Raphael Stevens

Private jet company Wheels Up announced Tuesday its founder and CEO, Kenny Dichter, is stepping down from his post immediately.
The company is facing mounting losses and the potential for bankruptcy.
Similar to many private jet startups, Wheels Up was dogged by high costs and operating issues.

Kenny Dichter, founder and former CEO of Wheels Up.
Chris Goodney | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Private jet company Wheels Up announced Tuesday its founder and CEO, Kenny Dichter, is stepping down from his post immediately as the company faces mounting losses and the potential for bankruptcy.
Board member Ravi Thakran will become executive chairman, while Chief Financial Officer Todd Smith will serve as interim CEO, the company said in a statement. Wheels Up didn’t give a reason for the executive changes, but thanked Dichter for his “vision and work” in growing revenue to over $1.5 billion a year and membership to over 12,000 customers.

Dichter’s departure caps a dramatic fall for one of the private jet industry’s most high-profile startups. Wheels Up once promised to become the Uber or Airbnb of private jets. Dichter, who founded Marquis Jets in 2001 and later sold it to NetJets, launched Wheels Up in 2013 aiming to “democratize” private jets and make them more affordable and easier to book.
The company’s flashy marketing campaigns, featuring sports celebrities such as Tom Brady and Serena Williams as brand ambassadors and investors, as well as lavish events, helped the company grow membership quickly.
But its stock price, which traded over $10 a share after it went public via SPAC in 2021, is now trading at about 40 cents after a 20% decline Tuesday. Its valuation, once over $2 billion, has dwindled to about $100 million.

Potential for bankruptcy

Like many private jet startups, Wheels Up was dogged by high costs and operating issues.
The company reported losses of $555 million last year, even as revenue and memberships increased. The company said it hoped to be profitable in 2024, but in its first-quarter earnings report released Tuesday, Wheels Up reported a loss of $101 million, about $12 million wider than its reported loss a year ago. 

Wheels Up has been consulting with bankruptcy advisors and attorneys about possible capital raises or a restructuring, people familiar with the company’s dealings told CNBC.
Wheels Up said in its earnings release Tuesday it is changing its pricing plan and product offering to better serve customers and become more efficient. For instance, it’s moving away from less profitable markets in the West to focus more on the Northeast and other more active routes.
A traditional individual Wheels Up membership has an initiation fee of $17,500 and annual dues of $8,500, with passengers paying additional hourly costs depending on the type of aircraft.

Tom Brady uses Wheels Up.
Source: Wheel’s Up

Industry experts say turning around Wheels Up will be difficult.
“It’s the right move, they had to get out of unprofitable flights” said the Doug Gollan, founder and editor of Private Jet Card Comparisons. “But it’s going to be a big challenge.”
There may also be questions about Dichter’s generous pay package. According to an SEC filing, Dichter will receive his base salary of $79,167 a month, or $950,000 a year, for two years. He will also receive $3 million as a lump sum “in lieu of a bonus” in addition to flight hours on Wheels Up planes.
In the event of a bankruptcy, Wheels Up’s members may wonder what happens to their jet cards. Members and customers have purchased about $1 billion in flight hours on cards, some of which have not been used. Industry experts say it’s unclear how or whether those members would be paid back in any bankruptcy, but they would likely become junior creditors.
Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owns competitor NetJets, said this weekend Wheels Up “has 12,600 people who have given them over a billion dollars on prepaid cards … and I think there’s a good chance some people are going to be disappointed later on.” More

Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive on Tuesday reported a first-quarter loss that was narrower than expected.
It said it’s still on track to meet a 50,000-vehicle production target for 2023.
Rivian has been working to reduce its spending over the last several months in a bid to conserve cash.

Courtesy: Rivian

Electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive on Tuesday reported a first-quarter loss that was narrower than expected and said it’s still on track to meet a 50,000-vehicle production target for 2023.
Shares were up about 4% in after-hours trading following the news.

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Here’s how the company did as per consensus analyst estimates by Refinitiv:

Loss per share: $1.25 adjusted vs. $1.59 expected.
Revenue: $661 million vs. $652.1 million expected.

Rivian’s net loss narrowed to $1.35 billion, or $1.45 per share, from $1.59 billion, or $1.77 per share, during the year-earlier period.
Total revenue soared year over year from $95 million, according to the company.
The EV maker had $11.8 billion in cash remaining as of March 31, down from $12.1 billion at the end of 2022. Capital expenditures for the first quarter were $283 million, versus $418 million in the year-ago period.
Rivian has been working to reduce its spending over the last several months in a bid to conserve cash. The company said on Feb. 1 that it would cut 6% of its workforce, or about 900 employees.

