Syrian Shi'ites and other minorities flee to Lebanon, fearing Islamist rule

Tens of thousands of Syrians, mostly Shi'ite Muslims, have fled to Lebanon since Sunni Muslim Islamists toppled Bashar al-Assad, fearing persecution despite assurances from the new rulers in Damascus that they will be safe, a Lebanese official said.

At the border with Lebanon, where thousands of people were trying to leave Syria on Thursday, a dozen Shi'ite Muslims interviewed by Reuters described threats made against them, sometimes in person but mostly on social media.

Their accounts reflect fears of persecution despite promises of protection by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) - the Sunni Islamist group which has emerged as the dominant force in the new Syria but is far from being the only armed faction on the ground.

Shi'ite communities have often been on the frontline of Syria's 13-year civil war, which took on sectarian dimensions as Assad, from the minority Alawite faith, mobilised regional Shi'ite allies, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, to help fight Sunni rebels.

The senior Lebanese security official said more than 100,000 people, largely members of minority faiths, had crossed into Lebanon since Sunday, but could not give an exact number because most of them had used illegal crossings along the porous border.

At the main border crossing between Syria and Lebanon, Samira Baba said she had been waiting for three days to enter Lebanon with her children.

"We don't know who sent these threats, on WhatsApp and Facebook," she said. "The rebels in charge haven't openly threatened us, so it could be other factions, or individuals. We just don't know. But we know it's time to leave," she said.

The new Syria holds uncertainty for many, especially minorities. Shi'ites are thought to number around a tenth of the population, which stood at 23 million before the war began.

While HTS, which has cut its ties with the global jihadist network al Qaeda, is the most powerful of the constellation of factions that fought Assad, there are numerous other armed groups, many of which are Islamist.

Ayham Hamada, a 39-year-old Shi'ite who was serving in the army when Assad fell, said the regime's collapse was so sudden that it left him and his brother, also a soldier, scrambling to decide whether to stay or go.

They fled to Damascus where they received threats, he said, without elaborating. "We are afraid of sectarian killings... this will be liquidation."

Despite assurances voiced by HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, Hamada said minorities have been left without protection after Assad's sudden flight. "Bashar took his money and fled and didn't pay attention to us," he said.

Many of the Shi'ites at the border were from Sayyeda Zeinab, a Damascus district home to a Shi'ite shrine where fighters from Hezbollah and other Shi'ite militias were based. Supported by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, the Shi'ite militias also came from Iraq and Afghanistan, and recruited some Syrian Shi'ites.

Elham, a 30-year-old nurse, said she had been waiting at the crossing for days without food or water with her 10-day-old niece and two-year-old son.

A Shi'ite from Damascus, she said she fled to rural areas when the regime fell. When she returned, she found her house looted and torched. She and others said that armed, masked men raided their homes and ordered them at gunpoint to leave, or be killed.

"They took our car because they said it's theirs. You daren't say a word. We left everything and fled."

Reuters could not immediately reach HTS officials for comment on threats received by minorities.

'WE ARE ALL ONE PEOPLE'

In parts of Syria's north, however, some residents who fled when HTS went on the offensive in late November said they now felt confident to return.

"My wife is Sunni. We are all one people and one nation," Hussein Al-Saman, 48, a Shi'ite father of three told Reuters, next to the main mosque in the Shi'ite town of Nubl, where Hezbollah once stationed fighters.

He praised HTS leader Sharaa for his efforts to protect the community, saying he "enabled us to come to our houses".

"We were a minority and didn't have a choice but to stand with (Assad). But now that the war is over we are free... I hope for my children to just live comfortably under the new government."

Bassam Abdulwahab, an official overseeing the returns, said essential services had been restored. "Security was provided to protect the minorities," he said, adding that this "is the approach of the commanding leadership".

"We carry the responsibility of protecting the minorities in Syria. What happens to us happens to them," he said.

At the entrance to Nubl, a statue of Assad lay toppled. Further into the town, residents cleaned stores and repaired damaged buildings, while officials in military fatigues coordinated the return of those who had fled.

"The (Assad) regime forced the minorities here to live in a situation where they had to be enemies of their neighbours," said Muhyie Al-Dien, who works in mining. "The regime played its game so it could divide us and our Sunni brothers."

