Viemed results, outlook

 Viemed Healthcare, Inc. (the “Company” or “Viemed”) (NASDAQ:VMD), a national leader in respiratory care and technology-enabled home medical equipment services, announced today that it has reported its financial results for the three months and year ended December 31, 2024, and issued its guidance for the full year ending December 31, 2025.

Fourth Quarter and Full Year Operational Highlights (all dollar amounts are USD):

• Net revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 reached a new Company record of $60.7 million representing an increase of $10.0 million, or 20%, over net revenues reported for the comparable quarter ended December 31, 2023. Total net revenues for the year ended December 31, 2024 were a record-breaking $224.3 million, an increase of $41.2 million, or 23%, over the year ended December 31, 2023.
  
  
• Net income attributable to Viemed for the quarter ended December 31, 2024 totaled $4.3 million, or $0.10 per diluted share, an increase of 24% over net income attributable to Viemed reported for the comparable quarter ended December 31, 2023. Net income attributable to Viemed for the year ended December 31, 2024 totaled $11.3 million, or $0.28 per diluted share, an increase of 10% over the year ended December 31, 2023, marking the Company's eighth consecutive year of positive net income.
  
  
• The Company increased its ventilator patient count to 11,795 as of December 31, 2024, an increase of 14% over December 31, 2023, and a 4% sequential increase from September 30, 2024.
  
  
• The Company increased its PAP therapy patient count to 21,338 as of December 31, 2024, an increase of 43% over December 31, 2023, and a 10% sequential increase from September 30, 2024. The Company also increased its sleep resupply patient count to 24,478 as of December 31, 2024, an increase of 29% over December 31, 2023, and an 11% sequential increase from September 30, 2024.
  
  
• Adjusted EBITDA for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2024 totaled $14.2 million and a record $51.1 million, respectively. A reconciliation of reported non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures can be found in the tables accompanying this press release.
  
  
• The Company continues to generate substantial excess free cash flow while achieving robust organic growth and replacing a significant portion of its ventilator fleet during 2025. Net cash provided by operating activities for the year ended December 31, 2024 totaled $39.1 million compared with $45.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. Free Cash Flow for the year ended December 31, 2024 totaled $11.6 million compared with $21.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. A reconciliation of reported non-GAAP financial measures to their most directly comparable U.S. GAAP financial measures can be found in the tables accompanying this press release.
  
  
• As of December 31, 2024, the Company maintains a strong cash balance of $17.5 million, and an overall working capital balance of $15.6 million. Long-term debt as of December 31, 2024 amounted to $3.6 million and the Company has $55 million available under existing credit facilities.
  
  

Full Year 2025 Guidance (all dollar amounts are USD):

• Net revenue for the year ending December 31, 2025 is expected to be in the range of $254 million to $265 million.
  
  
• Adjusted EBITDA for the year ending December 31, 2025 is expected to be in the range of $54 million to $58 million. See “Forward-Looking Statements” below for further information on this non-GAAP financial guidance.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/03/10/3040203/0/en/Viemed-Healthcare-Announces-Record-2024-Financial-Results.html

2seventy bio Enters into Definitive Agreement to be Acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb

 

$5.00 per share, all-cash transaction

Expected to close in the second quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions

2seventy bio, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSVT), today announced a definitive merger agreement under which Bristol Myers Squibb (NYSE: BMY) (“BMS”) will acquire all of the outstanding shares of 2seventy bio at a price of $5.00 per share in an all-cash transaction for a total equity value of approximately $286 million, or $102 million net of estimated cash. The deal represents an 88% premium to the closing price of $2.66 on March 7, 2025.

