Latest news with #DeenaBeasley
Mint
a day ago
- Health
- Mint
US CDC tightens safety measures after gunman kills officer in Atlanta
By Dan Levine and Deena Beasley The U.S. CDC has tightened security following an attack Friday on its Atlanta headquarters that left a police officer and the gunman dead, including having employees work from home on Monday and removing vehicle decals showing where they work. The union representing workers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the violence "compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured," citing reports that the gunman blamed the Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal. Since being named Health and Human Services Secretary earlier this year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has targeted vaccine policy, and in May withdrew a federal recommendation for Covid shots for pregnant women and healthy children. Kennedy will visit the CDC campus in Atlanta on Monday, according to a source familiar with the plans. "No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others," Kennedy Jr. said in a post on X on Saturday. A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that 189 rounds of gunfire had hit the CDC buildings during the attack, 85 windows were broken and over 100 doors destroyed, among other damage. The Atlanta Police Department referred calls to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which did not have an immediate comment. Both local and federal law enforcement are "conducting intensive monitoring of all potential threats to CDC and its staff," the agency's acting Chief Operating Officer Christa Capozzola said in an email to staff over the weekend that was seen by Reuters. She said work was under way to clean up and repair extensive damage to the CDC's campus by the shooter who, according to the investigation so far, acted alone. An "all-staff" meeting on Tuesday will become a virtual-only event, CDC Director Susan Monarez said in a separate email to employees seen by Reuters. She said teams were working hard to determine "our workplace posture" moving forward.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Health
- Yahoo
US CDC tightens safety measures after gunman kills officer in Atlanta
By Dan Levine and Deena Beasley (Reuters) -The U.S. CDC has tightened security following an attack Friday on its Atlanta headquarters that left a police officer and the gunman dead, including having employees work from home on Monday and removing vehicle decals showing where they work. The union representing workers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the violence "compounds months of mistreatment, neglect, and vilification that CDC staff have endured," citing reports that the gunman blamed the Covid-19 vaccine for making him depressed and suicidal. Since being named Health and Human Services Secretary earlier this year, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has targeted vaccine policy, and in May withdrew a federal recommendation for Covid shots for pregnant women and healthy children. Kennedy will visit the CDC campus in Atlanta on Monday, according to a source familiar with the plans. "No one should face violence while working to protect the health of others," Kennedy Jr. said in a post on X on Saturday. A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that 189 rounds of gunfire had hit the CDC buildings during the attack, 85 windows were broken and over 100 doors destroyed, among other damage. The Atlanta Police Department referred calls to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which did not have an immediate comment. Both local and federal law enforcement are "conducting intensive monitoring of all potential threats to CDC and its staff," the agency's acting Chief Operating Officer Christa Capozzola said in an email to staff over the weekend that was seen by Reuters. She said work was under way to clean up and repair extensive damage to the CDC's campus by the shooter who, according to the investigation so far, acted alone. An "all-staff" meeting on Tuesday will become a virtual-only event, CDC Director Susan Monarez said in a separate email to employees seen by Reuters. She said teams were working hard to determine "our workplace posture" moving forward. The agency's safety division asked employees to remove CDC-identifying decals from their vehicles, an email seen by Reuters showed. (Reporting By Deena Beasley and Dan Levine in San Francisco; Additonal reporting by Rich McKay in Atlanta; Editing by Bernadette Baum)
Yahoo
05-08-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Amgen quarterly results beat Wall Street estimates