While some in Nubl spoke hopefully of the future, one 41-year-old man, who gave his name as Hami and declined to speak on camera, was more cautious. "We are Shi'ite and the new leadership is Sunni. We don't know what will happen," he said.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/syrian-shiites-other-minorities-flee-125638513.html

Innoviva, Basilea to commercialize antibiotic Zevtera® (ceftobiprole) in US

 Basilea Pharmaceutica Ltd, Allschwil (SIX: BSLN), a commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company committed to meeting the needs of patients with severe bacterial and fungal infections, announced today that it has entered into an exclusive distribution and license agreement with Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Innoviva Inc. (NASDAQ: INVA), for the commercialization of Basilea’s hospital anti-MRSA antibiotic Zevtera® (ceftobiprole) in the United States (US). Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics is a US-based biopharmaceutical company with an established hospital sales force and a core competence in commercializing anti-infective medicines.

David Veitch, Chief Executive Officer of Basilea, stated: “We are very pleased with our collaboration with Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics for the commercialization of Zevtera in the US. The company is a highly committed, focused and capable partner that shares our vision and ambitions for Zevtera in the US. They also have recent experience of launching a hospital antibiotic in the US. We are looking forward to working with Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics towards a successful launch and bringing Zevtera to patients in need in the US.”

“With this agreement, Zevtera will become an important asset in our company’s portfolio, allowing us to advance our strategy of providing differentiated therapies in infectious disease and critical care,” said Pavel Raifeld, Chief Executive Officer, Innoviva, Inc. “There is a significant medical need for treatments targeting complicated Staphylococcus aureus infections, particularly Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. We are therefore excited to bring this important new medicine to patients who are suffering from these severe infections.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Basilea will receive a USD 4 million upfront payment and tiered royalties on net sales in the high-teens to mid-twenties percentage range. Basilea will be eligible to receive sales milestones of up to USD 223 million. In addition, Innoviva Specialty Therapeutics will purchase its demand of Zevtera drug product from Basilea.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2024/12/16/2997220/0/en/Basilea-announces-agreement-with-Innoviva-Specialty-Therapeutics-for-the-commercialization-of-antibiotic-Zevtera-ceftobiprole-in-the-United-States.html

Molecular Glue Degraders at Inflection Point as Pharma Dives In

 

Novartis, Biogen, Takeda and Novo Nordisk are all betting on advances in the molecular glue degraders space, collectively investing billions in hopes of treating cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, cardiometabolic disease and more.

When the mechanism of action behind a decades-old drug was serendipitously discovered, a new field of drug discovery was ripped open and molecular glue degraders were born. Now, nearly 15 years later, Big Pharma is taking notice. In 2024, Biogen, Novartis, Takeda and Novo Nordisk each struck deals to add molecular glue degraders to their pipelines—collaborations that could collectively be worth over $6 billion.

“This year in particular seems to be a big year for deals,” Ryan Schoenfeld, CEO of The Mark Foundation for Cancer Research, told BioSpace. “This is a kind of next stage maturity in this space.”

The investments have not only been in dollars and cents but on the research front as well, Schoenfeld said. “The whole field of chemical biology has spent a lot of effort in this area the last 10 years, so it’s nice that this inflection point seems to be here.”

A big part of the appeal for molecular glue degraders lays in their potential to go where no small molecule has gone before.

Many small molecule drugs work by binding to specific target proteins to inhibit function. However, over 90% of disease-causing proteins lack binding pockets where a small molecule can grab hold. A molecular glue degrader (MGD) is a small molecule that enhances the interaction between a disease-causing protein and a ligase that will help initiate its destruction—the ultimate goal of all protein degrader drugs, which have earned a reputation for being able to reach targets once thought “undruggable.”

“For years companies have had to work according to the conventional rules governing druggability with a limited druggable genome,” Phil Chamberlain, CEO of Neomorph, told BioSpace. “Glues give companies the opportunity to go after the most impactful targets with a completely different set of rules. It’s an incredible opportunity.”

The therapeutic potential for MGDs is far reaching, with initial indications ranging from oncology to neurodegeneration to autoimmune and cardiometabolic diseases. Vienna-based Proxygen’s lead program is in oncology, but CEO Bernd Boidol told BioSpace that MGDs are disease agnostic. “Any disease driven by a misfunctioning protein, glue degraders can be an answer to that,” he said.

