Latest news with #MichaelErman
Yahoo
11-08-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Medical journal rejects Kennedy's call for retraction of vaccine study
By Michael Erman and Jennifer Rigby (Reuters) -An influential U.S. medical journal is rejecting a call from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to retract a large Danish study that found that aluminum ingredients in vaccines do not increase health risks for children, the journal's editor told Reuters. Kennedy has long promoted doubts about vaccines' safety and efficacy, and as health secretary has upended the federal government's process for recommending immunization. A recent media report said he has been considering whether to initiate a review of shots that contain aluminum, which he says are linked to autoimmune diseases and allergies. The study, which was funded by the Danish government and published in July in the Annals of Internal Medicine, analyzed nationwide registry data for more than 1.2 million children over more than two decades. It did not find evidence that exposure to aluminum in vaccines had caused an increased risk for autoimmune, atopic or allergic, or neurodevelopmental disorders. The work is by far the best available evidence on the question of the safety of aluminum in vaccines, said Adam Finn, a childhood vaccination expert in the UK and pediatrician at the University of Bristol, who was not involved in the study. "It's solid, (a) massive dataset and high-quality data," he said. Kennedy described the research as "a deceitful propaganda stunt by the pharmaceutical industry," and said the scientists who authored it had "meticulously designed it not to find harm" in a detailed Aug. 1 opinion piece on TrialSite News, an independent website focused on clinical research. He called on the journal to "immediately retract" the study. "I see no reason for retraction," Dr. Christine Laine, editor in chief of the Annals and a professor of medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, said in an interview. The journal plans to respond to criticism the article has received on its website, Laine said, but it does not intend to respond directly to Kennedy's piece, which was not submitted to the Annals. The lead author of the study, Anders Peter Hviid, head of the epidemiology research department at the Statens Serum Institut in Denmark, defended the work in a response post to TrialSite. He wrote that none of the critiques put forward by Kennedy were substantive and he categorically denied any deceit as implied by the secretary. "I am used to controversy around vaccine safety studies - especially those that relate to autism, but I have not been targeted by a political figurehead in this way before," Hviid said in an emailed response to Reuters. "I have confidence in our work and in our ability to reply to the critiques of our study." Kennedy had a number of critiques, including the lack of a control group, that the study deliberately excluded different groups of children to avoid showing a link between aluminum and childhood health conditions - including those with the highest levels of exposure - and that it did not include the raw data. Hviid responded to the criticisms on TrialSite. He said some of the points were related to study design choices that were reasonable to discuss but refuted others, including that the study was designed not to find a link. In fact he said, its design was based on a study led by Matthew Daley, a pediatrician at Kaiser Permanente Colorado, which did show a link, and which Kennedy cited in his article. There was no control group because in Denmark, only 2% of children are unvaccinated, which is too small for meaningful comparison, Hviid added. The data is available for researchers to analyze, but individual-level data is not released under Danish law, he said. Other prominent vaccine skeptics including those at the antivaccine organization Kennedy previously ran, Children's Health Defense, have similarly criticized the study on the Annals site. TrialSite staff defended the study for its scale, data transparency and funding while acknowledging the limitations of its design, a view seconded by some outside scientists. Laine said that while some of the issues Kennedy raised in his article may underscore acceptable limitations of the study, "they do not invalidate what they found, and there's no evidence of scientific misconduct." An HHS spokesman said the department had "no further comment than what the secretary said."
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Johnson & Johnson beats profit estimates on strong Darzalex, medtech sales
By Michael Erman (Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson reported second-quarter profit and raised its full-year sales forecast by around $2 billion on Wednesday as strong demand for its cancer drug, Darzalex, and strength in its medical device business helped it beat Wall Street expectations. On an adjusted basis, the drug and medical device maker earned $2.77 per share for the quarter, above analysts' expectation of $2.68 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. Sales in the quarter were $23.74 billion, above analysts' expectation of $22.84 billion. The company said it now expects full-year sales in the range of $93.2 billion to $93.6 billion, up from its April forecast of $91 billion to $91.8 billion. Analysts on average had estimated sales of $91.5 billion for the year. It cited strong operational performance in the quarter as well as the stronger dollar for the increase. J&J said in April that it was expecting $400 million in costs related to tariffs, mostly in the company's medical device business, starting from the second quarter. Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said in an interview that the company had now reduced that estimate to $200 million due to the pause on U.S. tariffs on China and other retaliatory tariffs. "We were able to absorb that and still raise our EPS guidance by 25 cents on the year," Wolk said. He said the company was not ready to forecast the impact of tariffs on 2026. "It's such a fluid environment that we'll just have to wait and see," he said. On an adjusted basis, J&J expects to earn $10.80 to $10.90 per share in 2025, compared with its previous forecast of $10.50 to $10.70 per share. Quarterly sales for the medtech unit rose 6.1% to $8.5 billion. Darzalex, a blood cancer therapy launched in 2015, brought in second-quarter sales of $3.54 billion, compared with analysts' expectation of $3.38 billion. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Johnson & Johnson beats profit estimates on strong Darzalex, medtech sales
