U.S. drone-makers debut at Singapore Airshow eyeing Asia sales amid China threat

 Several U.S. drone firms made their debuts at the Singapore Airshow this week, seeking to expand their business beyond the Pentagon to countries in Asia that are increasingly concerned about the threat posed by China's military buildup.

The lethal success of drones on both sides of Russia’s war in Ukraine has sparked a surge of Silicon Valley investment in drone and military artificial intelligence startups, boosting the valuations of U.S. firms like California-based Anduril Industries and Shield AI.

This wave of interest in the next generation ‍of warfare is reshaping the character of major air shows that have been long-dominated by gleaming commercial airliners, daredevil fighter ‍jets and troop-carrying helicopters.

Drones — from palm-sized quadcopters built for kamikaze strikes to unmanned fighter jets — have moved from the margins to center stage as military commanders, politicians, intelligence officers and defense industry executives converge this week to assess which technologies might give them the edge in a future conflict in the Pacific.

Though most drones used by Ukraine are domestically produced, companies like Anduril, Shield AI, El ‍Segundo, California-based Neros Technologies and Virginia-headquartered AeroVironment have supplied Kyiv with weapons.

Now these companies are aiming to persuade militaries in Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Australia, South Korea and Japan that their early battlefield experience and initial Pentagon backing prove they can deliver the cutting-edge systems needed ‌as China builds its military presence in the region.

"They're looking for the ability to conduct intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance operations while GPS and communications are jammed ... it's what we're offering to a number of different countries in ‌the region," Shield AI's co-founder Brandon Tseng said at the Singapore show.

Shield ‌AI, whose 2.7 meter roughly $700,000 V-BAT reconnaissance drone has logged hundreds of hours in Ukraine, announced at the show that it ‌will supply Singapore's ST Engineering with Hivemind, its AI autonomy software suite for unmanned systems.

Anduril, which has several Pentagon contracts and was valued at $30 billion in private fundraising last year, opened offices in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan in 2025. It has secured sales of its Altius loitering munition drones to Taiwan.

Alongside their smaller drones, Anduril and Shield AI showcased models of sleek, stealth-styled Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA), which are around $30 million per unit "loyal wingman" fighter-jet drones designed to fly alongside next-generation manned fighters.

Major U.S. defense firms including Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are also developing CCAs.

Neros, which has a U.S. Marine Corps contract for its small Archer quadcopter attack drone, aims to establish factories in South Korea, the Philippines, Singapore and Japan ‍to ‍build stockpiles of expendable, explosive-laden drones that could help overwhelm Chinese forces in the event of a Taiwan Strait conflict, said the company's Asia growth lead, Kenneth Inocencio.

"Imagine you're a (Chinese) trooper. You're about to board your landing craft ... 5 kilometers away, your landing craft gets hit by 30 Neros Archers. Some of them (below) the water line. Your landing craft sinks like a few kilometers away from the beach," Inocencio said.

Neros, which produces up to 200 drones a day at its El Segundo factory, won a contract last year from a coalition of countries to supply 6,000 ‌Archer drones to Ukraine.

U.S. firm Red Cat, which will supply the U.S. Army with its Black Widow short-range reconnaissance quadcopter, announced at the Singapore Airshow that it had received an order for the drone from an unnamed Asia-Pacific country.

"Because of regional conflicts and uncertainty with China and their intentions, a lot of Asia-Pacific allies are tooling up, a handful of them in a big way," said Stayne Hoff, Red Cat's director of business development for Asia-Pacific.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/02/05/tech/us-drone-makers-asia-sales/

CVS Health to swap Amgen and Lilly’s bone drugs with biosimilars

 

Biosimilar Introduction: CVS Health announced the inclusion of biosimilars Prolia and Forteo in its commercial formularies, replacing brand-name drugs from Amgen and Eli Lilly, expected to provide over 50% cost savings for patients.
Significant Cost Savings: The low-cost alternatives from CVS's biosimilar unit Cordavis and companies like Celltrion will help generate $1.5 billion in gross savings for customers and patients, significantly reducing the financial burden of osteoporosis treatments.

https://intellectia.ai/news/stock/cvs-health-introduces-biosimilar-policy-changes-for-bone-disease-treatments

Racing BMS and J&J, Bayer links asundexian to 26% stroke reduction to unblock path to FDA

 Bayer has linked asundexian to a 26% reduction in stroke in a phase 3 study, setting the bar for Bristol Myers Squibb and Johnson & Johnson’s rival factor XIa inhibitor in a blockbuster indication. 