A Serendipitous Discovery

The majority of the players in the MGD space are focused on one of two E3 ubuiquitin ligases—cereblon and the von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein. The discovery of cereblon was the “launch pad” for glue research efforts, Georg Winter, a principal investigator at the Research Center for Molecular Medicine and Proxygen co-founder, told BioSpace.

It all started with an infamous drug discovered in the 1950s. Thalidomide was commonly used, especially in Europe, to treat morning sickness until it was discovered to be the cause of severe limb abnormalities in babies when given to pregnant women. The drug was then withdrawn from the market, until it was later approved for a complication of leprosy in 1998 and then for myeloma in 2006.

Still, its mechanism of action remained a bit of a mystery. Then in 2010, a group of Japanese researchers discovered the cellular target to be cereblon. Further research revealed the drug was not inhibiting cereblon but reprogramming the ligase to act as a molecular glue degrader. Their discoveries opened the door to the potential targets whose degradation can be initiated by cereblon, according to Winter.

Catching the Craze

Today, several pharmaceutical companies are cashing in on the headway made by researchers and biotech companies in the MGD space, striking deals to add promising molecules to their pipelines through collaborations and acquisitions.

In 2019, BMS bought thalidomide’s U.S. manufacturer Celgene for $74 billion, bringing in a handful of MGDs. Three molecules are in multiple Phase III trials for lupus and various blood cancers.

This year has seen a number of deals in the space. In November, Novartis handed over $150 million upfront to Boston–based Monte Rosa Therapeutics, with another $2.1 billion on the line in potential milestones. The deal has Novartis queuing to take the reins on development of Monte Rosa’s MGDs targeting the VAV1 protein for immune-mediated diseases.

VAV1 is a key signaling protein involved in T and B cell cascades. According to Monte Rosa, destroying it could have potential for multiple systemic and neurological autoimmune indications such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease and dermatological disorders.

Meanwhile, Neomorph garnered two big name collaborations with Biogen and Novo Nordisk. While the out-of-pocket payments on both deals remain under wraps, they include potential payouts of $1.45 billion and $1.46 billion, respectively. Each of the larger companies is targeting indications near and dear to their core pipelines. Biogen’s partnership will focus on developing an MGD for Alzheimer’s, rare and immunological diseases, while Novo’s will prioritize cardiometabolic and rare diseases. Neomorph also has its own pipeline of glue degraders targeting solid tumors. Elsewhere, Takeda signed an up to $1.2 billion deal in May with China-based Degron Therapeutics to develop MGDs for various oncology, neuroscience and inflammatory disease targets.

This all follows the considerable investment in 2023, when Roche’s Genentech tied up with Orionis Biosciences to target cancer and neurodegeneration in a deal that could exceed $2 billion and Proxygen and Merck drew up a deal worth up to $2.55 billion.

The Molecular Glue Degrader Advantage

Molecular glue degraders aren’t the only protein degradation option in the works. Another, called PROTACs (proteolysis-targeting chimeras), are bifunctional molecules with two distinct binding sites—one for a target protein and one for an E3 ubiquitin ligase—that also act as a molecular glue to target a protein for destruction.

One advantage of MGDs over other varieties of protein degraders is their small size. They are typically around the size of your average small molecule and half the size of PROTACs, Winter explained. He noted that pharma has a lot of interest in using MGDs in neurological diseases, where size particularly matters.

Schoenfeld noted that one company, Arvinas, has optimized its PROTAC to be able to cross the BBB. “But I think you’re always going to be better off starting with a smaller molecule,” he said.

Perhaps the tallest challenge in the space has been finding a rational way to design MGDs, Schoenfeld said, adding that he believes the field has finally cracked the code for rational design. Based on the big dollar deals, “There’s presumably some breakthroughs.”

Neomorph’s ambition is to have broader activity across the proteome, Chamberlain said. Research he conducted with collaborators while working at Celgene resulted in the discovery of a structural component of cereblon’s mechanism of action that opened up the potential field even further.