“A year ago, 2seventy decided to exclusively focus on unlocking the value of Abecma, with the goal of delivering more time for people living with multiple myeloma and maximizing value for all stakeholders,” said Chip Baird, chief executive officer, 2seventy bio. “The strategic rationale for this acquisition is clear and today’s announcement represents the culmination of the journey for 2seventy bio. We believe that Abecma will continue to benefit from BMS’ experience and resources to ensure this important therapy is delivered to patients who need it. I would like to express my deep gratitude for current and past 2seventy team members and more broadly the dedicated community of patients, scientists, providers and partners that helped take cell and gene therapy from a complicated idea to reality for patients.”

Transaction Details and Path to Completion
Under the terms of the agreement, BMS will promptly commence a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of 2seventy bio at a price of $5.00 per share in an all-cash transaction. 2seventy bio’s Board of Directors unanimously recommends that 2seventy bio stockholders tender their shares in the tender offer.

The closing of the transaction is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2025 and is subject to customary closing conditions, including the tender of a majority of the outstanding shares of 2seventy bio’s common stock and the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976. Following the successful closing of the tender offer, BMS will acquire all remaining shares of 2seventy bio common stock that are not tendered in the tender offer through a second-step merger at the same price in the tender offer of $5.00 per share.

Following the completion of this transaction, 2seventy bio’s common stock will no longer be listed for trading on Nasdaq.

In connection with the execution of the merger agreement, certain stockholders of 2seventy bio owning approximately 5.3% of the outstanding shares of 2seventy bio’s common stock have entered into tender and support agreements pursuant to which they have agreed to tender all of their owned shares in the offer.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20250310482749/en/2seventy-bio-Enters-into-Definitive-Agreement-to-be-Acquired-by-Bristol-Myers-Squibb

Ukraine Is Now The World's Biggest Arms Importer

 Ukraine was the world’s biggest importer of arms between 2020 and 2024, with a global share of 8.8 percent, based on the size and value of the transfer rather than the purchasing price. 

This is according to new data from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), released Monday. 

As Statista's Anna Fleck shows in the chart below, it was followed by India (8.3 percent), Qatar (6.8 percent), Saudi Arabia (68 percent), Pakistan (4.6 percent) and Japan (3.9 percent). These five countries accounted for 35 percent of all arms imports over the latest five year average.

 

Ukraine’s arms imports increased nearly 100 times between 2015-19 and 2020-2024, driven by the ongoing war following Russia’s invasion in February 2022. The U.S. was Ukraine’s main supplier, accounting for 45 percent of its imports, followed by Germany (12 percent) and Poland (11 percent). Ukraine has received transfers of major arms from at least 35 states since 2022. Russia, on the other hand, relies largely on its own industry for major arms, although in 2020-24 it received missiles with a range of 100 km and one-way attack drones from Iran as well as artillery and missiles from North Korea, according to the report.

Regionally, Africa (-44 percent), Asia and Oceania (-21 percent) and the Middle East (-20 percent) all saw a decrease in imports of major arms from 2015-2019 to 2020-2024. Europe and the Americas had increases, at +155 percent and +13 percent, respectively. The decline in Asia and Oceania was mainly due to a decrease in Chinese arms imports (-64 percent). This meant China did not place in the top 10 global arms importers for the first time since 1990-94. According to the report, this shift speaks to how the country has increased domestic design and production capabilities, meaning it is less dependent on weapons imports. Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea have continued to expand their military capabilities amid ongoing tensions with China and North Korea.

Even though Europe has seen the biggest proportional increase, Asia and Oceania continued to account for the highest share of arms imports of any world region in 2020-24 (33 percent). The region is home to four of the world’s top ten largest arms importers in the 2020-2024 period: India, Pakistan, Japan and Australia. It was followed by Europe (28 percent), the Middle East (27 percent), the Americas (6.2 percent) and Africa (4.5 percent).

