Novavax's experimental COVID-19-influenza combination and standalone influenza vaccines showed strong immune responses in some patients tested in a late-stage study, the company said on Wednesday.
Wednesday, June 11, 2025
General Mills mulls sale of China Haagen-Dazs stores
General Mills is considering selling its Haagen-Dazs ice-cream stores in China, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company may seek several hundred million dollars for the assets in a sale process that could begin this year, the report added.
The discussions are in early stages and the company may not pursue a sale, the report said, adding that General Mills (NYSE:GIS) intends to continue selling Haagen-Dazs in places such as supermarkets and convenience stores in China.
General Mills has been undergoing a restructuring and said last month that it would record a charge of about $70 million in its current quarter. The restructuring efforts, estimated at around $130 million, are expected to be completed by the end of its fiscal year 2028.
Packaged food companies including McCormick (NYSE:MKC), General Mills and Conagra Brands (NYSE:CAG) have faced slowing demand as sticky inflation has compelled budget-conscious customers to hunt for value even for essential items such as groceries.
'U.S. economy to avoid recession even after tariff hike - Wells Fargo'
The U.S. economy is expected to avoid recession, even though the tariff “tax hike” was among the top three of the past 60 years, according to the Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
"U.S. tariff increases have been unexpectedly aggressive and, in our view, should be seen as a substantial tax increase," Wells Fargo said in a note.
Economic policy has taken center stage in Wells Fargo's 2025 outlook.
However, key supports will help the U.S. economy to avoid a recession and also see a mild recovery from late 2025 through 2026, Jennifer Timmerman, investment strategy analyst at Wells Fargo, said.
"We also expect more positive forces to kick in late in 2025, including tax cuts, lower short-term interest rates, and improved purchasing power from oil-price declines and solid real (inflation-adjusted) income growth," Timmerman added.
OpenAI's Sam Altman Says Going To Take More Time With Open-Weights Model
The release of OpenAI's first open model in years will be delayed until later this summer, CEO Sam Altman announced in a post on X on Tuesday. Altman said the open model would be released sometime after June.
"[W]e are going to take a little more time with our open-weights model, i.e. expect it later this summer but not [J]une," he wrote. "[O]ur research team did something unexpected and quite amazing and we think it will be very very worth the wait, but needs a bit longer."
OpenAI was targeting an early summer release date for its open model, which is slated to have similar "reasoning" capabilities to OpenAI's o-series of models. OpenAI aims for its open model to top the performance of other open reasoning models, such as DeepSeek's R1.
In the months since OpenAI first announced its intent to release an open model, the space has become more competitive. On Tuesday, Mistral — another AI lab that often releases open models — released its first family of AI reasoning models, called Magistral. In April, the Chinese AI lab Qwen released a family of hybrid AI reasoning models that can switch off between taking time to "reason" through problems and also giving traditional, quick responses.
Beyond increasing its performance on benchmarks, OpenAI has also considered adding several complex features to its open AI model to make it more competitive. TechCrunch previously reported that OpenAI leaders have discussed enabling the open AI model to connect to the company's cloud-hosted AI models for complex queries. However, it's unclear if these features will make it into the final open model.
The release of OpenAI's open model seems to be important for the company's relationship with researchers and developers. Altman has previously said that OpenAI has landed on the "wrong side of history" when it comes to open sourcing its models. To rectify that image, the company faces immense pressure to release an open model that is competitive with the industry's best open offerings.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/openais-open-model-delayed-233422549.html
NewAmsterdam links lipid-lowering drug to improvement in Alzheimer's cognition biomarker
NewAmsterdam Pharma’s push to show a cholesterol drug can prevent Alzheimer’s disease has passed another test. The phase 3 sub-study tracked significant changes in an Alzheimer’s biomarker, adding to evidence that CETP inhibition may cut the risk of developing the neurodegenerative disease.
Transatlantic biotech NewAmsterdam primarily licensed obicetrapib from Amgen to restart the industry’s stalled attempt to establish CETP inhibitors in cardiovascular disease. However, the biotech also spotted chances to expand beyond its core indications, leading it to enroll 1,727 people with Alzheimer’s risk factors in sub-study of its phase 3 obicetrapib.
