Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

(Reuters) -Eli Lilly said on Wednesday it is partnering with Walmart to sell its weight-loss treatment Zepbound at the retailer’s pharmacies across the United States at direct-to-consumer prices. This marks the first time the drugmaker has provided a retail pick-up option to customers who use the LillyDirect website to order Zepbound, it said. Self-paying customers can get Zepbound single-dose vials in all approved strengths at Walmart pharmacies, with the lowest dose starting at $349 per month, Lilly said. The drugmaker has been working on expanding access to Zepbound as it competes with rival Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy for a share in…

By Amina Niasse NEW YORK (Reuters) -CVS Health raised its annual adjusted profit forecast on Wednesday, helped by improved pharmacy revenues, and also announced a $5.73 billion writedown of healthcare businesses including its in-pharmacy MinuteClinics. The company, which operates one of the largest U.S. pharmacy chains, Aetna insurance and the CVS Caremark pharmacy benefit manager, reported a net loss of $3.13 per share for the third quarter. Shares of CVS rose as much as 1.2% in premarket trading, reversing earlier losses as investors stayed confident about steady improvement in the underlying results as the healthcare giant recovers from a series…

(Reuters) -GE HealthCare Technologies raised its annual adjusted profit forecast and beat estimates for third-quarter results on Wednesday, powered by strong demand for its medical devices in the United States and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa region. Over the past couple of years, medical device makers have benefited from more people, particularly older Americans, seeking healthcare services and surgical procedures. The company now expects 2025 adjusted profit of $4.51 to $4.63 per share, 4 cents higher at the midpoint than its previous expected range of $4.43 to $4.63. It reiterated expectations of a $265 million, or 45-cents-per-share, impact this…

By Puyaan Singh and Sahil Pandey (Reuters) -Laboratory services provider Labcorp forecast lower annual revenue growth for its contract research unit on Tuesday, as a prolonged funding crunch continues to weigh on its early-stage drug development clients. Contract research firms have witnessed reduced spending from biotech clients in the past two years. The funding crunch, which was expected to improve this year, could be prolonged due to policy uncertainty from the Trump administration. “The issue that we’re seeing is with timing of study starts … We expected that to start to come back to more normalcy,” CEO Adam Schechter said…

By Amina Niasse and Mariam Sunny NEW YORK (Reuters) -CVS Health projected double-digit earnings growth for 2026 on Wednesday after raising its 2025 profit forecast for the third time, showing steady progress in its turnaround efforts. CVS said it foresees mid-teens percentage profit growth versus 2025. It said it will announce a more detailed outlook in December. CVS also recorded a $5.73 billion writedown tied to its healthcare delivery businesses, including in-pharmacy MinuteClinics, Oak Street Health, and Signify Health. The charge reflects both a restructuring of Oak Street, which provides primary care, and diminished value of Signify Health, which offers…

(Reuters) -The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has placed a clinical hold on Intellia Therapeutics’ two late-stage trials testing an experimental gene therapy for a rare disease that can damage the heart and nerves, the company said on Wednesday. Shares of the Cambridge-based company fell about 17% in extended trading. The FDA’s decision follows a serious safety event in one of the trials, where a patient who received the therapy, called nexiguran ziclumeran (nex-z), developed Grade 4 liver enzyme elevations and increased bilirubin levels, both signs of potential liver damage. The individual has been hospitalized and is under medical care.…

By Michael Erman and Christy Santhosh (Reuters) -Merck & Co posted higher third-quarter revenue on Thursday, as growth from its blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda offset falling sales from human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil in China. However, shares fell nearly 2% after Merck lowered the high end of its revenue forecast for the full year. It now expects revenue of $64.5 billion to $65.0 billion compared with its prior view of $64.3 billion to $65.3 billion. J.P.Morgan analysts called the quarterly beat “modest,” adding the annual forecasts were “largely reiterated.” Merck shares have fallen about 5% so far in 2025, as investors…

By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Louise Rasmussen and Maggie Fick COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Denmark’s Novo Nordisk launched a rival bid for U.S. obesity biotech firm Metsera on Thursday, hijacking an offer from Pfizer as the drugmakers jostled for advantage in the highly lucrative weight-loss drug market. Novo Nordisk, the company behind blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic, bid up to $8.5 billion, including $6 billion upfront and later milestone payments. Pfizer’s bid was worth $7.3 billion including milestones. Metsera in a statement said that Novo’s bid was “superior” and that it had notified Pfizer, which now has four business days to…

By Siddhi Mahatole (Reuters) -Drug distributor Cardinal Health raised its annual adjusted profit forecast on Thursday after beating estimates for first-quarter profit on strong demand for costly specialty medicines and branded drugs at its pharmaceuticals unit. Shares of the Dublin, Ohio-based company rose 17.7% in early trading. Drug distributors have been benefiting from sales of specialty medicines, which are used to treat complex conditions like rheumatoid arthritis and cancer, due to their high profit margins. They have also benefited from sales of cheaper versions of complex biotech drugs called biosimilars at a time when prices of generic medicines have been…

The market for obesity and diabetes treatments remains scorching hot, funneling billions in sales to Eli Lilly and fueling a bidding war over another drugmaker. Lilly said Thursday that its top-selling drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound, brought in more than $10 billion combined during the recently completed third quarter. That made up over half of the drugmaker’s $17.6 billion in total sales. Separately, Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk announced plans to buy Metsera Inc. in a deal that could be worth up to $9 billion. That came more than a month after U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc. made a nearly $5 billion bid…