Novo Seeks RNA Approach to Obesity, Diabetes With $550M Replicate Deal

 

Novo Nordisk has brought on other cardiometabolic collaborators this year, including United Laboratories International and Deep Apple Therapeutics.

Novo Nordisk is looking to add to its obesity pipeline, teaming up with California biotech Replicate Bioscience to design and develop an RNA-based treatment for obesity and diabetes.

The partners did not provide a specific financial breakdown in their announcement on Thursday, revealing only that the Danish pharma is putting $550 million on the line, inclusive of an upfront payment and milestone commitments. Replicate will also be entitled to tiered royalties on future product sales.

The centerpiece of the partnership is Replicate’s self-replicating RNA platform. This an mRNA construct that includes cellular machinery to make copies of an mRNA therapy after it has been dosed and is inside the cell, with the aim of amplifying the effective therapeutic dose in comparison to traditional mRNA therapies.

Such an approach, according to Karina Thorn, corporate vice president of Nucleic Acid Research at Novo, “allows us to create a new avenue for development of novel, impactful therapies.” It is unclear what protein the partners are looking to target.

This year so far, Novo has been on a dealmaking spree to deepen its cardiometabolic pipeline. In January, for instance, the pharma expanded its years-long partnership with Valo Health for $190 million upfront plus $4.6 billion in milestones across up to 20 drug programs for obesity, type 2 diabetes and other conditions.

Then, in March 2025, Novo bet $2 billion to partner with China’s United Laboratories International, gaining worldwide rights to its triple-G asset UBT251. The drug targets the GLP-1, GIP and glucagon receptors and is currently in early-stage development for obesity. In June, Novo again reached into its purse, taking out $812 million to collaborate with Deep Apple Therapeutics and leverage its proprietary engine for non-incretin oral therapies for obesity.

Novo’s investments come amid a difficult first half of the year, with sales of its blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy battered by compounders. Commercial execution has also been suboptimal at the Danish pharma, pushing the company to replace its CEO and lower its full-year sales forecast by 5%. On a year-to-date basis, Novo’s shares have dropped some 44%.

In the second quarter, Wegovy brought home 19.5 billion Danish krone or approximately $3 billion, beating the consensus estimate by 1%.

https://www.biospace.com/business/novo-seeks-rna-approach-to-obesity-diabetes-with-550m-replicate-deal

Nvidia CEO says US tech stack should be global standard companies are built on — including China

 Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang says US tech companies can’t be left out of the China market and that they need to serve as a worldwide standard, akin to how the US dollar (DX-Y.NYB) is the world’s top reserve currency.

“[President Trump] understands that the American tech stack should be the world standard. Just as the American dollar is the world standard that economies are built on, we want the American tech stack for the world’s technology and industries to be built on, and that includes China,” Huang told Yahoo Finance during an interview following the company’s second quarter earnings.

The CEO of the world’s most valuable company said that Nvidia is getting the engine “fired back up” to sell chips into the country and already has licenses from the US government.

“We’ve been approved and licensed to be able to ship to China, and now we’re looking for orders in China,” Huang added.

The company reported Q2 data center revenue of $41.1 billion on Wednesday, and its shares fell over 1% in premarket trading on Thursday. Segment revenue was $26.2 billion in the prior-year period. The numbers didn't include sales of its lower-power H20 chips into China.

It also issued third quarter guidance of $54 billion plus or minus 2%. And that doesn’t include sales to China. Any additional sales from the country would be a “bonus on top,” Huang said.

“We have every opportunity to succeed in the China market, if they would allow for American technology companies to be able to play there. And so I’m hoping things will get sorted out,” he explained.

During the company's earnings call, Nvidia CFO Colette Kress explained that the company is still waiting on the Trump administration to formalize an agreement that will see Nvidia pay the government a 15% cut of its sales in China.

Huang said that, while the company is working with the Trump administration on China, it’s not looking into the kind of deal Intel cut with Washington, nor has that come up in discussions.

Intel (INTC), which is in the midst of a years-long turnaround effort, sold 10% of its business to the Trump administration as it seeks to stabilize its foundry and chip business. Intel continues to lose market share to rival AMD (AMD) and is seeing increased competition in the PC space from Arm-based competitors like Qualcomm (QCOM).

Huang also touched on Nvidia’s opportunity in the networking space. The company groups its networking business under its Data Center segment. During Q2, Nvidia saw networking revenue of $7.2 billion, up 98% year over year.

“Just our ethernet product line grew to an annualized rate of $10 billion, and that’s just gotten started. Networking is going to be a very big part of our business. That’s fundamentally recognizing the fusion of computing, networking, and software,” Huang said.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nvidia-ceo-jensen-huang-says-us-tech-stack-should-be-global-standard-companies-are-built-on--including-china-003308243.html

Treasury Warns Banks About China-Mexico Money Laundering Risks

 

The US Treasury has issued a fresh warning for banks to be on the lookout for Mexican drug cartels that use Chinese money-laundering networks to hide their profits.

