Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
By Waylon Cunningham and Savyata Mishra Feb 8 (Reuters) – Pizza, pasta or Chinese take-out used to be the go-to Super Bowl spread for Marla Senzon’s family – until the Florida retiree began taking a GLP‑1 appetite‑suppressing medication two years ago. This Sunday, the bowl of choice for Senzon and her husband – who used to take the weight-loss drug – will be a salad, with a light protein like chicken or turkey while they watch the Seattle Seahawks take on the New England Patriots for the U.S. professional football’s NFL championship. “Everything about our eating habits has changed,” she…
COPENHAGEN, Feb 9 (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk’s Frankfurt-listed shares rose 4.5% on Monday after telehealth firm Hims & Hers reversed its launch of a $49 compounded weight-loss pill over the weekend, following legal threats from Novo and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Hims had introduced the pill on Thursday last week, based on semaglutide—a key ingredient in Novo’s blockbuster drugs Wegovy and Ozempic—sparking pushback from the Danish drugmaker and regulatory authorities. On Saturday, Hims said it would stop offering the treatment after holding “constructive conversations with stakeholders.” Novo Nordisk’s shares had already rebounded over 5% on Friday after FDA…
By Kamal Choudhury Feb 9 (Reuters) – Privately held Iambic said on Monday it has entered a multi-year partnership worth more than $1.7 billion with Japan’s Takeda Pharmaceutical to use artificial intelligence to help design small-molecule drugs targeting cancer and gastrointestinal diseases. Under the agreement, Iambic will receive upfront payments and could earn more than $1.7 billion in development and commercial milestones, plus royalties on sales. The deal marks Takeda’s latest move to embed artificial intelligence across its research operations, following a similar agreement with Nabla Bio last year focused on protein-based drugs. Drug developers are increasingly turning to AI…
Feb 9 (Reuters) – Waters said on Monday it expects first-quarter profit to fall below Wall Street estimates, sending shares of the lab equipment maker down nearly 12% in premarket trading as investors weighed the outlook and a revenue decline at the Becton Dickinson unit it acquired last year. The company, however, forecast better-than-expected full-year profit, reflecting contributions from its $17.5 billion buyout of Becton Dickinson’s bioscience and diagnostics business, which it bought to broaden its reach in clinical and diagnostic applications. Separately, Becton posted an 8.3% year-over-year decline in revenue from its life sciences segment, which includes biosciences and…
Feb 10 (Reuters) – CVS Health reported a decline in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday but beat Wall Street estimates, helped by strength in its pharmacy benefit unit and strong prescription volume at its retail pharmacies. CVS said adjusted quarterly profit fell to $1.09 per share from $1.19, above analysts’ average estimate of 99 cents per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. “I talk about a Say-Do ratio,” said Chief Financial Officer Brian Newman. “Where we put out realistic targets and we try to deliver or exceed on expectations.” Newman said the pharmacy business’ profit had been declining annually about…
Feb 10 (Reuters) – Zimmer Biomet on Tuesday beat Wall Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit and revenue as the company capitalized on steady demand for its devices used in orthopedic procedures. Shares of the Warsaw, Indiana based company rose 1.5% in premarket trading. The orthopedic device maker reported a 10.9% increase in fourth-quarter net sales to $2.24 billion, showcasing robust demand for its hips and knees units and reflecting sustained procedural volumes in joint replacement surgeries. Analysts had expected quarterly sales of $2.23 billion, according to LSEG compiled data. However, the company expects 2026 profit in the range of $8.30…
Feb 10 (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Labor on Tuesday said it has settled with Kaiser Foundation Health Plan to resolve multiple investigations into the company’s practices on mental health and substance use disorder services. The agreement resolves allegations that Kaiser failed to maintain adequate provider networks for mental health and substance use disorder care, and improperly used patient responses to questionnaires to deny care, the Labor Department said in its statement. Kaiser did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Under the settlement agreement, Kaiser will compensate at least $28 million for the costs its members…
It’s official: Elon Musk is combining SpaceX and xAI as he overhauls his sprawling business empire.Musk told workers in a Monday memo that SpaceX has acquired xAI, his AI company, sources familiar with the matter confirmed to Business Insider.The CEO wrote that the deal would create “the most ambitious, vertically-integrated innovation engine on (and off) Earth, with AI, rockets, space-based internet, direct-to-mobile device communications and the world’s foremost real-time information and free speech platform.”SpaceX, which Musk founded in 2002, is reportedly gearing up for an initial public offering this year that could value the Starship maker at $1.5 trillion.In the…
Moltbook, a new Reddit-style social network made entirely for AI agents, can be read in a few different ways.It might be an ominous glimpse of an AI-driven future. Or a clever meta-commentary on how humans behave online. Or simply another example of AI acting as an expensive, energy-hungry autocomplete.Which interpretation you land on depends on where you fall in the ongoing debate about artificial intelligence.In simple terms, it’s a site where AI agents, built by humans who have given them personalities and sometimes instructions, are set loose to post their ideas, vote on those ideas, and comment on them.One of…
At an Amazon Fresh store in New York, some customers would walk in and ask employees: Do you have products from Amazon’s other grocery store here?”I would run into people looking for a specific product from Whole Foods,” one employee at the store told Business Insider.Amazon opened Fresh in 2020 after acquiring Whole Foods in 2017. Some assumed that Amazon Fresh would offer their favorite organic yogurt or premium meat because of the shared ownership. While Fresh stores did stock some Whole Foods 365 products, store employees said, Amazon sought to offer more affordable groceries and showcase its technology, such…