By Michael Erman (Reuters) -Johnson & Johnson reported second-quarter profit and raised its full-year sales forecast by around $2 billion on Wednesday as strong demand for its cancer drug, Darzalex, and strength in its medical device business helped it beat Wall Street expectations. On an adjusted basis, the drug and medical device maker earned $2.77 per share for the quarter, above analysts' expectation of $2.68 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. Sales in the quarter were $23.74 billion, above analysts' expectation of $22.84 billion. The company said it now expects full-year sales in the range of $93.2 billion to $93.6 billion, up from its April forecast of $91 billion to $91.8 billion. Analysts on average had estimated sales of $91.5 billion for the year. It cited strong operational performance in the quarter as well as the stronger dollar for the increase. J&J said in April that it was expecting $400 million in costs related to tariffs, mostly in the company's medical device business, starting from the second quarter. Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said in an interview that the company had now reduced that estimate to $200 million due to the pause on U.S. tariffs on China and other retaliatory tariffs. "We were able to absorb that and still raise our EPS guidance by 25 cents on the year," Wolk said. He said the company was not ready to forecast the impact of tariffs on 2026. "It's such a fluid environment that we'll just have to wait and see," he said. On an adjusted basis, J&J expects to earn $10.80 to $10.90 per share in 2025, compared with its previous forecast of $10.50 to $10.70 per share. Quarterly sales for the medtech unit rose 6.1% to $8.5 billion. Darzalex, a blood cancer therapy launched in 2015, brought in second-quarter sales of $3.54 billion, compared with analysts' expectation of $3.38 billion. 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
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Pharma imports to US surged in March as drugmakers look to avoid tariffs
By Michael Erman NEW YORK (Reuters) -Pharmaceutical imports to the U.S. surged in March as drugmakers stocked up ahead of potential U.S. tariffs on their products, which have historically been exempt from such fees. Total imports of pharmaceutical products exceeded $50 billion in the month - the equivalent of 20% of all pharmaceutical imports in 2024, according to data from a U.S. Commerce Department report on Tuesday. Imports jumped in particular from Ireland, the top drug exporter to the U.S. The country had a larger trade surplus than China with the U.S. for the first time in March. Imports of all goods from Ireland rose by about $15.5 billion from February, with drugs accounting for most of that. "While we had known consumer goods accounted for the bulk of March's rise, we can now see pharmaceutical products were $20 billion higher - almost all of which were imported from Ireland," Matthew Martin, senior U.S. economist at Oxford Economics, wrote following the report. President Donald Trump has been threatening to levy tariffs on pharmaceuticals as part of a trade policy he says will increase domestic manufacturing of medicines. Last month, the Trump administration launched a probe into imports of pharmaceuticals ahead of possibly imposing tariffs on the grounds that extensive reliance on foreign production of medicine is a national security threat. Trump said on Monday he would make an announcement on the tariffs in the next two weeks. He also issued an executive order aimed at easing the regulatory burden in the U.S. for producing drugs. In recent months, drugmakers told Reuters they had taken the unusual step of sending more medicines by air to the U.S. Two of the biggest U.S. drugmakers said on recent investor calls that they had stepped up efforts to bring in inventory as part of their preparation for tariffs. "As you can imagine, we have done everything that we have to do to make sure that we mitigate, so that includes inventory, of course, and many other things," Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said on a company conference call. He said the company was increasing that inventory each month to make sure "we are well positioned." Merck's primary exposure is through blockbuster cancer drug Keytruda, the world's biggest-selling prescription medicine, much of which is produced in Ireland. The company said last month it had moved enough inventory to the U.S. to protect it through year-end. In addition to Ireland and other European Union countries, Oxford's Martin said the countries most at risk from the anticipated drug import levies include Singapore and Switzerland. (Reporting by Michael Erman; Additional reporting by Dan Burns; Editing by Caroline Humer and Bill Berkrot)
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bristol Myers posts better-than-expected quarterly revenue on strong cancer drug sales
By Michael Erman (Reuters) -Bristol Myers Squibb reported better-than-expected first-quarter revenue on Thursday and raised its full-year forecast due to growth from its portfolio of drugs that spur a patient's own immune system to fight cancer. The company's shares have dropped more than 20% over the past month as investor concerns about U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats have roiled the markets. Chief Financial Officer David Elkins said in an interview that the company's global manufacturing footprint puts it in a good position to deal with whatever tariffs may come. "We have a really resilient supply chain, and we have manufacturing globally," Elkins said. "That gives us a lot of flexibility to move our manufacturing as appropriate." The U.S. started a probe into the pharmaceutical sector earlier this month as part of a bid to impose tariffs on the industry. Elkins said it was too early to understand the impact of potential tariffs targeting the pharmaceutical industry, and that Bristol Myers' forecast did not include any assumptions related to them. Revenue in the quarter fell less sharply than Wall Street analysts had forecast, coming in at $11.2 billion for the quarter, down from $11.9 billion a year earlier. Analysts had expected revenue of around $10.6 billion, according to LSEG data. Sales of the company's cancer immunotherapy Opdivo were $2.3 billion in the quarter, compared with Wall Street forecasts of just under $2 billion. Sales of its older immunotherapy, Yervoy, were $624 million in the quarter, more than $100 million higher than analysts' forecasts. The U.S. drugmaker also benefited as sales of some of its older or off-patent drugs like blood thinner Eliquis, which it shares with Pfizer, and blood cancer drug Revlimid fell less than expected. The company posted earnings of $2.5 billion, or $1.20 a share, roughly in line with Wall Street expectations. It raised its full-year forecast for revenue to a range of $45.8 billion to $46.8 billion from its previous forecast of $45.5 billion. It now expects full-year earnings in the range of $6.70 to $7 a share.
