans expect equal justice under the law and DOJ is allowing the Bidens to operate above it,"  House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in an April statement. "Special Counsel Hur’s report outlined that classified documents Joe Biden stashed for years relate to countries where his family cashed in on the Biden brand."

In response to a request for audio of what author Mark Zwonitzer recorded while interviewing Biden, whose two memoirs he wrote, Assistant AG Carlos Felipe Uriarte said there is no need for the department to hand it over because the committees also have transcripts of the interviews.

"To go further by producing the audio files would compound the likelihood that future prosecutors will be unable to secure this level of cooperation," Uriarte wrote.

"They might have a harder time obtaining consent to an interview at all. It is clearly not in the public interest to render such cooperation with prosecutors and investigators less likely in the future."

Uriarte then reiterated that the DOJ has provided ample evidence to the committees.

Hur's 345-page report concluded that no charges should be brought against Biden due to cognitive decline.

"We have also considered that, at trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," Hur wrote.

Hur cited 2017 conversations between Biden and Zwontizer, which Hur described as "painfully slow, with Mr. Biden struggling to remember events and straining at times to read and relay his own notebook entries."

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/biden-invokes-executive-privilege-over-special-counsel-recordings

CVS Health launches new snack brand called Well Market

 CVS Health launched a new packaged food brand called Well Market on Thursday, encompassing varieties of popcorn, cookies and almond.

The brand will have 40 new snacks, beverages and groceries that will be sold at more than 9,000 CVS pharmacies across the United States and on the company's website.

The health conglomerate's existing snack brands, such as Gold Emblem, Gold Emblem Abound and Big Chill - under which the company sells products like trail mix, popcorn and water - will be brought under the Well Market umbrella over time, the company said.

The brand's products, most of which will be priced between $2.99 and $8.99, contain no artificial preservatives, sweeteners or colors and contain 0 gram of trans fat, the company said.

They also cater to vegan, gluten-free and keto dietary preferences, it added.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cvs-health-launches-snack-brand-122749796.html

Is CVS Health's High-Yield Dividend in Danger of Being Cut?

 Shares of CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) have been under pressure this month after the healthcare giant reported uninspiring quarterly results. It also reduced its guidance for the year. With the company facing higher costs and headwinds due to macroeconomic conditions, investors have grown wary of the stock, and its dividend as well. Now yielding around 4.8% per year, is CVS Health's dividend too high and due for a cut?

Can CVS Health afford to keep paying its dividend?

To know whether a company can maintain its current dividend, a useful metric for investors to monitor is the payout ratio. It looks at annual dividends per share versus annual earnings per share (EPS) to determine what percentage of earnings are being paid out in the form of dividends. While there have been fluctuations in the past, CVS has averaged a payout ratio of just over 50% in the past three years.

CVS Payout Ratio Chart

This year, CVS management expects an annual EPS of at least $5.64. Previously, its forecast called for EPS to be $7.06 or higher. That's a significant 20% cut to the guidance. This comes as the company's health insurance business is facing higher costs due to greater utilization rates, resulting in a higher-than-expected medical benefit ratio. But given CVS' healthy buffer in the payout ratio, it still leaves the company with a manageable dividend. Annually, CVS pays $2.66 per share in dividends, which is 47% of its forecasted EPS this year. And that's the lowest point CVS expects its EPS to be; it could come in higher than that.

Given its strong financials, there's not much reason to worry about CVS paying its dividend right now.

Is CVS Health's dividend safe for the long term?

Dividend investors are normally looking for an income stock they can buy and hold and just forget about in the long run, not only in the short term. While CVS Health's dividend looks safe for the time being, there are still viable questions about its future. For example, the company has been pursuing acquisitions to bolster its operations. Last year, it acquired home health company Signify Health for $8 billion.

By scaling back on its dividend, CVS could have more room to take on additional acquisitions. This would also give it more of a buffer should medical costs continue to rise and Medicare Advantage rates not increase at a high rate (which was the case this year).

Although the company generally brings in plenty of free cash flow, there have been periods where its free cash flow after dividend payments has been negative. If that turns into a long-term trend, it could be a warning sign for investors that CVS' pursuit of growth and paying a high dividend may not be sustainable.

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/4412cd99-6038-3b69-af53-c1bd6a2fe3bf/is-cvs-health%27s-high-yield.html

Kansas jilts CVS in new Medicaid contract awards

 

• Kansas has awarded new contracts in its more than $4 billion Medicaid managed care program to plans operated by incumbents UnitedHealth and Centene. CVS, however, was displaced by newcomer Healthy Blue, a plan majority owned by Elevance.

• Kansas’ Medicaid program, called KanCare, announced the awards Tuesday to provide care for its 458,000 beneficiaries. The contracts begin January 2025 and run through 2027, with the option to renew for up to two one-year extensions.

• The earnings impact on plans from the changes will be relatively small, according to analysts, though the contract loss represents a slight challenge for CVS, which could dispute the decision. On the flip side, the award suggests reprocurement momentum for Medicaid giant Centene, which is coming off recent contract wins in a number of states.

KanCare has granted contracts to Centene’s Sunflower Health Plan, UnitedHealth’s United Healthcare Community Plan and Healthy Blue. Healthy Blue is a collaboration of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City and Anthem Partnership Holding Company, a subsidiary of Elevance.

The troika launched Healthy Blue in 2021 to make a run at Kansas’ Medicaid contract — a run that has now proved successful.