“Our core priorities for 2023 are unchanged,” CEO RJ Scaringe said in an earnings release Tuesday. “The team remains focused on ramping production, driving cost reductions, developing the [upcoming smaller] R2 platform and future technologies and delivering an outstanding end-to-end customer experience.”
Rivian said on April 3 that it built 9,395 EVs in the first quarter and delivered 7,946 vehicles to customers. Both numbers were down from the fourth quarter, a result of planned factory downtime as the company upgraded assembly lines to incorporate its new made-in-house “Enduro” electric motors and lower-cost lithium iron phosphate battery packs.
Chief Financial Officer Claire McDonough stressed that the new motors and batteries are “critical to achieve our long-term target cost structure across current vehicle platforms, as well as R2.”
Rivian’s R2 platform, now in development, will underpin a series of smaller vehicles priced below the R1T pickup’s current $73,000 starting price. It’s currently expected to launch in 2026.
The automaker confirmed that it remains on track to hit its full-year production guidance of 50,000 vehicles, roughly twice the number it made in 2022, with total capital expenditures of about $2 billion for the year.
The company is currently building the R1T pickup, the R1S SUV and a series of electric delivery vans for Amazon at its factory in Normal, Illinois. More

Most women should get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40, a decade earlier than previously recommended, according to draft guidelines issued by a government-backed panel of experts. 
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said its new guidance could save 19% more lives.
The panel said the revised guidance also aims to reduce the disparities in breast cancer death rates among Black women. 
Breast cancer screenings typically involve a mammogram, which is an X-ray of the breast. 

Medical personnel use a mammogram to examine a woman’s breast for breast cancer.
Hannibal Hanschke | dpa | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

Most women should get screened for breast cancer every other year starting at age 40, a decade earlier than previously recommended, according to draft guidelines issued Tuesday by a government-backed panel of experts. 
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said its new guidance could save 19% more lives.

Each year in the U.S., about 264,000 cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in women and roughly 2,400 in men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 42,000 women and 500 men in the U.S. die each year from the disease.
Breast cancer screenings typically involve a mammogram, which is an X-ray of the breast. 
The panel’s guidance applies to cisgender women and all other people assigned female at birth who are at average risk of breast cancer. It does not apply to people at high risk of breast cancer, including those who have a family history of the disease. 
The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s recommendations are usually widely adopted in the U.S. The panel’s previous guidance, which was last updated in 2016, suggested women should start screening every other year at age 50.
That guidance also said women in their 40s could talk to their doctors about getting screened, particularly if they have a family history of breast cancer. 

At the time, the panel was concerned earlier screenings could lead to unnecessary treatment for younger women, including biopsies that turn out to be negative. A biopsy is a sample of tissue taken from the body, which gets tested for a disease like cancer.
But the panel said it changed that guidance due to “new and more inclusive science” about breast cancer in people younger than 50, according to Dr. Carol Mangione, immediate past chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
The rate of breast cancer among women ages 40 to 49 increased 2% each year on average from 2015 to 2019, according to the National Cancer Institute. 
The panel said the new guidance also aims to ease the disparities in breast cancer death rates between Black women and white women.
Black women are 40% more likely to die of the disease than their white counterparts and “too often get deadly cancers at younger ages,” the panel said in the guidelines. 
The panel urgently called for more research on how to eliminate the disparity.
“Ensuring Black women start screening at age 40 is an important first step, yet it is not enough to improve the health inequities we face related to breast cancer,” Dr. Wanda Nicholson, the panel’s vice chair, said in the guidelines.
Other medical groups, including the American College of Radiology and the American Cancer Society, already recommend annual breast cancer screenings before age 50.
About 60% of women ages 40 to 49 reported having a mammogram within the past two years in 2019, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More

Rocket Lab’s revenue increased slightly in the first quarter, but losses grew as well.
The spacecraft and launch company added a NASA contract and announced the delivery of its first Photon spacecraft for in-space manufacturing company Varda.
The company said an increase in R&D spending for its Neutron rocket and Photon spacecraft drove a rise in expenses.

Electron rockets undergo preparation for launch.
Rocket Lab

Rocket Lab’s revenue increased slightly in the first quarter, but losses grew as well, as the spacecraft and launch company added a NASA contract and continued to invest in its future Neutron vehicle.
The company reported a net loss of $45.6 million, or 10 cents per share, wider than the net loss of $26.7 million, or 6 cents per share, that it reported a year earlier. On an adjusted EBITDA basis, the company lost $26.2 million, compared with loss of $8 million in the same period a year ago.

