Welcome to the August issue of The Highlight
Also in this issue, you'll find a feature on the terrifying consequences of America's protein craze and an analysis of the testosterone theory of politics. Plus: Whatever happened to the friend setup? And how to make the hardest choices of your life.
By Dylan Scott
By Sigal Samuel
The testosterone theory of politics
By Leo Kim
Coming July 29
Most couples used to meet this way. What happened?
By Allie Volpe
Coming July 30
The terrifying reality behind one of America's fastest-growing dairy brands
By Kenny Torrella
Coming July 31
The one-sided intimacy of being a fan
By Aja Romano
Coming August 1
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Novo cuts guidance, names new CEO as obesity drug challenges mount
This story was originally published on BioPharma Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily BioPharma Dive newsletter. Novo Nordisk on Tuesday substantially cut its financial forecasts for the year as cheap, knockoff versions of its popular obesity drug Wegovy continue to hold back the pharmaceutical company's growth. The Danish drugmaker now expects sales to increase in 2025 by between 8% and 14%, revising down its May prediction of 13% to 21% growth. Operating profit is also expected to be lower by four to eight percentage points than previously estimated. Shares tumbled downward by more than 20% in U.S. trading on the news Tuesday morning, erasing over $60 billion in market capitalization. Alongside the guidance cut, Novo named company veteran Maziar Mike Doustdar as successor to outgoing CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, who announced plans in May to step down. The company is also reorganizing its research and development, merging two units into a single division that will be led by Martin Holst Lange, who will become Novo's chief scientist on Aug. 7, the same day Doustdar takes over from Jørgensen. Novo remains a leading company in what's become the pharma industry's fastest-growing market. Ozempic and Wegovy, the branded versions of the GLP-1 drug semaglutide that it respectively sells for diabetes and weight loss, are bringing in tens of billions of dollars in sales. But Novo's financial and leadership adjustments reflect the company's realization its position is slipping. Compounded versions of semaglutide, which were allowed to enter the U.S. market when Ozempic and Wegovy were in shortage, continue to cannibalize Novo's sales, even after regulators ruled they could no longer be sold en masse. Novo's solutions haven't worked as well as hoped, either. While the company brought Ozempic and Wegovy back into full supply, its attempt to compete on price with lower-cost compounded drugs isn't bearing fruit. Direct-to-consumer programs that offered the drugs at a cheaper cash price have only yielded about 30,000 prescriptions this year, Novo said Tuesday. A marketing alliance with telehealth provider Hims & Hers, meanwhile, ended in acrimony just eight weeks after it began in April. Novo accused Hims of continuing to sell knockoff Wegovy, while Hims CEO Andrew Dudum attacked Novo for allegedly pushing Hims to steer patients to its obesity product. 'This is an important moment for Novo Nordisk,' board chair Helge Lund said in a statement on Doustdar's appointment. 'The market is developing rapidly, and the company needs to address recent market challenges with speed and ambition.' In addition to its problems with compounders, Novo is losing ground to Eli Lilly, which sells the rival GLP-1 drug Zepbound for obesity. Clinical testing showed Zepbound can deliver greater weight loss than Wegovy, although Novo can claim a cardio-protective benefit for its drug that Lilly can't yet. Lilly has also out-positioned Novo in development of successor drugs to Wegovy and Zepbound, finding success in testing with a pill called orforglipron. Novo cited competition as a factor in downgrading its outlook for Wegovy and Ozempic sales in the U.S. The company hopes that recent changes in insurer CVS' drug formulary will help lift Wegovy moving forward. Rebuilding momentum will be Doustdar's priority. The executive has led Novo's international division, which includes the company's businesses outside of the U.S., since 2013. He previously oversaw commercial activities in Southeast Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. 'I come to this role with a sense of urgency, a laser focus on high performance, and a fierce determination for Novo Nordisk to aim higher than it's ever done, and to deliver to many more patients the innovation they need,' Doustdar said in a statement. Novo said its search for a replacement to Jørgensen included internal and external candidates. Some analysts had expected the company to choose a leader from outside the company. Recommended Reading Novo abruptly ends obesity drug deal with Hims Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Wegovy maker Novo's profit warning triggers $70 billion share rout
By Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, Stine Jacobsen and Maggie Fick COPENHAGEN (Reuters) -Investors wiped $70 billion off Novo Nordisk's market value on Tuesday after the maker of weight-loss drug Wegovy issued a profit warning and named a new CEO, as it battles rising competition in the obesity drug market. Novo named Maziar Mike Doustdar as its new chief executive, turning to a veteran insider to revive sales and reassure investors rattled by fears the Danish drugmaker is losing ground in the obesity drug race it started. Doustdar's appointment failed to stem a stock market rout sparked by Novo slashing its outlook for 2025 sales growth to between 8% and 14%, from between 13% and 21% previously. Its shares plunged nearly 30% before paring some losses to trade down over 20% by mid-afternoon. The shares are now down 44% this year. "The magnitude of the guidance cut is a shocker," Markus Manns, a portfolio manager at mutual fund firm Union Investment, a Novo shareholder, told Reuters, adding that Novo's issues went deeper than "compounded" copycats to Wegovy. Compounded drugs are custom-made medicines that are based on the same ingredients as branded drugs. Novo has been hit by copycats of its GLP-1 drugs Wegovy for weight-loss and Ozempic for diabetes. U.S. law bars pharmacies from replicating approved drugs, but has allowed 'compounding' for patients needing custom doses or formulations. The company said in a statement that it cut its 2025 sales outlook due to lower growth expectations in