The German drugmaker reported the study met its primary endpoint in November, providing a boost for the program and factor XIa inhibition more broadly after setbacks to asundexian and BMS and J&J’s rival drug candidate milvexian. Yet the lack of data in Bayer’s top-line release left unanswered questions about the clinical significance of the statistical success. 

Bayer answered the questions Thursday, using the International Stroke Conference 2026 in New Orleans to present data from the trial. The headline finding is that asundexian cut ischemic stroke by 26% after a noncardioembolic ischemic stroke or high-risk transient ischemic attack (TIA), also called a mini-stroke.

On an earnings call in May, Stefan Oelrich, head of Bayer’s pharma division, said the company focused the phase 3 trial on the subgroup in which it saw the biggest effect in phase 2. The company reported a 36% reduction in the risk of recurrent symptomatic ischemic stroke and TIA in the phase 2 subgroup. For comparison, BMS and J&J saw a 30% relative risk reduction in symptomatic ischemic strokes in their phase 2 trial.

Asundexian reduced the stroke rate in the phase 3 trial without increasing major bleeding, which affected 1.9% of people on the study drug and 1.7% of their counterparts on placebo. Bayer said the risks of minor bleeding, hemorrhagic stroke, symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage and fatal bleeding were similar on asundexian and placebo.

The potential to clear clots without raising bleeding risk is central to the promise of factor XIa inhibitors. While other anticoagulants affect hemostasis and thrombosis, factor XIa inhibition could decouple the mechanisms to deliver at least comparable efficacy and better safety than existing treatments.

Bayer reported the phase 3 trial met multiple secondary endpoints, including by linking asundexian to a 26% reduction in the risk of a stroke of any kind compared to placebo. The secondary analysis included hemorrhagic strokes. Bayer also hit a composite endpoint of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke as well as the composite of death from any cause, MI or stroke.

Ashkan Shoamanesh, M.D., the trial’s co-principal investigator, said in a statement that the consistent reduction in secondary events with asundexian across all types of strokes is particularly striking. The results provide confidence that asundexian, if approved, could be an important option for secondary stroke prevention across a broad range of patients, Shoamanesh said.

At the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January, Bayer's Oelrich said the pharma was engaging with health authorities and aiming to win approval this year. The timeline would put Bayer “well ahead of any competitor in this space, which will allow us to clearly set the scene and once again prove what I call our secret sauce in cardiovascular because we believe that we're a true leader in this space,” Oelrich said.

BMS and J&J expect to publish phase 3 results for milvexian in secondary stroke prevention in the second half of 2026. The companies are gearing up to compete for a stroke market that Guggenheim Securities analysts valued at $3 billion to $4 billion in a note to investors in November. The analysts estimated atrial fibrillation, where Bayer has already failed, is a $15 billion opportunity. 

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/racing-bms-and-jj-bayer-links-asundexian-26-stroke-reduction-unblock-path-fda

Omega guidance $3.15-3.25 for '26

 Omega Healthcare Investors posts Q4 2025 net income of $0.55/share and full-year 2025 AFFO of $3.10/share, adds $1.1B in new investments and reports record-low leverage, and issues 2026 FFO guidance of $3.15–$3.25/share.

https://finviz.com/quote.ashx?t=OHI&p=d

White House to launch TrumpRx platform, revealing results of Trump’s MFN policy

 The White House is planning to officially launch its direct-to-consumer, lower-cost drug platform TrumpRx Thursday evening, unveiling the results of President Trump’s “most favored nation” (MFN) drug pricing policy.

The Trump administration announced plans to launch its TrumpRx website in September, with administration officials saying at the time that the platform would cut out intermediaries and offer drugs “often at full MFN, and always at lower prices than currently available.” Health officials said at the time that the platform would launch sometime in early 2026.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the news Thursday in a post on social platform X.

“TONIGHT AT 7PM: President Trump, Dr. [Mehmet] Oz, and National Design Studio Director Joe Gebbia will be officially unveiling TrumpRx — a state of the art website for Americans consumers to purchase low cost prescription drugs,” she wrote. “This historic announcement will save millions of Americans money.”

A senior administration official previously specified that “the government is not getting into the drug distribution business.”

“Rather, this is a convening site where Americans can come and know that this is a place where they can go direct-to-consumer and access the lowest prices available through the President’s MFN initiative,” the official added.