The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network identified about $312 billion in transactions potentially tied to Mexican narcotics rackets and Chinese money-laundering entities during the five years from Jan. 1, 2020, through Dec. 31, 2024, according to a statement.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-08-28/treasury-warns-banks-about-china-mexico-money-laundering-risks

Q2 GDP Revised Sharply Higher As Data Center Investments Sharply Boost Growth

 While the number mostly reflects a reversal of the tariff frontrunning seen in Q1 (which dragged GDP sharply lower due to a surge in imports), moments ago we got the BEA's first revision of the Q2 GDP print which already came in red hot at 3.0% one month ago... and was just revised even redder and even hotter to 3.3%, beating estimates of a 3.1% print...

... and the highest quarterly print since Q3 2023.

According to the BEA, the 0.3% upward revision from the original 3.0% print reflecting upward revisions to investment and consumer spending that were partly offset by a downward revision to government spending and an upward revision to imports. 

Taking a closer look at the composition, we find the following:

• Personal Consumption increased to 1.07% of the bottom line GDP print, up from 0.98% in the original print
• Fixed Investment jumped substantially from just 0.08% to 0.59% of the bottom-line print. We warned one month ago that either this number suggested that hyperscalers were lying or the number would be revised substantially higher. It was the latter.

One concerning item in the GDP print: fixed investment just 0.08%.

Really? No data centers at all? Are hyperscalers lying?

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) July 30, 2025

• The change in private inventories was modest, from -3.17% of the final GDP number, to -3.29% as companies depleted stocks purchased during the tariff build up period.
• Net trade (exports and imports) added 4.95% to GDP, virtually unchanged from the 4.99% original print, and a mirror image of the -4.62% hit to GDP from Q1.
• Finally, government flipped from adding a modest 0.08% to GDP, to subtracting 0.03%

More important than the GDP print even was the sharp upward revision in real final sales to private domestic purchasers, the sum of consumer spending and gross private fixed investment, which surged 1.9% in the second quarter - largely thanks to the huge upward revision in fixed investment - and up 0.7% from the previous estimate.

Finally, the price index for gross domestic purchases increased 1.8% in the second quarter, revised down 0.1% from the previous estimate. The personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 2.0%, revised down 0.1% from the previous estimate. Excluding food and energy prices, the PCE price index increased 2.5%, the same as previously estimated.

Overall, this was a very solid GDP print, with the upward revision not due to another boost in spending but rather the all important investment on data centers, which also helped almost double Real Final Sales from 

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/q2-gdp-revised-sharply-higher-data-center-investments-sharply-boost-growth

Washington Mayor Credits Federal Surge For Drop In Crime, Backs Trump's Infrastructure Request

 by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times,

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said on Aug. 27 that crime has decreased since President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops to the city and took federal control of the local police department.

Bowser told reporters during an update on the enforcement surge that she and her officials “greatly appreciate” the added presence of law enforcement, noting that in just 20 days, the number of carjackings had fallen by 87 percent from the same period last year.

“We know that when carjackings go down, when the use of guns goes down, when homicide or robbery go down, neighborhoods feel safer and are safer, ” Bowser said.

“So this surge has been important to us for that reason.”

She said that the district will continue to need more police, prosecutors, judges, “more effective prevention programs, and we need to ensure local control.”

Bowser also said on Wednesday that having masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in the community “has not worked.”

The Department of Homeland Security said in July—when Los Angeles County supervisors sought to ban law enforcement personnel from covering their faces—that ICE officers wear masks to protect themselves from being doxxed and targeted.

Trump announced on Aug. 11 that he would activate hundreds of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital to deal with crime.

The president invoked Section 740 of the D.C. Home Rule Act of 1973, which places the Metropolitan Police Department under the control of the president for 48 hours. The president can extend that control for up to 30 days with notification to Congress, after which, congressional approval is required.

“I’m announcing a historic action to rescue our nation’s capital from crime, bloodshed, bedlam, and squalor, and worse,” Trump said at a White House press briefing at the time. “This is Liberation Day in D.C., and we’re going to take our capital back.”

Bowser, at the time, called the federal takeover unsettling and reiterated her call for full statehood for Washington.

Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser (C) speaks as City Administrator Kevin Donahue (L) and Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah (R) listen during a news conference in Washington on Aug. 27, 2025. Alex Wong/Getty Images

1,000 Arrests Since Federal Takeover

On Wednesday, Bowser said she had spoken to Attorney General Pam Bondi, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, and the president.

“I was reminded that the president’s interest in cities predates his time in office, and his knowledge of D.C. had significantly increased from the first time he was in the White House,” the mayor said.

“And so we knew that the priorities around safety and investment in infrastructure would be on the president’s mind.”