KanCare, however, jilted CVS’ Better Health of Kansas, a plan run by its health insurance business Aetna. KanCare did not specify why Better Health was not selected for the contract. However, Aetna was censured by the state for not complying with the terms of its contract and providing inadequate service in 2019.

Aetna also has the highest rate of claims denials out of Kansas’ three managed care organizations, according to KanCare’s annual report to the CMS in 2022, the most recent year the report is available.

A CVS spokesperson said the company is “disappointed” with the decision “given the strength of our proposal and the excellent support we provide to our members in the state.”

“We’re currently reviewing our options,” the spokesperson said.

KanCare selected UnitedHealth, Centene and Healthy Blue out of seven bidders, including CVS. It’s unclear who the other three bidders were — Kansas officials have yet to post documents on the contract solicitation process on the state’s Department of Administration or KanCare websites.

Currently, Kansas’ Medicaid market share is roughly split with a third each to contract holders, through UnitedHealthcare has a slight edge with roughly 160,000 beneficiaries, according to J.P. Morgan analyst Cal Sternick. Centene has an estimated 151,000 members and CVS has 147,000.

https://finance.yahoo.com/m/b15daffd-1edb-3b29-80c7-62ab1927eab8/kansas-jilts-cvs-in-new.html

Johnson & Johnson to acquire Proteologix for $850 m

 Johnson & Johnson said on Thursday it would acquire Proteologix for $850 million in cash, as it looks to gain access to the privately held company's experimental atopic dermatitis treatments.

Proteologix's antibody PX128 is ready to enter early-stage development for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis, commonly referred to as eczema, and moderate to severe asthma. PX130, its other antibody, is in preclinical development for moderate to severe atopic dermatitis.

Atopic dermatitis is a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that causes damage to the skin barrier, leaving it dry, itchy, and prone to skin infections.

J&J's experimental atopic dermatitis drug is in mid-stage development, according to its website.

The transaction is expected to close in the next few months, subject to antitrust clearance and other customary closing conditions.

The deal also has potential for an additional milestone payment, J&J said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/1-johnson-johnson-acquire-proteologix-120341993.html

Biogen walks away from Ionis-partnered ALS, Angelman prospects

 Biogen’s CEO may have been celebrating “turning a corner” last month, but it looks like the drugmaker’s early-stage pipeline hasn’t gotten the message yet.

The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company announced this morning that it is halting its work on Ionis Pharmaceuticals-partnered oligonucleotides for two different diseases. That includes the amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) drug BIIB105, which was designed to reduce expression of the ATXN2 gene.

However, a look at the six-month data from the 99-person trial showed that while the antisense oligonucleotide did lower ATXN2, it had no impact on levels of plasma neurofilament light chain, a biomarker of neurodegeneration, Biogen explained in the May 16 release.

This gives the company “confidence that BIIB105 did not slow the disease process,” Stephanie Fradette, head of Biogen’s Neuromuscular Development Unit, said in the release.

“Additionally, BIIB105 did not demonstrate an impact on clinical outcome measures of function, breathing and strength,” Biogen added.

Biogen bailed on another ALS partnership—this time with Karyopharm Therapeutics—back in 2022 after taking a look at phase 1 data. The same year, a different Ionis-Biogen antisense program, BIIB078, was dropped after it didn’t improve ALS symptoms at all in a phase 1 trial.

Today’s news means Biogen no longer has any ALS hopefuls to follow in the footsteps of the FDA-approved Qalsody, which was itself first developed at Ionis. Ionis still has its own phase 3-stage ALS asset in the form of ulefnersen, which is aimed at the genetic form of the neuromuscular disease.

The fallout from Biogen’s Ionis partnership didn’t end with BIIB105, however. The Big Biotech also revealed this morning that it’s washing its hands of Angelman syndrome drug ION582, presumably in response to a separate phase 1/2a trial readout.

Biogen didn’t go into the rationale of its decision to hand ION582 back to Ionis. For its part, Ionis seemed pleased with this morning’s readout, pointing to “consistent effects across multiple objective and subjective measures used to assess functioning in individuals living with Angelman syndrome.”

There are no approved treatments for the syndrome, which is caused by a loss of function in the maternal UBE3A gene and prevents most individuals from speaking or living independently.

ION582 is designed to restore expression of ubiquitin protein in patients. Around 65% of the 51 participants in the trial demonstrated an improvement in cognition when measured on the Bayley-4 assessment of clinical functioning, while 70% showed improvements in communication, Ionis noted.

While “no direct comparisons should be made,” Ionis stressed, both of these changes “exceeded improvements seen in natural history studies over the same time period.” The drug was also safe and well tolerated at all dose levels, meeting the study’s primary objective.

"We are encouraged by the data from the HALOS study and pleased to add this promising medicine to our growing independent pipeline of neurology medicines,” Ionis CEO Brett Monia, Ph.D., said in the release.

“We look forward to sharing detailed data at the upcoming Angelman Syndrome Foundation meeting and to advancing ION582 into a pivotal study,” Monia added.

Biogen may be walking away from both programs, but it isn’t the end of its work with Ionis. The two companies will “continue their long-standing commitment to developing therapies for ALS given the devastating impact of this progressive, fatal neurodegenerative condition,” Biogen said.

The two latest removals from Biogen’s pipeline come a month after CEO Chris Viehbacher told analysts that the company is “turning the corner” after several recent setbacks over a year that saw 1,000 staff laid off and an “extraordinarily difficult launch” for Alzheimer’s disease drug Leqembi.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/biogen-walks-away-ionis-partnered-als-angelman-prospects-after-peak-clinical-data