Novo Nordisk Shifts Focus From Insulin Pens To Obesity Drugs

 Novo Nordisk is shifting its focus from making insulin pens to developing profitable obesity drugs, raising access concerns in lower-income countries.

Novo Nordisk is halting global production of human insulin pens to allocate resources toward its thriving obesity and diabetes treatments like Wegovy and Ozempic. This strategic move has significantly boosted Novo Nordisk’s market value, now at about $572 billion, making it Europe’s most valuable company. While analogue insulin pens will still be available in high-income countries where they are a standard, affordable human insulin remains crucial for low and middle-income nations, potentially impacting access in these regions.

Novo Nordisk’s pivot highlights a market trend of prioritizing profitable treatments for widespread issues like obesity. Investors are drawn to its climbing market valuation as it ramps up obesity drug production. However, this focus risks increasing treatment disparities, especially in countries dependent on affordable insulin, underscoring the need for balanced growth and access.

Phasing out human insulin pens in favor of newer obesity drugs sheds light on a key healthcare challenge. While these drugs could address conditions like type 2 diabetes effectively, they might widen the gap in diabetes care access in poorer regions. Médecins Sans Frontières warns that despite similar delivery systems, the unequal access to life-saving medications raises significant concerns for global health equity.

https://finimize.com/content/novo-nordisk-shifts-focus-from-insulin-pens-to-obesity-drugs

Doximity, Inc.: Morgan Stanley upgrades to equal weight from underweight

 target price raised from USD 33 to USD 53.

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/DOXIMITY-INC-124007887/

Kronos cut to Hold at 2 sell siders

 

Today Downgrade TD Cowen Buy → Hold

Today Downgrade Piper Sandler Overweight → Neutral $6 → $1

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=KRON&ty=c&ta=1&p=d

Ex-Northrop exec said to revive Boeing's Pentagon projects

 The Boeing Company has chosen Colin Miler, an ex-Air Force commander overseeing aeronautics engineering at Northrop Grumman Corporation, to lead its Phantom Works division that focuses on Pentagon projects and to help with the revamp as the firm has been losing billions in contracts, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday citing a message sent to employees.

"We are working hard to stabilize BDS [Boeing Defense, Space and Security unit] by sharpening our focus on delivering the programs and capabilities that are core to our business and our customers' missions," a spokesperson for the company said in a statement.

Boeing missed out on several high-profile competitions for programs run by the United States government this year, including a $30 billion US Air Force program for drone development.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Ex-Northrop-exec-said-to-revive-Boeing's-Pentagon-projects/63073273

Pennsylvania House introduces bill to implement a strategic bitcoin reserve

 President-elect Donald Trump’s proposal to create a national bitcoin reserve is gaining traction across the country as several states are now weighing plans to implement their own cryptocurrency reserves, FOX Business has learned.

The prospect of Trump’s return to the White House has sparked Pennsylvania lawmakers to introduce legislation that would enable the state’s treasury to hold the world’s largest digital asset on its balance sheet as part of a broader movement to recognize bitcoin as a store of value. This, as pro-crypto senators say they're hoping to push through a bitcoin reserve bill on the national level during the first 100 days of Trump's presidency. 

Optimism that Trump will fulfill his promises to make the U.S. the "crypto capital of the planet" and bitcoin a "permanent national asset" has made its price surge 20% in the week since his victory, reaching an all-time high of more than $93,000 per token and a market cap of over $1.8 trillion. This makes bitcoin the world’s seventh-largest asset behind gold and five U.S. tech giants, including Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

The new bill, called the Pennsylvania Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act, introduced in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives on Thursday, is the first of its kind and would allow the state’s treasury to allocate up to 10% of its roughly $7 billion state funds into bitcoin as a way to help combat inflation and diversify its investments beyond traditional assets like bonds and cash reserves.

"The Pennsylvania Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Act is a visionary step toward securing our state’s financial future," Republican Pennsylvania state Rep. Mike Cabell, the bill’s sponsor, told FOX Business. "By integrating Bitcoin into our reserves, we’re not only protecting Pennsylvania from inflation’s relentless impact but also positioning our state as a leader in financial resilience and innovation."

Pennsylvania is the first state to introduce legislation that would allow it to purchase bitcoin directly. Meanwhile, Michigan's and Wisconsin's state pension funds have started purchasing small stakes in some of Wall Street’s bitcoin exchange-traded funds, allowing investors exposure to bitcoin without directly buying it.

The strategic reserve act is the second piece of crypto-related legislation to go in front of the state legislature this year. Last month, the state’s House passed a bill to protect residents’ rights to self-custody digital assets and ensure their ability to use bitcoin as a payment method. The Bitcoin Rights bill, as it’s called, is slated to move on to the Republican-led Senate in the coming weeks and, if passed, onto Gov. Josh Shapiro’s desk for signing

The advocacy group that helped Pennsylvania lawmakers craft the Bitcoin Rights bill in October, Satoshi Action Fund, is also behind this new strategic reserve bill. The group’s main goal is to help to mainstream bitcoin at the state level. Its founder, Dennis Porter, is hoping the strong bipartisan support garnered on the rights bill will be a bellwether for how the strategic reserve bill will be received.

"The Bitcoin Rights bill sailed through the Democrat-led House with a majority of 176 votes to 26," Porter said. "With public support and interest in Bitcoin at an all-time high, we expect both bills to be passed and signed into law next year."

Porter says the strategic reserve act is expected to serve as a model for other states looking to integrate digital assets into their investment portfolios and says that SAF is talking to 10 other states to implement similar legislation.