The sub-study participants were carriers of ApoE3/4 or 4/4. Patients who took obicetrapib for 12 months had significant reductions in the biomarker p-tau217 compared to their counterparts on placebo. The result was statistically significant in the full Alzheimer’s population and in the 367 ApoE4 carriers.
Other researchers have found p-tau217 predicts cognitive decline, but NewAmsterdam is yet to show its drug candidate improves outcomes in people at risk of Alzheimer’s. The sub-study looked at a range of biomarkers beyond p-tau217. NewAmsterdam’s press release lacks data on the secondary endpoints.
NewAmsterdam CEO Michael Davidson, M.D., said in a statement that the “findings strongly support a potential preventive strategy for Alzheimer's disease.” Shares in the biotech rose 9% to $22 in premarket trading.
Interest in using obicetrapib in Alzheimer’s is mostly built on preclinical and genetic data. Rodents that lack the CETP gene are resistant to Alzheimer’s. Mice with the human CETP gene have more cholesterol in their brains.
Cholesterol is part of a healthy brain—which contains more of the substance than other organs—and is cleared by ApoE. Yet, excess cholesterol in cell membranes may fuel development of amyloid plaques. There is evidence that ApoE4, an Alzheimer’s risk factor, is less effective at clearing cholesterol. As such, NewAmsterdam has proposed that using obicetrapib to remove cholesterol could prevent Alzheimer’s.
The sub-study data add to the results of a phase 2a trial NewAmsterdam ran in 13 patients with early Alzheimer’s and at least one copy of ApoE4. The biotech tracked reductions in cholesterol in plasma and cerebrospinal fluid.
Biden admin evacuated 55 Afghans on terror watchlist to US during botched withdrawal
US officials encountered 55 Afghan evacuees on the terrorist watchlist after the Biden administration’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from the Middle Eastern country, according to a Justice Department inspector general report.
The report, released Tuesday, confirmed longstanding suspicions from Republican lawmakers that the Biden administration failed to properly vet US-bound refugees as the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan.
“I’ve sounded the alarm about the need to thoroughly vet Afghan evacuee applicants since August 2021,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement, reacting to the DOJ IG report. “The Biden-Harris administration, my Democrat colleagues in Congress and many in the media were quick to dismiss glaring red flags that a nonpartisan national security analysis now confirms.”
The FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) identified 55 Afghans that were either already on the terrorist watchlist and made it to a US port of entry or were added to the database during the evacuation and resettlement process, the report found.
Of those, at least 21 were added to the terror list after they had already entered the US.
After investigations, the FBI eventually removed 46 evacuees from the watchlist, determining that they posed no threat to the homeland.
However, nine remained in the terror database as of July 2024 and eight were in the US.
“As if it wasn’t already obvious, the Biden-Harris administration endangered American lives by allowing suspected terrorists to enter the United States and roam free for years,” Grassley argued, noting that his “oversight of this matter will continue.”
Roughly 90,000 Afghans were allowed entry into the US and became eligible for Special immigrant Visas under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Refuge (OAR) and Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) programs, which provided the foreign nationals immigration processing and resettlement support.
“According to the FBI, the need to immediately evacuate Afghans overtook the normal processes required to determine whether individuals attempting to enter the United States pose a threat to national security, which increased the risk that bad actors could try to exploit the expedited evacuation,” the DOJ IG report stated.
Despite the 55 individuals flagged, the DOJ inspector general determined that overall “each of the responsible elements of the FBI effectively communicated and addressed any potential national security risks identified.”
Last October, the DOJ charged an Afghan national brought into the US during the chaotic withdrawal with plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day terror attack.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, was living in Oklahoma City on a Special Immigrant Visa as he took steps to stockpile AK-47 rifles and ammunition to carry out an attack on US soil “in the name of ISIS,” according to the Justice Department.
Tawhedi entered the US on Sept. 9, 2021, just weeks after the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan and the last US troops departed from the war-torn nation.
Tawhedi was charged with conspiring and attempting to provide material support to ISIS and is currently awaiting trial.
US, China Officials Agree on Plan That Awaits Xi, Trump Sign-Off
The US and China capped two days of high-stakes trade talks with a plan to revive the flow of sensitive goods — a framework now awaiting the blessing of Donald Trump and Xi Jinping.
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