Neomorph has now identified additional structures within proteins that can be targeted, as well as novel ligases beyond cereblon and VHL, Chamberlain said, offering access to thousands of proteins that may be tractable for the MGD approach.

“It’s exciting to see this happen for this field,” Schoenfeld said. “There’s been so much hope and so much investment. It’s been a long time coming to reach this point, and I don’t see any signs that [interest] is slowing.”

https://www.biospace.com/drug-development/molecular-glue-degraders-at-inflection-point-as-pharma-dives-in

Amyloid Hypothesis in Doubt as Newly Approved Drugs Hit Hurdles

 

Even as Biogen and Eisai’s Leqembi and Eli Lilly’s Kisunla slowly roll out onto the market, experts question the efficacy of these anti-amyloid antibodies and the amyloid hypothesis overall.

Despite the recent FDA approval of anti-amyloid antibodies for Alzheimer’s disease and new investment in the space, skepticism remains about the value of these first disease-modifying drugs and the validity of the amyloid hypothesis.

“These approaches have not worked,” George Perry, a neuroscientist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, told BioSpace, referring to Biogen and Eisai’s Aduhelm and Leqembi and Eli Lilly’s Kisunla. “The patients are not getting better.”

Christian Hölscher, co-founder and chief scientific officer at neuroscience-focused Kariya Pharmaceuticals, agreed, raising concerns in a November interview about the drugs’ safety and efficacy profiles. “The antibodies are too toxic, and the effect in patients is so small that it is unlikely that patients even notice a difference,” he told BioSpace.

Hölscher is not alone. In a recent Reuters survey, interviews with 20 neurologists and geriatricians revealed that many doctors still doubted the drug’s efficacy and safety, while others had “therapeutic nihilism,” or a belief that it is futile to treat Alzheimer’s disease.

One source of skepticism surrounding anti-amyloid antibodies is their scientific foundation. The amyloid hypothesis holds that the accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) is responsible for Alzheimer’s disease. Proponents of this theory believe that when amyloid beta clumps together to form deposits in the brain, it triggers neurodegenerative processes that lead to the loss of memory and cognitive abilities that characterize the disorder.

Aβ was discovered to be a major component of senile plaques in 1984, Howard Fillit, co-founder and chief science officer at the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, told BioSpace. “That was really what started the drug discovery and development process for trying to get rid of the plaques by removing the beta-amyloid from the plaques or by preventing the beta-amyloid accumulating in the plaques.” The FDA approved the first anti-amyloid antibody for Alzheimer’s, Aduhelm, in June 2021.

The following summer, allegations broke calling into question seminal research behind the amyloid hypothesis. While looking into claims of misconduct by Alzheimer’s drug developer Cassava Sciences, Vanderbilt neuroscientist and physician Matthew Schrag discovered that the pioneering research possibly contained tampered images of Western blots, a laboratory technique used to visualize proteins. These data, published in a 2006 paper, formed the backbone of the argument that Aβ*56—an oligomer of Aβ proteins—is responsible for the memory loss seen in Alzheimer’s.

But the hypothesis gained new life over the next two years, as the FDA approved two more anti-amyloid antibodies—Leqembi in January 2023 and Kisunla in July 2024. While Aduhelm was withdrawn from the market in January after it failed to gain traction, Leqembi and Kisunla are now slowly rolling out, with sales of Leqembi lower than expected but steadily climbing throughout 2024.

Companies are also continuing to invest in this approach. In October, AbbVie paid $1.4 billion in cash to acquire Aliada Therapeutics and its anti-amyloid antibody ALIA-1758. In an investor note at the time, Stifel analysts said the deal “seemingly offers a vote of confidence in amyloid, just as sentiment in the space is reaching an all-time low.”

The Role of Amyloid Beta in Alzheimer’s

While the exact role of Aβ in Alzheimer’s is up for debate, anti-amyloid antibodies without a doubt have some effect on the disease process. In the Phase III Clarity-AD study, Leqembi reduced clinical decline by 27% compared to placebo based on the Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) assessment in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s, while Kisunla reduced decline by 29% on the CDR-SB.

“Clearly, it is a validated mechanism of action,” Graig Suvannevejh, senior biopharmaceuticals and biotechnology equity research analyst at Mizuho Americas, told BioSpace. “We have three approved anti-beta amyloid drugs. We have data that supports a view that if you’re able to lower beta-amyloid, that can lead to measurable improvement in patients.”