Rocket Lab said an increase in R&D spending for its Neutron rocket and Photon spacecraft drove a rise in expenses.
Revenue grew in the first quarter to $54.9 million – up about 6% from the prior quarter and about 35% from the same quarter last year. The company’s rocket business brought in $19.6 million, thanks to three launches during the quarter, while its space systems division saw revenue of $35.3 million, down from $39.8 million in the prior quarter.
“At a time when we’re starting to see a contraction of available small rockets, we’re also seeing an increase in launch bookings for Electron launches in 2023 and beyond from new and returning customers across government and commercial sectors. The development of our larger rocket Neutron is continuing at pace,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a statement.
Rocket Lab’s order backlog decreased slightly to $494.2 million, as the company “recognized strong revenue in the quarter, combined with some larger potential deals taking longer to close.”
It had $450 million in cash on hand at the quarter’s end, down from $484.3 million the prior quarter.

Shares of Rocket Lab were little changed in after-hours trading from its close at $3.94 a share. The company’s stock is up 4.5% so far this year.

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Rocket Lab made a pair of announcements alongside its quarterly results, including a deal with NASA to launch its Starling mission of “swarm” satellites on Electron in the third quarter. The company noted that it “will deliver the satellites to space within three months of the contract signing.”
It also announced the delivery of its first Photon spacecraft developed for in-space manufacturing company Varda, which is expected to launch “no earlier than June 8.” More

A jury cleared Gilead Sciences of U.S. government allegations that it violated patents held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on an HIV prevention drug.
The government had sued Gilead in 2019 arguing that the company was profiting off CDC patents through the company’s sales of Truvada and Descovy.
But jurors after a multiday trial found that the government’s patent claims on the HIV prevention regimen called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, were not valid.

The logo of Gilead Sciences pharmaceutical company is seen in Oceanside, California, April 29, 2020.
Mike Blake | Reuters

A Delaware federal court jury on Tuesday cleared Gilead Sciences of civil claims by the U.S. government that the company violated patents held by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for an HIV prevention drug.
The government sued Gilead in 2019, arguing that the company was profiting off CDC patents through the company’s sales of Truvada and Descovy, oral medications taken to prevent HIV infection.

But jurors after a multiday trial found that the government’s patent claims on the HIV prevention regimen called pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, were not valid.
“Today’s decision confirms our longstanding belief that we have always had the rights to make Truvada and Descovy for PrEP available to all who need it,” said Gilead general counsel Deb Telman in a statement.
“Gilead will continue to champion collaborations, including our efforts with the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS) and CDC that span more than 15 years, as we all work together toward our common goal to end the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere,” Telman said.
HHS, the parent entity of the CDC, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the verdict.
Gilead’s combined worldwide sales of Truvada and Descovy were about $2 billion in 2022, according to company financial statements.

The government claimed that the CDC in the mid-2000s discovered that two drugs, emtricitabine and tenofovir, were highly effective in preventing HIV infection.
Truvada and Descovy both contain emtricitabine and tenofovir. But Gilead said it invented these drugs, and that the concept of using Truvada to prevent HIV was well-known when the U.S. government filed for the patents.
PrEP has played a crucial role in reducing the number of new HIV infections in communities that face a higher risk from the virus, such as men who have sex with other men.
Scientists have tried for decades to develop a vaccine against HIV. But those efforts to date have been unsuccessful.
About 40 million people worldwide have died from HIV since the epidemic began in the 1980s, according to the World Health Organization. More than 80 million people have been infected.
In 2021, there were 38 million people living with HIV, according to WHO data.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the correct name of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More

Virgin Galactic is aiming to fly its first spaceflight in nearly two years later this month.
But the space tourism company’s first quarter loss widened as it funds its fleet growth.
Virgin Galactic cited “increases in research and development expenses,” in a press release.

An aerial view of carrier aircraft VMS Eve, left, and spacecraft VSS Unity, at Spaceport America in New Mexico on Feb. 27, 2023.
Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic is aiming to fly its first spaceflight in nearly two years later this month, but the company’s first quarter loss widened dramatically as it funds its fleet growth.
For the quarter ended March 31, Virgin Galactic posted a net loss of $159.4 million, or 57 cents a share, compared with a loss of $93.1 million, or 36 cents a share, a year earlier.

Virgin Galactic had cash and securities totaling $874 million at the end of the quarter, down from about $980 million at the end of the fourth quarter. It reported minimal revenue.

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Virgin Galactic cited “increases in research and development expenses,” in a press release. CEO Michael Colglazier said the company is “making steady progress on the development of our Delta Class spaceships.”
The company is preparing to launch its VSS Unity spacecraft for the first time since flying Sir Richard Branson in July 2021. The next spaceflight, scheduled for the end of May, will carry a crew of company employees on a mission to verify its work. It paused launches for a lengthy refurbishment period of its vehicles, with Virgin Galactic aiming to fly its first commercial mission in “late June.”
The space tourism company reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $140 million, compared with a $77 million loss in the same period a year ago.
Shares of Virgin Galactic stock slipped more than 1% in after-hours trading, from its close at $4.09 a share. The stock is up about 17% since this beginning of the year. More