Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq: RYTM), a global commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on transforming the lives of patients living with rare neuroendocrine diseases, today announced the Company will hold a conference call and webcast on Monday, April 7, 2025 at 8:00 a.m. ET to disclose topline results from the Pivotal Phase 3 TRANSCEND trial evaluating setmelanotide, a melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) agonist, in patients with acquired hypothalamic obesity.
Conference Call Information Rhythm Pharmaceuticals will host a live conference call and webcast at 8:00 a.m. ET on Monday, April 7, to discuss these clinical data. Participants may register for the conference call here. A webcast of the call will also be available under "Events and Presentations" in the Investor Relations section of the Rhythm Pharmaceuticals website at https://ir.rhythmtx.com/. The archived webcast will be available on Rhythm Pharmaceuticals’ website approximately two hours after the conference call and will be available for at least 30 days following the call.
QIAGEN N.V. (NYSE: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) announces preliminary Q1 2025 results that exceed the outlook for both net sales and adjusted earnings per share (EPS), and also updates its adjusted EPS outlook for full-year 2025, reflecting strong performances across many growth drivers.
Net sales grew approximately 5% (+7% at constant exchange rates, CER) to about $483 million in Q1 2025, surpassing the previously communicated outlook for about 3% CER growth (4% CER core business excluding discontinued products such as NeuMoDx and Dialunox). Adjusted diluted EPS are expected to be at least $0.55 CER compared to the previously communicated outlook for about $0.50 CER.
Sales of the QuantiFERON latent TB test grew about 15% CER as global adoption continues to shift from the skin test to this proven, modern blood-based test. The QIAstat-Dx syndromic testing system advanced above 35% CER on continued demand for respiratory panels along with growth in gastrointestinal and meningitis testing. The QIAcuity digital PCR system and QIAGEN Digital Insights bioinformatics business both delivered high-single-digit CER gains, reflecting solid adoption across research and clinical applications. Additional growth contributions also came from higher sales of PCR consumables and from OEM products. Sample technologies sales declined 1% CER, reflecting the cautious instrument spending environment among some Life Sciences customers.
Given the positive start to 2025, QIAGEN is raising its adjusted diluted EPS outlook for full-year 2025 in light of the strong sales growth in Q1 and the overall current business trends, which includes expected headwinds from the recently announced U.S. import tariffs and a better-than-expected tax environment.
Full-year 2025, adjusted diluted EPS are now expected to be about $2.35 CER, up from the prior full-year outlook for about $2.28 CER, while reaffirming the goal to improve the adjusted operating income margin to above 30% for the year.
About 45 years have passed since a U.S. state last eliminated its income tax on wages and salaries. But with recent actions in Mississippi and Kentucky, two states now are on a path to do so, if their economies keep growing.
The push to zero out the income tax is perhaps the most aggressive example of a tax-cutting trend that swept across states as they rebounded from the COVID-19 pandemic with surging revenues and historic surpluses.
But it comes during a time of greater uncertainty for states, as they wait to see whether President Donald Trump's cost cutting and tariffs lead to a reduction in federal funding for states and a downturn in the overall economy.
Some fiscal analysts also warn the repeal of income taxes could leave states reliant on other levies, such as sales taxes, that disproportionately affect the poor.
The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution grants Congress the power to levy income taxes. It was ratified by states in 1913. Since then, most states have adopted their own income taxes.
Eight states currently charge no personal income tax: Alaska, Florida, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas and Wyoming. A ninth state, Washington, charges no personal income tax on wages and salaries but does tax certain capital gains income over $270,000.
When Alaska repealed its personal income tax in 1980, it did so because state coffers were overflowing with billions of dollars in oil money.
Though income tax eliminations have been proposed elsewhere, they have not been successful.
“It’s a lot easier to go without an individual income tax if you’ve never levied one," said Katherine Loughead, a senior analyst and research manager at the nonprofit Tax Foundation. "But once you become dependent on that revenue, it is a lot more difficult to phase out or eliminate that tax.”
Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves recently signed a law gradually reducing the state's income tax rate from 4% to 3% by 2030 and setting state revenue growth benchmarks that could trigger additional incremental cuts until the tax is eliminated. The law also reduces the sales tax on groceries and raises the gasoline tax.
If cash reserves are fully funded and revenue triggers are met each year, Mississippi's income tax could be gone by 2040.