Fillit concurred, saying, “We have proof of concept that getting rid of the plaques is actually efficacious and has a reasonable benefit-to-risk ratio.”

But Perry contends that this efficacy is limited. “The effect is less than Aricept [an earlier Alzheimer’s drug], and yet they’re moving forward. If the theory was correct, if you remove the amyloid, some patients should get better.”

Perry argued that while amyloid is “important” to the Alzheimer’s disease process, it is not the driver. Rather, he said, amyloid accumulation is a response to neural damage, adding that antioxidant qualities found in amyloid-beta support this conclusion.

Suvannevejh agreed that amyloid-beta’s role in Alzheimer’s is “an outstanding question.”

“We don’t know what the trigger is for Alzheimer’s disease. We just know that a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease is presence of beta-amyloid plaques in your brain.”

Improving on Leqembi and Kisunla

Ultimately, Suvannevejh said anti-amyloid antibodies are a “viable approach” to Alzheimer’s, but that Leqembi, Kisunla and Aduhelm are “probably not” the most optimal treatments. The challenge, he said, is getting them past the blood-brain barrier (BBB). “The body has been built wonderfully to protect the brain from outside insult, and a beta amyloid-directed antibody is viewed as that insult.”

With the currently approved anti-amyloid antibodies, “the amount of drug that gets into your brain is about 1%,” Suvannevejh said. “[That’s] not a very efficient way of treating Alzheimer’s disease.” Several companies—including Denali Therapeutics, Voyager Therapeutics and Aliada—are developing technologies to improve on that number.

Aliada’s Modular Delivery (MODEL) platform is “engineered for both efficient BBB (blood-brain barrier) transport and downstream therapeutic functionality,” according to the company’s website. Speculating on AbbVie’s interest in the company, Suvannevejh said, “It could easily be that Aliada has got the secret sauce” to solve the BBB challenge in Alzheimer’s.

Fillit agreed that efficiently crossing the BBB is key to treating Alzheimer’s and pointed to Roche’s anti-amyloid antibody trontinemab as an example of a therapy attempting to do that. Developed using the company’s proprietary Brainshuttle platform, trontinemab can cross the BBB and achieve higher levels of brain exposure and broader distribution across the central nervous system, according to Roche.

Safety is another challenge for antibodies targeting Aβ, in particular, amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA), which are characterized by brain swelling and can lead to death. Anti-amyloid antibodies are “putting patients at risk of death, or serious side effects,” Perry said.

However, Fillit pointed to the FDA advisory committee for Kisunla, which in June “voted 11-0 that the monoclonal antibody had a favorable benefit to risk ratio.”

‘Stuck in the Amyloid Trap’

Experts largely agree that anti-amyloid antibodies will be a part of the treatment landscape emerging for Alzheimer’s disease, but that they will only be a part of the arsenal.

“It’s pretty clear, I think, at this point, that Alzheimer’s will have to be treated with multiple drugs attacking multiple mechanisms that are related to the biology of aging,” Fillit said.

Some companies are exploring the potential of GLP-1s to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Kariya is developing KP405, a first-in-class, dual GLP-1/GIP receptor agonist, initially for Parkinson’s disease with plans for a study in Alzheimer’s, and several others are targeting tau and neuroinflammation.

Still, anti-amyloid remains the main focus, according to Hölscher. “The pharmaceutical industry is still stuck in the amyloid trap,” he said. Hölscher revealed that Kariya had spoken with AbbVie “and they were interested in what we’re doing.” Then AbbVie bought Aliada Therapeutics.

After 40 years, it would be difficult to give up on a theory that has produced the first three disease-modifying drugs for Alzheimer’s. But Hölscher argued it’s time for a new approach. “What is wrong with these people? Don’t they understand what failure is? [Don’t they] know when to stop?”

https://www.biospace.com/drug-development/amyloid-hypothesis-in-doubt-as-newly-approved-drugs-hit-hurdles

One in Four Indonesia Firms Involved in Tax Evasion, World Bank Says

 

At least one in four firms in Indonesia evaded tax, which is more prevalent among exporters, according to a World Bank survey.