The platform will offer some of the medications manufactured by companies that have entered into MFN pricing agreements with the administration. These include drugmakers like Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co., Novartis and Sanofi.

Many of these companies faced steep Section 232 tariffs by the Trump administration, which granted them “grace periods” after they agreed to MFN deals.

The administration has offered some hints at what the TrumpRx.gov platform will look like. Injectable and infusion products, like Novo Nordisk’s star product Ozempic, will not be available on the website as an official said it would not be “clinically appropriate” to sell those types of products without a provider present.

Health officials have also indicated the platform will not accept insurance, seeking to bypass those companies.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5724285-white-house-trumprx-launch-most-favored-nation/

Beijing's Big Short: Meet The Chinese "Anti Hunt Brother" Billionaire Betting Against Silver Bulls

 Born in 1963 in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, right in the middle of some pretty chaotic times in China’s history, reclusive billionaire Bian Ximing grew up to become a commodity titan after making some huge bets in the metals markets over the past few years.

In 2003, he bought Zhongcai Futures Co., which would become the centerpiece of his trading empire.

Bian spends much of his time in Gibraltar, and previously made nearly $3 billion from bullish bets on Shanghai Futures Exchange gold contracts since early 2022.

It is unknown if he has closed any of that position out.

In May 2025, the billionaire went all-in on copper, believing the metal is vital for China’s tech-heavy future and the global green energy push. Even with market volatility and political tensions, sources confirmed Bian’s massive copper position - nearly 90,000 tons - on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, confident that copper prices will climb.

It is unknown if he has closed any of that position out.

And now, Bloomberg reports that he has now built the bourse’s largest net short position in silver, according to Bloomberg analysis of exchange data and people with knowledge of his investments. They asked not to be named as the information is not public.

Bian’s big short comes with significant risk, and he has been forced to liquidate some positions at a loss in a volatile silver market.

From August last year, he built a long position in silver that generated more than 1.3 billion yuan in profit, according to calculations based on exchange data.

In November, however, he began shifting his position, attempting to call the top of the rally with tentative moves that occasionally left him on the losing side of trades.

From last week, however, Bian held his short position with conviction, spreading his exposure across longer-dated contracts and holding it through upward price swings.

Bian, through his brokerage Zhongcai Futures, began ramping up silver shorts in the final week of January, according to exchange data. 

Exchange data showed Zhongcai’s silver short position surged to about 18,000 lots on Jan. 28.

It climbed further to about 28,000 lots on Jan. 30, when the metal in Shanghai reached an all-time high.

But he now holds a short that stands at about 450 tons of silver, or 30,000 contracts - so the metal’s sharp drop since last week has resulted in a paper gain of about 2 billion yuan ($288 million).

Including previous losses, Bian stands to make a net profit of around 1 billion yuan, based on his position and prices at the end of Tuesday.

Silver is again sliding in Thursday trade and has tumbled more than 40% from record highs a week ago - almost certainly significantly increasing Bian’s proceeds.

Bian's "Big Short" is the antithesis of the billionaire Hunt Brothers' bullish cornering of the silver market in the last 1970s (that didn't end well for them).

Will 'the herd' go full 'Gamestop' on this newly exposed massive short position, which unlike so many of the myths about JPMorgan being short the precious metals, Bian is actually short... in size... for now.

https://www.zerohedge.com/precious-metals/beijings-big-short-meet-chinese-anti-hunt-brother-billionaire-betting-against

Novo Nordisk to sue Hims & Hers over knockoff drug

 Danish pharmaceutical firm Novo Nordisk announced on Thursday that it plans to take legal action against American telehealth company Hims & Hers for planning to mass-market an untested and unapproved copy of its weight loss drug Wegovy. Hims & Hers' version will be priced at $49, compared to the $149 Novo sells the branded pill for.

"The action by Hims & Hers is illegal mass compounding that poses a significant risk to patient safety. Novo Nordisk will take legal and regulatory action to protect patients, our intellectual property, and the integrity of the US gold-standard drug approval framework," the pharma firm said.

Novo claimed patient safety risks and prior FDA warnings as "another example of Hims & Hers' historic behaviour of duping the American public with knock-off GLP-1 products." Novo Nordisk's American-listed stock dropped by 6.11% to $44.31 per share at 11:17 am ET, while Hims & Hers' shares added 1.11% concurrently, going for $24.67 apiece.

https://breakingthenews.net/Article/Novo-Nordisk-to-sue-Hims-and-Hers-over-knockoff-drug/65616790