Supporters of an income tax repeal hope it will attract both businesses and residents, elevating the state’s economy to the likes of Florida, Tennessee and Texas. Their theory is that when people pay less in income taxes, they will have more money to spend, thus boosting sales tax collections.
The tax repeal “puts us in a rare class of elite, competitive states,” Reeves said in a statement. He added, “Mississippi has the potential to be a magnet for opportunity, for investment, for talent –- and for families looking to build a better life.”
Mississippi is among the most impoverished states and relies heavily on federal funding. Democratic lawmakers warned the state could face a financial crises if cuts in federal funding come at the same time as state income tax reductions.
The income tax provides “a huge percentage of what the state brings in to fund things like schools and health care and services that everybody relies on,” said Neva Butkus, senior analyst at the nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy.
A 2022 Kentucky law reduced the state's income tax rate and set a series of revenue-based triggers that could gradually lower the tax to zero. But unlike in Mississippi, the triggers aren't automatic. Rather, the Kentucky General Assembly must approve each additional decrease in the tax rate.
That has led to a series of tax-cutting measures, including two new laws this year. One implements the next tax rate reduction from 4% to 3.5% starting in 2026. The second makes it easier to continue cutting the tax rate in the future by allowing smaller incremental reductions if revenue growth isn't sufficient to trigger a 0.5 percentage point reduction.
Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear signed the legislation for next year's tax cut but let the other measure passed by the Republican-led legislature become law without his signature. Beshear called it a “bait-and-switch” bill, contending lawmakers had assured the guardrails for income tax reductions would remain in place while pushing for the 2026 tax cut, then later in the session altered the triggers for future years.
New Hampshire and Tennessee already did not tax income from wages and salaries, but both states had taxed certain types of income.
In 2021, Tennessee ended an income tax on interest from bonds and stock dividends that had been levied since 1929.
New Hampshire halted its tax on interest and dividends at the start of this year.
Some other states also are pushing to repeal income taxes. The Oklahoma House passed legislation in March that would gradually cut the personal income tax rate to zero if revenue growth benchmarks are met. That bill now is in the Senate.
New Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Republican, also wants to phase out the income tax. The House and Senate have advanced legislation that would take an incremental step by exempting capital gains income from taxes.
Ukraine will send a team to Washington next week to begin negotiations on a new draft of a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told The Associated Press.
“The new draft agreement from the U.S. shows that the intention to create a fund or jointly invest remains,” Svyrydenko said Saturday, during a trip to northern Ukraine.
The delegation from Kyiv will include representatives from the Ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Finance.
The long-running negotiations over a mineral deal have already strained relations between Kyiv and Washington. The two sides had been preparing in February to sign a framework agreement but the plan was derailed following a contentious meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
After some Ukrainian lawmakers leaked the new draft, critics slammed it as little more than an attempt to strip Kyiv of control over its own natural resources and infrastructure. According to the leaked document, the new draft includes not only rare-earth minerals but gas and oil.
Ukraine holds significant deposits of more than 20 minerals deemed strategically critical by the U.S., including titanium, which is used to make aircraft wings, lithium, key to several battery technologies, and uranium, used in nuclear power.
Despite the disruption following the Oval Office meeting, Ukrainian officials showed interest in signing the framework deal at any time, seeing it as an important step to win the favor of President Donald Trump and shore up U.S. backing in the war against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
After weeks of silence on the status of the deal, the U.S. sent a new draft to Kyiv, which goes further than the original framework.
It’s unclear why the U.S. chose to bypass the signing of the framework deal and instead moved forward with a more comprehensive draft agreement, which would likely require ratification by Ukraine’s parliament.
However, Ukrainian officials have been cautious about commenting on the contents of the draft, stressing that it currently reflects only one side’s position.
“What we have now is a document that reflects the position of the U.S. Treasury legal team,” said Svyrydenko. “This is not a final version, it’s not a joint position.”
She said that Ukraine’s task now is to assemble a technical team for negotiations, define its red lines and core principles, and send a delegation to Washington for technical talks as early as next week.
“It’s clear that the full parameters of this agreement can’t be discussed online,” Svyrydenko said. “We need to sit down with the teams and continue the conversation in person.”
Legal, investment, and financial advisers are being selected, she said.
“This marks a new stage in relations with the United States — one that requires expertise across multiple areas,” she said. “Ultimately, everything will be decided through the course of negotiations.”