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-now-worlds-biggest-arms-importer

British Blasphemy? UK Govt Moves Toward New Definition Of "Islamophobia" For Speech Regulation

 by Jonathan Turley,

Recently, after the speech of Vice President J.D. Vance in Munich, various European leaders went public to express their shock and disbelief that they would be accused of rolling back on free speech. For many of us, it was a laughable display of denial, particularly from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 

In a country that has eviscerated free speech, Starmer told Bret Baier that the UK “guards” free speech and “we don’t believe in censoring speech.” 

Now, the government is continuing this month with its effort to regulate and criminalize speech.

The effort to crack down on “Islamophobia” could create a type of blasphemy standard if it encompasses criticism of the faith or its practices.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has announced that the government will be further cracking down on hate speech with a new working group tasked with defining ‘Islamophobia’. 

The free speech community is raising the alarm that the effort is likely to further broaden the government controls over speech.

It was announced last week that Rayner’s working group would be chaired by former Conservative attorney general Dominic Grieve KC, who has himself admitted that defining Islamophobia while safeguarding free speech is ‘extremely difficult.’ 

Notably, Grieve wrote the foreword to the 2018 All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) report on Islamophobia, which advanced a definition that many critics argue is far too broad.

The APPG included criticism of Islamic beliefs and practices as examples of Islamophobia. 

It has been condemned for treating criticism of the faith as a type of hate speech.

For years, I have been writing about the decline of free speech in the United Kingdom and the steady stream of arrests, including in my book, The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.

A man was convicted for sending a tweet while drunk referring to dead soldiers. Another was arrested for an anti-police t-shirt. Another was arrested for calling the Irish boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend a “leprechaun.” Yet another was arrested for singing “Kung Fu Fighting.” A teenager was arrested for protesting outside of a Scientology center with a sign calling the religion a “cult.”Last year, Nicholas Brock, 52, was convicted of a thought crime in Maidenhead, Berkshire. The neo-Nazi was given a four-year sentence for what the court called his “toxic ideology” based on the contents of the home he shared with his mother in Maidenhead, Berkshire. Judge Peter Lodder QC dismissed free speech or free thought concerns with a truly Orwellian statement: “I do not sentence you for your political views, but the extremity of those views informs the assessment of dangerousness.”

Lodder lambasted Brock for holding Nazi and other hateful values:

“[i]t is clear that you are a right-wing extremist, your enthusiasm for this repulsive and toxic ideology is demonstrated by the graphic and racist iconography which you have studied and appeared to share with others…”

The fear is that an expanded hate speech law that includes criticism of Islamophobia will operate like a British blasphemy law. 

In 2008, the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel were abolished in England. 

This new effort could constructively restore such prosecutions as they relate to Islam.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/british-blasphemy-uk-govt-moves-toward-new-definition-islamophobia-speech-regulation

Syria Signs Deal To Merge Kurdish-led SDF Into State Institutions

 Syria under the Jolani regime, or interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, has inked a landmark deal with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to integrate the armed group by back the US with state institutions.

A televised Monday signing ceremony was held with al-Sharaa and the head of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi. The agreement hails the unity of Syria and declares that "all civil and military institutions in northeastern Syria" will be merged "into the administration of the Syrian state, including border crossings, the airport, and oil and gas fields."

Al Jazeera emphasizes in the wake of the historic deal that "The agreement, if implemented, would bring that territory under the full control of the Syrian central government."

Via SANA/Reuters

This of course immediately raises the question of the ongoing US occupation, which has been on for years in Syria's northeast oil and gas rich territory. The Pentagon has been occupying these energy resources, which is enough to meet Syria's domestic needs.

The long-running theft of Syria's oil - much of which has reportedly been ferried across the border into Iraq - was by design a method to strangle the prior Assad government and deprive the state of badly needed resources.

Will the Syrian Kurds now simply hand these oil and gas complexes over to Jolani and his forces?

If the Pentagon occupation persists, this could result in fresh clashes. US special forces have been supporting the Syrian SDF - and in fact the Kurdish-led group is largely a creation of Washington. 

Turkey has been seen as helping Jolani, and has long chafed at the US presence, given it propped up the Kurds.