When asked whether she had gotten assurances from Trump that he would not attempt to go beyond the 30 days, Bowser said it was not something she had discussed with the president, but that she would continue to work with the Trump administration on how Washington’s emergency operations center and the federal task force can work together.

National Guard members patrol Washington on Aug. 25, 2025. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an Aug. 25 post on X that in the two weeks since Trump brought Washington under federal control, various forms of crime had fallen, including violent crime, which was down 32 percent; robberies, down 47 percent; and homicides, down 60 percent.

That same day, FBI Director Kash Patel said that there had been more than 1,000 arrests made across Washington since the federal takeover began.

Union Station Takeover

On Wednesday, federal officials said they would take over the management of Washington’s Union Station, in a bid to improve the running of the property.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Trump “wants Union Station to be beautiful again.”

“He wants transit to be safe again, and he wants our nation’s capital to be great again,” Duffy said during an event celebrating the launch of Amtrak’s NextGen Acela trains.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy (C) boards a NextGen Amtrak Acela train in Washington on Aug. 27, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Union Station is owned by the federal government, but has been run by passenger rail service Amtrak.

When asked about the takeover, Bowser said on Wednesday it was a “good thing” because the station needs at least $8 billion worth of investment in its renovation, “and that is not something that the district will be able to support.”

“It is an important asset for the Eastern Seaboard. It’s an important asset for the nation. So it is appropriate, in my view, for the federal government to make the necessary investments in the transformation of Union Station,” the mayor said.

She also expressed support for the president’s $2 billion request from Congress to improve infrastructure, “especially federal infrastructure in the district.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/washington-mayor-credits-federal-surge-drop-crime-backs-trumps-infrastructure-request

NYC’s Penn Station to be rebuilt at ‘speed of Trump’ as prez’s name floated for long-awaited plan

 They’re chugging at the “speed of Trump.”

The long-promised Penn Station revamp will finally begin by the end of 2027 after President Trump took over the megaproject from the state, federal Department of Transportation officials pledged Wednesday.

US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled a speedy new timeline for transforming the much-hated transit hub after previous timelines had been vague and promised to finish in “four to five years” from its start.

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Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy will announced a new timeline for the long-awaited Penn Station revamp.AP

“We are going to move at the speed of Trump,” Duffy said, as he left the door open to renaming the hub in the president’s honor.

“This is not going to be a 20-, 30-year project. This is not about a backroom thinking about how we can spend money and develop plans that never deliver. This is actually about how do we move this more quickly and more beautifully through the process.” 

The timeline will be turbo-charged with a $43 million grant to Amtrak, which is now in charge of overhauling dank and depressing Penn Station, Duffy said.

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President Trump effectively fired the MTA from the Penn Station project in April.

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The Penn Station project will begin by the end of 2027.Michael Nagle

Trump effectively fired the MTA from the project in April, putting the feds in charge after years of stops and starts by the state-run agency.

The move put two parallel Penn Station projects under the same umbrella — one to reconstruct the crumbling building and another to expand its rail capacity.

White House officials later brought on Andy Byford, the much-respected former president of NYC Transit cheekily known as “Train Daddy,” to lead the project.

Byford, speaking alongside Duffy in the decrepit warrens of the current Penn Station, teased that the project’s new direction could start from a clean slate – including on cost. 

The MTA’s past Penn Station proposals carried a $7 billion estimated price tag.

“The amount is not determined. I want to see what the ideas are and then we’ll talk about the money,” Byford said.

The ideas will come as Byford kicks off the process Thursday of selecting a master developer, officials said. The developer is expected to be selected by the end of May 2026, with preliminary design to follow.

Byford said the competition for plans will not specify whether to move Madison Square Garden or keep it in place on top of the station – two potential outcomes from past proposals.

“It will be an open and fair competition with no preconceived notions of the outcome, but it will be conducted to a very aggressive timeline in order to hit that spade in the ground date of the end of 2027,” he said.

“Everyone likes to talk about the design of the new station, and that’s the fun part. But the transformation of Penn Station must be much more than bricks and mortar. It must be about making the station operationally sound safe, clean and easy to navigate. And I want, in the future, this station to ooze excellence in every form.”

Gov. Kathy Hochul, who withdrew $1.3 billion in state funding for the project after Trump took it over, contended the project moving came after talks she had with the president. 

“With Secretary Duffy now advancing this project and requesting design proposals, New Yorkers are one step closer to a station worthy of this great city,” she said in a statement.

Duffy cheekily hinted the station may take the name of a one-time New York developer.

“I imagine you’re asking, ‘Is this going to be Trump Station?’” he said. “I think that has a nice ring to it.

“That a conversation that could happen at some other point.”

https://nypost.com/2025/08/27/us-news/nycs-penn-station-will-be-rebuilt-on-trump-time-as-speedy-schedule-revealed-for-7b-project/