Svyrydenko declined to elaborate publicly on Ukraine’s official evaluation of the new draft, but noted that there is now a more detailed document outlining the fund’s creation. And while the initial draft focused primarily on the intention to establish the fund, Svyrydenko said the latest version lays out how American advisers envision its structure and operation.
It remains unclear what role Ukraine would play in managing the fund under the newly proposed U.S. draft. However, analysts who reviewed the leaked document said Kyiv’s involvement would likely be minimal — a point Ukraine hopes to challenge in upcoming negotiations, using the previously agreed framework as its reference.
A previous version of the framework agreement, obtained by The Associated Press, outlined plans for a jointly owned and managed investment fund between the United States and Ukraine, intended to support the reconstruction of Ukraine’s war-torn economy.
Under the terms, Ukraine would allocate 50% of future revenues generated from key national assets — including minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, and other extractable resources — to the fund.
The framework agreement, which was never signed, stated that revenues from its natural resources would go into the fund and be used for the reconstruction of the country, not that ownership or control of those resources would be transferred to the United States.
“We’re very focused on ensuring that the final draft of the agreement, after negotiations, fully aligns with our strategic interests,” Svyrydenko said. “I believe the work on the previous memorandum showed that both teams are capable of reaching these goals and agreeing on terms acceptable to both sides.”
The UK government is considering scrapping or merging over 300 agencies as part of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s effort to cut costs, according to a report in the Financial Times.
Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden has written to government departments asking them to justify the existence of every quango, or quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization, the newspaper said. The minister is expected to soon announce the first wave on the chopping block, the newspaper reported, citing unnamed officials.
Last week we explained that this particular trade war will be all about the deals that Trump announces as he pulls the country and market from the trade war abyss.
That was quick: Thailand to Negotiate With the US on 36% Imposed Tariffs: PM
Everyone else.... starting with Vietnam, which as we profiled Thursday was slapped with some of the highest reciprocal tariffs...
... crushing countless US consumer companies who rely on cheap Vietnamese exports.
Sure enough, confirming that Trump's "dealmaking" was about to shine, on Friday Trump posted on his Truth Social account, announced that he had a "very productive" call with the head of the Vietnamese communist party, adding that if Vietnam wants to cut their tariffs to "ZERO", all they have to do is "make an agreement with the U.S."...
Fast forward just one day, and we have an example of the first official capitulation by a trading counterparty as Bloomberg reports that Vietnam has offered to remove all tariffs on US imports after Donald Trump announced a 46% levy on the Southeast Asian nation, according to an April 5 letter from Vietnam’s communist party.
The offer was made by party chief To Lam to the US president in a letter that was seen by Bloomberg. In the letter, Lam requested that the US not apply any additional tariffs or fees on Vietnamese goods and asked to postpone the implementation of the tariff announced by Trump last week by at least 45 days after April 9.
The letter confirms comments made by Trump on Friday on his Truth Social network, following a call between the two leaders. Vietnam, which has increasingly become a key manufacturing and export alternative to China, was slapped with one of the highest tariff rates worldwide last Wednesday.
Expect all the companies profiled as the biggest casualties from the Vietnam tariffs to soar, as the market realizes that for all the posturing, Trump's tariffs were just that: a negotiating chip to minimize trade barriers against the US, which as Vietnam so aptly demonstrated, are now well on their way out.
And now we wait to see just how much the limping Vietnamese dong, which on Friday drooped to an all time low, will firm up on the news...
China has aggressively collected Americans’ genetic information for years, and coupled with biotechnology advances, national security concerns have grown. Multiple states are now taking action to protect DNA data.
“You can actually take someone’s DNA, take their medical profile, and you can target a biological weapon that will kill that person or take them off the battlefield or make them inoperable,” Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, said during the 2022 Aspen Security Forum.
“There are now weapons under development, and developed, that are designed to target specific people.”
One fear is that the DNA gathered by consumer genetic testing companies routinely used by Americans to trace ancestry or find relatives could fall into the wrong hands. In 2023, a hacker exposed the genetic data of about 7 million users of 23andMe.
When the company announced on March 23 that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, some privacy experts advised consumers to delete their data—a service that the company says it has always offered consumers.