"This legislation sends a clear message: Pennsylvania is ready to embrace bold, modern solutions to safeguard economic prosperity for generations to come," Cabell said.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/money/pennsylvania-house-introduces-bill-implement-strategic-bitcoin-reserve

'Surging diabetes rate underscores vast opportunity in weight-loss drugs'

 Diabetes rates have more than quadrupled since 1990, according to a new analysis in the Lancet on World Diabetes Day

The number of adults diagnosed with diabetes has more than quadrupled since 1990 and now stands above 800 million, according to new data released in The Lancet on World Diabetes Day.

The data was part of an analysis conducted by the NCD Risk Factor Collaboration, a network of more than 1,500 researchers around the world, with the backing of the World Health Organization.

"We have seen an alarming rise in diabetes over the past three decades, which reflects the increase in obesity, compounded by the impacts of the marketing of unhealthy food, a lack of physical activity and economic hardship," said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"To bring the global diabetes epidemic under control, countries must urgently take action. This starts with enacting policies that support healthy diets and physical activity, and, most importantly, health systems that provide prevention, early detection and treatment."

In 1990, just 7% of the global adult population had diabetes, but that number had climbed to 14% by 2022. The fast rate of growth underscores the enormous opportunity for the new class of diabetes and obesity treatments called GLP-1, where GLP stands for glucagon-like peptide. The treatment works by mimicking the gut hormone that can help control blood-sugar levels and reduce appetite.

The numbers are highest in low- and middle-income countries, where treatment access is still too low, said the WHO. That has created stark inequality-some 450 million adults aged 30 and older, or about 59% of the adult diabetes population, remain untreated. That's a 3.5-fold increase since 1990. About 90% of that group live in low- and middle-income countries.

Geographically, the WHO's South-East Asia and Eastern Mediterranean regions, together with the African region, have the lowest rates of treatment with fewer than four in 10 adults taking glucose-lowering medicine.

Against that background, the WHO is launching a new global monitoring framework on diabetes, which will offer guidance to leaders on measuring, and evaluating diabetes prevention and care.

"By tracking key indicators such as glycemic control, hypertension and access to essential medicines, countries can improve targeted interventions and policy initiatives," the agency said in a statement.

In 2022, the WHO set the goal of ensuring the 80% of diabetes patients have good glycemic control by 2030.

The Lancet data was based on 1108 population-representative studies with 141 million participants aged 18 years and older with measurements of fasting glucose and glycated hemoglobin and information on diabetes treatment.

In the U.S., more than 38 million children and adults have diabetes, a disease that cost more than $412.9 billion in healthcare costs in 2022, up from $327 in billion, according to the American Diabetes Association.

Meanwhile, about 12% of U.S. adults have used GLP-1 drugs, according to a KFF poll involving about 1,500 respondents, as reported by JAMA.

The market is dominated by Eli Lilly & Co. Inc. (LLY) and Denmark's Novo Nordisk (NVO) (DK:NOVO.B). Lilly is the maker of mounjaro, while Novo Nordisk makes ozempic and wegovy.

https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20241114277/surging-diabetes-rate-underscores-vast-opportunity-in-weight-loss-drugs

Pennsylvania Senate Race Heads To Recount, Despite Clear Lead For McCormick

 by Eric Lendrum via American Greatness,

The last race for the United States Senate in the 2024 cycle that has not yet been called is now heading for a recount, even as the Republican candidate has a decisive lead over the Democratic incumbent.

 

As the Daily Caller reports, the statewide recount in the Pennsylvania Senate race began on Wednesday, as challenger Dave McCormick (R-Penn.) leads Senator Bob Casey (D-Penn.) by about 28,000 votes.

 

Although Casey himself chose not to pursue a recount, Pennsylvania Secretary of State Al Schmidt (D-Penn.) decided to order a recount anyway, as the margin between the two is less than the 0.5% threshold required for a recount.

The recount must begin by November 20th and finish by November 26th. However, it is widely expected that the outcome will not change and McCormick will successfully unseat Casey. McCormick has already attended his Senate orientation in Washington D.C., after outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) initially refused to let him attend due to the close margin.

The race has been called for McCormick by the Associated Press, NPR, and Fox News, as well as multiple statewide and local media outlets, while all other national outlets have refused to call it.

Spokesmen from both sides have accused the other campaign of trying to suppress voters before and during the recount. Adam Bonin, an attorney for Casey’s campaign, claimed that Republican activists are trying to hinder the counting of provisional ballots. McCormick advisor Mark Harris fired back by claiming that Democratic counties are deliberately slowing down the count by withholding processed ballot totals.

“This is clearly an effort to use lawfare to chip away at our lead,” said Harris.

“This is not going to work. Dave McCormick is the senator-elect and will be the senator.”

Some of the disputes during the count include an effort by Democratic officials in Bucks County to count over 400 mail-in ballots that lack handwritten dates, with Republicans suing to block the inclusion of these ballots.

Casey was first elected to the Senate in the blue wave of 2006, defeating Republican Senator Rick Santorum (R-Penn.). McCormick, a hedge fund manager, first tried to run for the Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) in 2022, only to narrowly lose the Republican primary to TV host Dr. Oz by less than 1,000 votes. McCormick was unchallenged in this year’s primary, and is set to become the only successful Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in the three critical Rust Belt states.

McCormick is one of four Republicans who successfully flipped a Democratic seat in the Senate this year, alongside Senators-elect Jim Justice (R-W.V.), Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.).

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/pennsylvania-senate-race-heads-recount-despite-clear-lead-mccormick