Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
Feb 27 (Reuters) – Merck will lay off about 150 employees across its facility in North Carolina that manufactures its human papillomavirus vaccine, Gardasil, according to a notice filed in the state’s database this week. Shares of Merck were up 3% in afternoon trading. Gardasil has been one of Merck’s top growth drivers after blockbuster cancer immunotherapy Keytruda, and much of its international growth has come from China. But the company halted shipments of the vaccine to China last year due to weak demand, driving a 39% slump in the shot’s global sales in 2025. The vaccine protects against HPV…
Feb 27 (Reuters) – Target said on Friday it would sell only cereals made without certified synthetic colors by the end of May, becoming the latest retailer to tighten standards amid a crackdown on artificial dyes. The big-box retailer said it has worked closely with national and owned-brand partners to reformulate products where needed, and the decision applies to cereals sold both in-store and online. Packaged food makers such as PepsiCo, Campbell’s and Conagra Brands had announced last year that they would cut artificial dyes, responding to the Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” initiative and Health Secretary Robert F.…
Target will stop selling cereals containing synthetic colors by the end of May. The Minneapolis-based discounter said Friday it had been phasing out synthetic colors in cereals for several years. Right now, 85% of its cereal sales already come from products made without synthetic dyes. Target said it has worked with national brands and its private brands to reformulate products as needed. Some cereals — including Trix and Lucky Charms, which are made by General Mills — will have updated formulations, Target said. Target said it will no longer carry brands that don’t reformulate, but it didn’t name the brands.…
By Amina Niasse NEW YORK, March 2 (Reuters) – Telehealth company Hims & Hers Health, known for its weight-loss drug business, is promising it can diversify away from its reliance on compounded GLP-1 sales in the U.S., but that may not happen soon enough for investors who are growing impatient. Hims drew regulatory scrutiny last month with its plan to launch a $49 version of Novo Nordisk’s brand-new Wegovy pill. It quickly reversed course after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration referred the company to the Department of Justice and threatened to restrict the ingredients that pharmacies mix to make…
March 3 (Reuters) – Diagnostics firm Droplet Biosciences said on Tuesday it is collaborating with Nvidia to use the chipmaker’s AI infrastructure to speed up post-surgery cancer test results. The company has been using Nvidia Parabricks, a GPU-accelerated software suite, to drastically speed up genomic data analysis for DNA sequencing. * Droplet said its method can detect residual disease in 24hours by analyzing lymphatic fluid collected post surgery,compared to the four to six weeks it typically takes for tumorremnants to appear in blood-based tests. * “By leveraging NVIDIA Parabricks’ acceleration, we’ve beenable to compress some of our most computationally intensivesteps…
March 3 (Reuters) – Moderna has agreed to pay Genevant Sciences, a subsidiary of Roivant Sciences, and Arbutus Biopharma up to $2.25 billion to settle a long-running legal fight over the technology that made its COVID-19 vaccine possible, the companies said on Tuesday. Under the deal, Moderna will pay $950 million upfront in July 2026, with an additional $1.3 billion that depends on the outcome of a separate legal appeal. In extended trading, Moderna’s shares jumped more than 10%, Arbutus rose 11%, while Roivant was up about 1%. The deal resolves all U.S. and international legal actions accusing Moderna of…
By Nqobile Dludla JOHANNESBURG, March 4 (Reuters) – Aspen Pharmacare aims to secure sub‑Saharan African approval for Eli Lilly’s blockbuster weight‑loss drug Mounjaro as early as this year, its CEO said on Wednesday, capitalising on soaring regional demand for obesity treatments. South Africa-based Aspen’s push to register Mounjaro across the region signals its bid to become a key manufacturing and distribution partner for global drugmakers eyeing one of the last major untapped markets for GLP‑1 weight‑loss treatments. GLP‑1 treatments are not yet widely available in the continent, offering both growth potential and a test of how quickly such drugs can…
By Diana Novak Jones March 4 (Reuters) – A state court judge in Missouri gave an initial green light on Wednesday to a proposed $7.25 billion settlement to resolve thousands of lawsuits claiming Bayer’s Roundup weedkiller causes cancer. Judge Timothy Boyer in St. Louis granted preliminary approval to the deal struck between the German company and attorneys seeking to represent a nationwide class of people who say Roundup exposure caused their non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The deal is aimed at resolving most of the roughly 65,000 remaining claims pending in federal and state courts. Boyer rejected a request by other lawyers who…
March 4 (Reuters) – PepGen said on Wednesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has placed a partial clinical hold on its mid‑stage trial of a rare muscle disease drug, sending its shares plunging over 25% in extended trading. The drug, PGN‑EDODM1, is being tested for myotonic dystrophy type 1, a genetic disease that causes muscles to weaken and tighten over time, making movement and daily activities harder. PepGen said the health regulator’s concerns relate to earlier laboratory and animal studies the company submitted. The agency did not flag any safety concerns from patient data generated in an early-stage…
March 5 (Reuters) – Eli Lilly said on Thursday it had rolled out a platform to help employers connect with organizations offering low-cost benefits and comprehensive obesity-care programs, aiming to widen access to its blockbuster weight-loss drug, Zepbound. Through Lilly Employer Connect platform, its multi-doseweight-loss drug device Zepbound KwikPen will be available tonetwork pharmacies at a discounted price of $449 for all doses. The program provides employees access to weight-lossmedicines at lower out-of-pocket costs, and gives employers greater cost predictability and transparency “By enabling coverage outside traditional benefit designs,we lower barriers to treatment and give employers greatercontrol over how they…