Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

(Reuters) -Kenvue missed Wall Street estimates for third-quarter sales on Monday, while it also announced its acquisition by Kimberly-Clark for about $48.7 billion. The consumer health company’s shares rose about 20% in premarket trading following the deal. Kenvue has endured several challenges since its spinoff from Johnson & Johnson in 2023, and was especially scrutinized following President Donald Trump’s comments linking its popular pain medicine Tylenol to autism. Last week, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr acknowledged there is no evidence proving Tylenol causes autism, but repeated his view that signs of a link between the…

By Sabrina Valle, Mrinalika Roy and Tom Hals (Reuters) -Pfizer filed a second lawsuit on Monday accusing Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk of structuring its $9 billion bid for biotech Metsera to stall, not close, the deal, a tactic it said is designed to suppress competition in obesity drugs. Novo and Metsera on Monday rejected Pfizer’s claims, in a dramatic escalation in the legal and bidding fight for control of the biotech startup, which is developing next-generation obesity drugs. A judge will analyze the complaints on Tuesday. Pfizer agreed to pay up to $7.3 billion for Metsera in September, after a…

By Kamal Choudhury and Amina Niasse (Reuters) -Hims and Hers Health beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Monday, as the telehealth company added subscribers and expanded its personalized healthcare offerings. The company and rivals have launched programs that offer “personalized” versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy, at doses not accessible through the branded manufacturers, following the government’s ban on the mass production of copies. Hims & Hers said it was in active talks with Novo to offer Wegovy injections and, once approved, an oral version through its platform. In June, a partnership…

By Diana Novak Jones (Reuters) -Kimberly-Clark said on Monday it plans to acquire Band-Aid maker Kenvue, even as the latter company faces thousands of lawsuits involving its painkiller Tylenol and talc-based baby powder, raising questions about the scope of the liabilities Kimberly-Clark might inherit. Here is where those cases stand. TYLENOL On November 17, a U.S. appeals court is slated to hear arguments over whether to revive hundreds of lawsuits consolidated in multidistrict litigation filed by families who say that Kenvue’s Tylenol or generic versions of the pain-relief medication caused their children’s autism or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. A lower…

By Kamal Choudhury and Amina Niasse (Reuters) -Hims and Hers Health beat Wall Street estimates for third-quarter revenue on Monday, as the telehealth company added subscribers and expanded its personalized healthcare offerings. The company and rivals have launched programs that offer “personalized” versions of semaglutide, the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s weight-loss drug Wegovy, at doses not accessible through the branded manufacturers, following the government’s ban on the mass production of copies of those drugs. Hims and Hers’ subscriber base increased to 2.47 million, up 21% from the prior year, while monthly online revenue per average subscriber climbed 19% to…

By Jessica DiNapoli and Abigail Summerville NEW YORK (Reuters) -Kimberly-Clark’s nearly $50 billion offer for Tylenol maker Kenvue is a risky bet that the world’s biggest consumer market, the United States, will keep growing even as lower-income shoppers trim their budgets, according to analysts. The cash-and-stock deal, announced earlier on Monday, is set to close late next year. It brings the maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers into a slew of new categories like skin care and pain relief that executives said are growing faster and offer higher margins than its existing portfolio of toilet paper, baby wipes and…

(Reuters) -Shares of Sarepta sank 36% before the bell on Tuesday after a trial for two gene-targeted therapies for a muscle-wasting disease missed a key goal, deepening concerns about the company’s treatment pipeline. The latest setback comes after Sarepta’s top-selling gene therapy, Elevidys, was briefly pulled from the market in July following the death of three patients from acute liver failure. The stock has lost about 80% of its value this year. The latest trial enrolled 225 patients aged 6 to 13 with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and tested casimersen and golodirsen, which belong to a class of drugs called…

By Sabrina Valle, Mrinalika Roy and Tom Hals (Reuters) -Pfizer filed a second lawsuit on Monday accusing Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk of structuring its $9 billion bid for Metsera to stall the entry of the biotech firm’s treatments into the obesity drug market rather than being aimed at closing a deal. Novo and Metsera on Monday rejected Pfizer’s claims, which were a dramatic escalation in the fight for control of the biotech startup. A judge will analyze the complaints on Tuesday. Pfizer agreed to pay up to $7.3 billion for Metsera – which is developing next-generation obesity drugs – in…

(Reuters) -Sarepta Therapeutics’ shares plunged nearly 30% on Tuesday as the failure of two of its approved drugs in a key trial and weak forecast for its top selling gene therapy raised concerns about the strength of the company’s portfolio. The trial setback compounds Sarepta’s woes as it is already facing scrutiny and restrictions related to its top-selling gene therapy, Elevidys, following deaths of two patients earlier this year. Sarepta was testing its therapies, Amondys 45 and Vyondys 53, in a trial aimed at seeking confirmation of their effectiveness in treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a rare muscle wasting disorder that…

(Reuters) -Merck said on Tuesday that it has entered into an agreement to receive funds managed by Blackstone Life Sciences for $700 million to develop an experimental cancer therapy. Under the terms of the agreement, Blackstone’s drug development unit will fund a portion of the development costs to test sac-TMT, an experimental antibody-drug conjugate. Antibody-drug conjugates are designed to deliver an anti-cancer drug more precisely to malignant cells, causing less damage to healthy cells than chemotherapy. Merck is currently evaluating sac-TMT in 15 global late-stage trials spanning six tumor types, including breast, endometrial and lung cancers. The company is working…