The timing of this deal is awkward and ironic, given at this very moment there are mass killings of Alawites and Christians along the Syrian coast near Latakia.

Al Jazeera's Resul Serdar points out: "For Damascus, once you have given special status to a certain ethnicity, or a certain sect, then the question is [for] other sects like Alawites or Druze, are they also going to have special status?… That is not clear for now."

The outline and main points of the new Damascus-SDF agreement are said to be vague, and underscores full Kurdish citizenship in the Syrian state and merging of institutions; however, it's unclear the degree to which the Kurds will be required to lay down their arms. For the time being, they are unlikely to voluntarily do so.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/syria-signs-deal-merge-kurdish-led-sdf-state-institutions

CervoMed Positive Results in Phase 2b in Dementia with Lewy Bodies

 A new batch of neflamapimod capsules led to increased plasma drug concentrations and demonstrated improvement (p<0.001 vs. old capsules; p=0.003 vs. placebo) on the primary outcome measure, change from baseline in Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB)

Improvement (p=0.035 against either old capsules or placebo) also demonstrated on the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study - Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGIC)

Compared to either old capsules or placebo, a lower incidence of falls was seen in participants receiving study drug from the new batch of capsules during the extension phase

Company to host investor webcast at 5:00 PM ET Monday to discuss results

Conference Call / Webcast Details

CervoMed will host a conference call and webcast to review and discuss the 16-week results from the Extension phase of the Phase 2b RewinD-LB study today, Monday, March 10, 2025, at 5:00 PM ET. Participants should dial 1-877-425-9470 (domestic) or 1-201-389-0878 (international) with the code 13752218.

To access the Call me™ feature, which avoids having to wait for an operator, click here.

The live webcast and replay will be available under “Events & Presentations” in the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website, https://www.cervomed.com

The results from the extension phase of the RewinD-LB study have been accepted as an oral presentation at the International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases and Related Neurologic Disorders in Vienna, April 1-5, 2025.

https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/03/10/3040150/0/en/CervoMed-Announces-Positive-Results-from-the-Extension-Phase-of-its-Phase-2b-Clinical-Study-of-Neflamapimod-in-Patients-with-Dementia-with-Lewy-Bodies.html

Solar accounted for 84% of new US power added in 2024, report says

 Solar energy accounted for 84% of new electricity generation capacity added to the U.S. power grid last year, but the industry faces a challenging future with the new U.S. administration's energy policies, a report published on Tuesday said.

The country installed 50 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity in 2024, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie groups said in the report, adding that 2024 was largest single year of growth by any energy technology in over two decades.

The solar industry was a major beneficiary of subsidies contained in former President Joe Biden's landmark 2022 climate change law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).

The Trump administration has said it was reviewing federal funding plans, and any removal of tax credits issued under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act would impact clean energy deployment.

The clean-energy sector has been on high alert since the election of Donald Trump, whose first executive orders prioritized unleashing U.S. fossil-fuel production, paused federal wind projects and froze funding for clean-energy projects from two Biden-era laws.

Total U.S. solar capacity is expected to reach 739 GW by 2035, the report said, warning that changes to federal tax credits, supply chain availability, and permitting policy will cause slowdown in solar deployment.

The low case forecast showed a 130 GW decline in solar deployment over the next decade compared to the base case, representing nearly $250 billion of lost investment, according to the report.

"Last year’s record-level of installations was aided by several solar policies and credits within the Inflation Reduction Act that helped drive interest in the solar market," said Sylvia Levya Martinez, Principal Analyst, North America Utility-Scale Solar for Wood Mackenzie.

"We still have many challenges ahead, including unprecedented load growth on the power grid. If many of these policies were eliminated or significantly altered, it would be very detrimental to the industry's continued growth."

https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2025-03-11/solar-accounted-for-84-of-new-us-power-added-in-2024-report-says