By Deena Beasley (Reuters) -Amgen on Tuesday posted quarterly financial results that beat Wall Street expectations as a 9% increase in product sales offset higher operating expenses. The California-based biotech company's second-quarter revenue rose 9% from a year earlier to $9.2 billion. Adjusted earnings per share increased 21% to $6.02. Analysts had expected an adjusted profit of $5.29 on revenue of $8.94 billion, according to LSEG data. Second-quarter net earnings were $2.65 per share. "We're delivering strong performance and reaching more patients with innovative medicines and biosimilars that address serious diseases," Amgen CEO Robert Bradway said in a statement. Sales of cholesterol-lowering medication Repatha rose 31% to $696 million. Sales of bone drug Prolia fell 4% to $1.1 billion and the company said it expects further erosion this year due to new competition from biosimilars. Adjusted operating expenses rose 8% from a year earlier, while research and development costs rose 18%. The company said it expects to have data in the fourth quarter from two key mid-stage studies of its experimental weight-loss drug MariTide. One is testing the drug in obese or overweight adults with or without type 2 diabetes, while the second is looking at MariTide as a treatment for type 2 diabetes. MariTide is an antibody linked to a pair of peptides that activate receptors for the appetite- and blood sugar-reducing hormone GLP-1 while simultaneously blocking a second gut hormone called GIP. For the full year, Amgen slightly raised its financial outlook to adjusted earnings per share of $20.20 to $21.30 on revenue of $35 billion to $36 billion. It had previously forecast earnings of $20.00 to $21.20 per share on revenue of $34.3 billion to $35.7 billion. Analysts, on average, have estimated 2025 earnings of $20.91 per share on revenue of $35.4 billion. The company said its 2025 outlook includes the impact of implemented tariffs, but does not account for any future levies, including potential sector-specific tariffs, or pricing actions that could be implemented in the future. The pharmaceutical industry is facing intense pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to lower prices that Americans pay for prescription medicines, while preparing for 15% tariffs on imports from the European Union. (Reporting By Deena BeasleyEditing by Bill Berkrot)
Yahoo
22-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Data on Novo Nordisk experimental weight-loss drug show mostly mild side effects
By Deena Beasley (Reuters) -Novo Nordisk on Sunday said full results from two late-stage trials of its experimental weight-loss drug CagriSema show that side effects were mainly mild-to-moderate and other outcome results, including blood sugar levels, were positive. The company had previously announced top-line results for the 68-week studies, which found that CagriSema led to nearly 23% weight loss for overweight or obese adults, while overweight type 2 diabetics lost nearly 16% of their weight. Those results, however, disappointed investors, sending Novo's shares lower. The company last month ousted its CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen. The full Phase 3 results were presented in Chicago at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In the obesity trial, 79.6% of CagriSema patients had mainly transient, mild-to-moderate gastrointestinal effects such as nausea, vomiting and constipation, compared with 39.9% of placebo patients. Serious adverse events occurred in 9.8% of CagriSema patients and 6.1% of placebo patients. In the CagriSema group, 6% of patients dropped out of the trial due to adverse events, compared with 3.7% in the placebo group. "Everything was in line with what we expected," Dr. Melanie Davies, lead investigator of the CagriSema diabetes trial, and co-director of the Leicester Diabetes Centre, told Reuters. The percentage of patients who had a glycated hemoglobin, or blood sugar, level of 6.5% or less was 73.5% in the CagriSema group and 15.9% in the placebo group. Dr. Davies acknowledged questions about why many patients in the trials were not given the highest tested dose. "Those patients on lower doses actually had higher weight loss reduction," she said. "We've not really seen that before because we have not had powerful treatments that have got people close to target." CagriSema is a weekly injection that combines Novo's blockbuster GLP-1 drug Wegovy with another molecule, cagrilintide, that mimics a hunger-suppressing pancreatic hormone called amylin. The CagriSema Phase 3 trial results "compared very favorably also with what we've seen with tirzepatide, which was previously the best-in-class," Dr. Davies said. Eli Lilly's tirzepatide, sold under the brand name Zepbound for weight loss, works by stimulating GLP-1 along with a second gut hormone called GIP. It was shown to help obese and overweight adults lose 22% of their weight over 72 weeks. Dr. Davies said it makes sense to have more options for patients, including "theoretical benefits" with amylin, which has been shown in animal studies to boost energy expenditure. If that effect is seen in humans, it could help mitigate the