“What we’re witnessing with 23andMe is a stark wakeup call for data privacy,” said Adrianus Warmenhoven, a cybersecurity expert at NordVPN. “Genetic data isn’t just a bit of personal information—it is a blueprint of your entire biological profile. When a company goes under, this personal data is an asset to be sold with potentially far-reaching consequences.”
And while more Americans use consumer DNA testing services, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been unable to advance bills to prevent foreign adversaries from collecting genetic information from U.S. citizens, despite bipartisan support.
Most of the legislation to protect DNA is occurring at the state level.
As of November 2024, 13 states have enacted laws regulating direct-to-consumer genetic testing and ensuring that consumers have the power to protect their DNA. They are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Montana, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and Wyoming.
At least 11 states—Arizona, Utah, Nebraska, Tennessee, Kansas, Montana, Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Rhode Island—introduced bills this spring to block China and other adversaries from gaining access to genetic data through sequencing equipment and software and to forbid DNA information from being stored overseas.
As of April 1, Utah’s bill failed, while Tennessee passed its measure into law.
Montana state Sen. Daniel Zolnikov told The Epoch Times that states needed to take the lead to protect DNA privacy from foreign adversaries such as China because Congress has failed to keep up with the threats.
“Their technology laws are decades outdated. If they’re not going to do it and they’re just going to give speeches and not actually legislate, I guess we'll do it,” the Montana Republican said.
During the current state legislative session, Zolnikov is sponsoring the Montana Genomic Security Act, which builds on a 2023 genetic privacy bill that he sponsored and which was signed into law.
The privacy law prohibits genetic testing services from sharing consumer DNA information without consent and gives people the right to request the destruction of their genetic data and biological samples.
This year’s Genomic Security Act would “oppose the collection and analysis of genetic information for military and surveillance purposes by the People’s Republic of China.”
The bill blocks medical or research facilities in Montana from using genetic sequencers or software produced in or by a foreign adversary, a state-owned enterprise of a foreign adversary, a company within a foreign adversary, or an owned or controlled subsidiary or affiliate of a company domiciled within a foreign adversary.
Beijing has a military-civil fusion mandate that requires all Chinese companies to share technology and information with the communist nation’s military and intelligence agencies.
The bill also provides money to businesses to replace foreign equipment and prevents the storage of Montanans’ genetic data outside the United States without approval from the individual.
Violators would face a $10,000 fine for each offense. Victims would be allowed damages of not less than $5,000 for each unauthorized use of the person’s genomic information.
National Security Issues
Emma Waters, Heritage Foundation biotechnology analyst, warned that China’s potential collection of Americans’ DNA and health care information poses a significant national security risk.
“In the last decade alone, Chinese officials and military leaders have prioritized advancements in biotechnology as the future of warfare,” she told The Epoch Times.
“Chinese publications have discussed ‘ethnic genetic attacks’ that target a specific population as one avenue they are interested in pursuing.”
Waters said the U.S. government needs to ensure that health care records and genetic information aren’t bought or included in data-sharing agreements with companies tied to adversaries such as China.
Applications for biotechnology contracts in the United States that rely on federal funding should be scrutinized to assess potential national security risks and any connection with foreign adversaries, she said.
Although Congress is yet to pass a DNA-related bill, the bipartisan BIOSECURE Act was reintroduced in January, the House version of the Prohibiting Foreign Access to American Genetic Information Act of 2024.
The BIOSECURE Act would restrict federally funded medical providers from using foreign adversary biotech companies of concern, including BGI Group, formerly known as Beijing Genomics Institute, and its subsidiaries, MGI and Complete Genomics, along with another People’s Liberation Army-affiliated firm called WuXi Apptec.
The bill targets BGI, which in 2021 was blacklisted by the Pentagon as a Chinese military company. Five company affiliates also have been sanctioned by the Commerce Department, which accused at least two of them of improperly using genetic information against ethnic minorities in China.
“Beijing Genomics Institute collects genetic data of Americans [and] uses it for research with the Chinese military,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party, said when announcing the legislation.
“The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) will undoubtedly use the genetic data collected by BGI to further its malign aggression, potentially even to develop a bioweapon used to target the American people,” he said.
Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Gary Peters (D-Mich.) reintroduced the federal Genomic Data Protection Act at the beginning of March—it’s the same bill that was introduced last year but failed to pass.
The bill would allow U.S. consumers using at-home consumer DNA tests to delete their genomic data and request the destruction of their biological samples.