the second half in the U.S., both for Wegovy and Ozempic in the GLP-1 diabetes market. The drugmaker, which became Europe's most valuable listed company following the launch of Wegovy in 2021, is now facing a reckoning as it looks to turn things around after the abrupt removal in May of CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen. At its peak in June 2024, Novo was worth as much as $615 billion, but its shares have plunged on investor concerns about the company's experimental drug pipeline and its ability to navigate challenges in the U.S. market. "The stock has gone from being a market darling to one of its biggest letdowns," said Angelo Meda, portfolio manager and head of equities at Banor SIM in Milan, which has a small Novo stake. "The biggest concern is the illegal channel siphoning away market share - something that's hard to quantify. Rebuilding trust will take time." NEW CEO AN INSIDER Doustdar, an Iranian-born, Austrian national, who grew up in the United States, joined Novo in 1992 and will take on the new role on August 7. He currently serves as vice president for international operations, a role he took after leading the company's businesses first in the Middle East and then in Southeast Asia, Novo said. "We need to increase the sense of urgency and execute differently," Doustdar told investors and analysts on a call. "The fact that my announcement comes right after the guidance update, just makes the mandate ahead even more clear." Some analysts and investors had argued that Novo should select an American, or a person with extensive experience working in the United States as its next CEO. Novo has lost its first-mover advantage in the United States this year to U.S. rival Eli Lilly. The new chief executive's most urgent challenge, according to investors and analysts, is to revive Novo's performance in the United States, the largest market by far for weight-loss drugs and where they are most profitable. Novo launched its weight-loss drug Wegovy nearly two and a half years before Eli Lilly's Zepbound. But Zepbound prescriptions surpassed those of Wegovy this year by more than 100,000 a week. In May, Novo said it expected many of the roughly one million U.S. patients using compounded GLP-1 drugs to switch to branded treatments after a U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban on compounded copies of Wegovy took effect on May 22. "Unfortunately, our latest market research indicates that has not happened," Chief Financial Officer Karsten Munk Knudsen said on a call with analysts on Tuesday. One million or more U.S. patients are still using compounded GLP-1s, he said. Novo has stepped up its dialogue with the U.S. FDA to limit unlawful compounding of its drugs, the head of U.S. operations David Moore added on the call. "Compounding continues to be an issue that we have to address," Moore said. ($1 = 0.8672 euros) Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
FDA's Makary wants to increase drug access, reduce 'addictive' foods
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary has an ambitious plan to overhaul how quickly patients can access drugs in the US, but also wants to reduce reliance on pharmaceuticals by shifting the focus of research to finding the root causes of common diseases. At the top of his list is reducing Americans' consumption of ultra-processed foods and making subsidized federal food programs healthier. "No one has been talking about the fact that food has been designed to be addictive. So when we have a crisis in our nation's children, that is, 40% have a chronic disease and 31% have prediabetes or insulin resistance, it's not their fault," Makary told Yahoo Finance in an interview Wednesday. "We don't think that our childhood obesity epidemic is a willpower problem. We think this is something adults are doing to kids," Makary added. He spoke with Yahoo Finance while on a nationwide tour to connect with drug industry leaders at companies big and small. But while Makary is focused on streamlining access to medicines and allowing access to some that may not be fully tested in traditional clinical trials, he is also focused on reducing the use of drugs in daily life. "We've got to talk about school lunch programs, not just putting every 6-year-old on Ozempic," Makary said, referencing the blockbuster diabetes drug from Novo Nordisk (NVO). "We've got to talk about sleep medicine and the quality of sleep, not just antihypertensive after antihypertensive [drugs that treat high blood pressure]. And we've gotta talk about environmental exposures that cause cancer, not just the chemo to treat it. We've got to talk about food as medicine and the microbiome," Makary said. He has also been vocal about revamping the food pyramid, which hasn't been updated in more than a decade, and sees it as one path to regaining trust in the agency — which has declined in the years since the pandemic. "We are going to rewrite those dietary guidelines. I think that'll go a long way too in rebuilding trust," Makary said. Research and rebuilding trust In addition to the FDA's work in addressing chronic diseases, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are also directing funds to do the same. When asked about cuts to health equity-focused research, including women's health, Makary defended the Trump administration's moves to cut some federally funded research, to the tune of $18 billion, or a 40% reduction. "The NIH, when we came into office, was a mess. Fourteen percent of grants went to descriptive studies on health equity, not reducing health equities." Meanwhile, Makary has been focused on ensuring quicker access to drugs, questioning why it takes 10 years for a drug to reach market, and more transparency about drugs that are approved. He did not specify when the public would get greater access to decision letters, but continued to promise more access. "We're releasing the FDA decision letters so the public can see them, drug developers can see them. We can give more predictability. We're modernizing the agency. We're trying to cut some of the idle time," Makary said, noting this was key to rebuilding trust as well. Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, provider services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee as AnjKhem on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem. Click here for in-depth analysis of the latest health industry news and events impacting stock prices Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