body's metabolic adaptation to weight loss, she said. Novo Nordisk said it plans to file for regulatory approvals for CagriSema in the first quarter of 2026. "We expect to see approval maybe around the beginning of 2027," Martin Holst Lange, head of development at Novo Nordisk, told Reuters. The company is conducting several other trials of CagriSema, including measuring its impact on cardiovascular outcomes. Lange said trial patients given lower doses of the drug often lost as much weight as those given higher doses, suggesting the need for flexibility including longer time periods between dose escalation. "This also allows them to lose their body weight at a pace that isn't too steep. It also mitigates side effects," he said. (Reporting By Deena Beasley, Editing by Franklin Paul)
Time of India
19-06-2025
- Health
- Time of India
US FDA approves Gilead's twice-yearly injection for HIV prevention
By Deena Beasley and Julie Steenhuysen Los Angeles: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved Gilead Sciences lenacapavir , a twice-yearly injection, for preventing HIV infection in adults and adolescents at high risk of contracting the deadly virus. Investors and AIDS activists had been eagerly awaiting the regulatory decision for the drug seen as convenient enough to help end the 44-year-old HIV epidemic. It will be sold under the brand name Yeztugo in the U.S. at a list price of $28,218 a year. Lenacapavir, part of a class of drugs known as capsid inhibitors, proved nearly 100% effective at preventing HIV in large trials last year, raising new hope of interrupting transmission of the virus that infects 1.3 million people a year. Yeztugo "will only be as effective as it is accessible and affordable," Kevin Robert Frost, CEO of the Foundation for AIDS Research, said in a statement, calling on Gilead and the U.S. government to make sure people who want lenacapavir can get it. Gilead said it is working to secure health insurer coverage. It said it will provide co-pay assistance for eligible insured people, and the drug may be available free of charge for some under its program for the uninsured. Medications to prevent HIV, known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, are widely available. But most are daily pills, including low-cost generic versions of Gilead's older drug Truvada, that require strict adherence to be effective. Gilead said Yeztugo is priced in line with other branded drugs. "This is a milestone moment," said Gilead Chief Executive Daniel O'Day of the approval. "We believe that lenacapavir is the most important tool we have yet to bend the arc of the epidemic and move this epidemic into the history books," O'Day said. Availability of a twice-yearly HIV prevention tool is "a huge advance," that could help change the course of the epidemic, Dr. Raphael Landovitz, director of the UCLA Center for Clinical AIDS Research & Education, said in an email. But he said the product's high launch price "is almost certainly going to complicate payor coverage and access." Gilead has plans for a rapid launch in the United States as well as a wider rollout of the drug in collaboration with global partners. Gilead's chief commercial officer, Johanna Mercier, said the company's "end game" is to normalize PrEP usage, both in the United States and other countries, including low-income African nations where the virus is most prevalent. Citi Research analyst Geoff Meacham said he expects Yeztugo's launch to be slow and steady, reaching annual sales of $2.8 billion by 2030. Mercier said she expects around 75% of U.S. insurers, including government health plans, will cover lenacapavir for PrEP within about six months, with the number rising to 90% within 12 months of launch. The drug is currently sold as a treatment in the U.S. under the brand name Sunlenca for patients with advanced disease that has become resistant to other drugs. PEPFAR CUTS In December, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) under then-President Joe Biden signed an agreement with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to provide the treatment to as many as 2 million people for three years if it won U.S. regulatory approval for prevention. That would allow for unprecedented early access to a state-of-the-art treatment, as six generic drugmakers that have licensed the product from Gilead gear up for production of low-cost versions in 120 resource-limited countries. AIDS activists have viewed the drug as a way to significantly slow the epidemic, but cuts to PEPFAR by the Trump administration have raised concerns about the U.S. government's commitment to the rollout. O'Day acknowledged that the changes have been "challenging," but said the company has continued to have discussions with both the Global Fund and PEPFAR. "I believe that there will be sources of funding for this, and that these organizations will prioritize this type of prevention," he said.