The survey, highlighted in the bank’s December edition of Indonesia Economic Prospects report, showed that tax evasions in Southeast Asia’s largest economy were likely influenced by the companies’ perception of a common practice in the system and administration.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-16/one-in-four-indonesia-firms-involved-in-tax-evasion-world-bank

Starbucks Hires First China Growth Officer to Boost Sales

 

• Coffee giant struggling in mainland as Luckin, others rise
• Tony Yang looks to franchise partnerships as part of new push

Starbucks Corp. hired its first-ever chief growth officer in China, tasked with luring back young coffee drinkers as the US chain struggles with cheaper local rivals in its biggest international market.

The executive, Tony Yang, has been on board since November and will pursue a strategy of brokering tie-ins with entertainment franchises and pop culture icons to market itself to consumers, Starbucks China told Bloomberg on Monday.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-16/starbucks-hires-first-china-growth-officer-to-boost-sales

'Starbucks is the new Venmo for Gen Alpha'

 We know teens love their Strawberry Acai Refreshers, their Caramel Frappuccinos, and their cake pops from Starbucks. But the coffee chain is so deeply integrated into the lives of teens that they don’t just use it to fuel their mornings and as a meetup spot: They also use it as currency.

That’s one of the findings of a new report from Cafeteria, an app that pays teens for their brand insights. Teens don’t just pay each other back with cash, Cash App, or Venmo. Instead of actually handing over dollars, they’re swapping lattes, cold brews, and chais from Starbucks when they owe each other money, with 30.7% of teens saying they offer to pay “next time.” The coffee giant was the only brand that teens mentioned using to settle up.

Starbucks is the number-one coffee spot for teens and the number-two restaurant (behind Chick-fil-A). Given how frequently teens are hitting up the coffee chain, it makes a lot of sense that they would rely on it to even out finances. Of course, teens still pay each other back in other ways: 23.9% use Venmo to send a friend money they borrowed and some still rely on the old-fashioned method, with 22.8% handing over cash. But according to the Cafeteria report, Starbucks orders are “the ultimate IOU.

The brand is so popular with teens that the demographic often knows their best friend’s Starbucks order, too. In a series of questions it called the “real friend test,” Cafeteria asked teens what their best friend’s order was. A whopping 89% knew their best friend’s exact drink, down to the size, the milk, and the drizzles.

Teens have food favorites at the chain, too. According to 13.5% of the teens in the survey, Starbucks is a favorite not just for coffee or paybacks, but for a lunchtime staple: grilled cheese. The teens called the selection their favorite menu item at the chain.

“It’s literally the best thing on the menu,” one 17-year-old female said in the report. “And then I’ll get it with, like, a cake pop, obviously.”

Snagging limited-time offerings is a driving factor behind teens’ spending, which Starbucks has leaned into with holiday drinks and the new Wicked-themed drinks: Glinda’s Pink Potion and Elphaba’s Cold Brew. (Such offerings also make for solid social media posts, which are a huge incentive for the demographic.) But it’s not the only brand with rotating menus that create a sense of urgency for teens. According to the report, Crumbl, the maker of giant cookies whose flavors rotate weekly, is hot right now (even if most of the cookies are, er, cold). It was the only food brand teens mentioned when asked what their “must-try” brands were. Crumbl has seen major success online as teens try out and rank their favorite cookies. Many even try them just to hate on new flavors, in scathing reviews on sites such as Reddit.

Cafeteria’s report demonstrates teens’ obsession with ultra-popular brands, such as Starbucks and Crumbl. But it also highlights up-and-coming brands in what it calls “pre-trends.” In the retail industry, it names a few of those “soon-to-pop” brands, including Puma, Hey Dude, GymShark, and Princess Polly. When it comes to beauty, move over Sephora: Merit, Tarte, and Ouai are among the next big makeup brands to take over with teens.

The Cafeteria app asks teens to weigh in on their favorite brands and, in exchange, it pays them for their insights. It describes itself as a “direct relationship between brands and teens, driving a unique and authentic creative economy.” It says it has onboarded startups as well as top brands, all of which want to hear from teens in their own voice, in order to better their brands for a teen audience.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/starbucks-venmo-gen-alpha-230000472.html