Raphael Stevens

In this articleBIIBA person skateboards past Biogen Inc. headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Monday, June 7, 2021.Adam Glanzman | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesBiogen on Tuesday faced tough questions from Wall Street analysts over the $56,000 annual cost of its newly approved Alzheimer’s drug, Aduhelm – a price tag executives are calling “fair” and “responsible.”Shares of Biogen surged 38% on Monday after the FDA announced it approved the company’s drug, scientifically known as aducanumab. It is the first medication cleared by U.S. regulators to slow cognitive decline in people living with Alzheimer’s and the first new medicine for the disease in nearly two decades.The biotech company said it is charging $56,000 for an annual course of the new treatment, higher than the $10,000 to $25,000 price some Wall Street analysts were expecting. That’s the wholesale price, and the out-of-pocket cost patients will actually pay will depend on their health coverage.Some analysts and advocacy groups immediately questioned how the company could justify the price — about five times higher than expected — especially as medical experts continue to debate whether there’s enough evidence that the drug actually works and the industry faces criticism over drug prices.The FDA departed from the advice of its independent panel of outside experts, who unexpectedly declined to endorse the drug last fall, citing unconvincing data. “Our one concern here comes around the Aducanumab annual cost, and whether at $56K/year (we were at $10k) the sticker shock could further invigorate scrutiny on drug pricing,” Stifel analyst Jeff Preis told investors in a note Monday.On a call with investors Tuesday morning, Evercore ISI analyst Umer Raffat congratulated the Massachusetts-based company on the drug’s U.S. approval before asking executives to explain its price.”I do think there’s a disconnect between some of the words that you’ve shared in your press releases, like responsibility, access, health equity, versus the price point, especially given the primary care population,” he told executives.J.P. Morgan analyst Cory Kasimov later asked executives how much federal health insurance program Medicare will be expected to pay for the drug and how concerned executives are about the “backlash” the industry will face over its pricing.Biogen executives said the total price figure for the new treatment is “substantiated” by the value it is expected to bring to patients, caregivers and society. They insisted the price is “responsible,” noting the disease costs the U.S. billions each year.More than 6 million Americans are living with the disease, according to estimates by the Alzheimer’s Association. The company said it currently has the capacity to provide 1 million patients with the drug annually, with more than 900 sites in the U.S. ready to implement the new medicine.”We want to make sure Aduhelm is affordable for patients and sustainable for health-care systems,” one executive said.The company has committed to not raising the price of the new drug over the next four years. That being said, executives said they are “open-minded” and suggested they could rethink the price as the company assesses demand over the next few years.Biogen CEO Michel Vounatsos joined CNBC on Monday and said the drug’s price will allow the company to further invest in its pipeline of medicines for other diseases. He added the company is working closely with Medicare as well as private insurers. More

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during a press conference held at the Florida National Guard Robert A. Ballard Armory on June 07, 2021 in Miami, Florida.Joe Raedle | Getty ImagesFlorida and Alabama will no longer report daily Covid cases and fatalities as vaccinations rise and states begin shifting to the “next phase” of the pandemic.On Friday, Florida implemented a weekly reporting schedule for Covid data, the state’s Division of Emergency Management said on its website.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic:U.S. CDC eases travel recommendations on 61 countries, including Japan Fauci says U.S. must vaccinate more people before Delta becomes dominant Covid variant Florida, Alabama discontinue daily Covid data reporting in shift to ‘next phase’ of pandemicCovid vaccination tours? Russia is looking at travel packages to revive its tourism industry Major Chinese city battles Delta Covid variant first detected in India with lockdowns, mass testing “Florida is transitioning into the next phase of the COVID-19 response,” the Florida Department of Health wrote in an emailed statement Monday. “As vaccinations increase and new case positivity rate decreases, the Florida Department of Health has moved to a weekly reporting schedule.”Alabama moved to a new schedule on Monday in which the state will update case and death data three times a week and vaccination data twice a week.”Along with decreases in COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths, the Alabama Department of Public Health (ADPH) will be updating its dashboard less frequently,” wrote Dr. Karen Landers, an Alabama health officer, in a release Friday. The changes signal a shift in attitudes toward the pandemic as the U.S. averages about 16,000 new infections per day over the past week, a low level not seen since the early days of the outbreak. Florida is reporting an average of eight new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week and Alabama about 8.5 cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, far below their pandemic highs of 84 and 87 per 100,000, respectively. Still, public health experts warn that it might be risky to loosen data reporting guidelines given how quickly the nature of the outbreak has changed at various points over the past year.”I think we have to learn from this pandemic that you can’t just imagine that change may not happen,” said Dr. Wafaa El-Sadr, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at Columbia University, noting that infection levels in her home city of New York were low last summer before surging again over the winter.”If you start to see a trend, even over one week, you can raise a red flag and be vigilant about it,” she added. “I think it’s a bit premature to let down our guard.”Of course, the last major wave of Covid infections in the U.S. over the winter began before vaccines were available. In Alabama, however, only 36% of residents have received at least one shot, one of the lowest rates in the country, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data shows. At 50%, Florida’s numbers are closer to the nationwide rate of 52% of the population at least partially vaccinated, but still lag.Dr. Joseph Kanter, the top medical official in Louisiana, said that his state shifted to reporting Covid data five days a week about a month ago but has no plans to make any changes beyond that.”I think the daily updates, or at least Monday through Friday, are still pertinent and inform the public in a helpful way,” he said. “We’re not out of the woods by any means yet,” Kanter added, despite encouraging trends in case, hospitalization, and death counts. “We’re doing really well, but the general sense is that the health department is still not out of the woods and I am cognizant of sending the wrong idea.”Covid data reporting can be resource-intensive, and many state governments scrambled to build or update technology systems that could handle the unprecedented requirements last spring. The data is also “high-maintenance,” according to Kanter, who explained that his department has to do things like de-duplicate multiple positive tests for an individual into one recorded case in order to maintain accurate logs. “It is a lot of time, a big staff investment, but we continue to be in a public health emergency,” he said.Many states have moved away from daily reporting over the course of the pandemic, with nearly 20 reporting data five days a week, according to a list maintained by Johns Hopkins. Florida is the only state currently reporting both case and death data once per week, however, and only Kansas and Alabama are reporting three days a week, according to Johns Hopkins.The Alabama Department of Public Health could not be reached for comment. More

Martin Dimitrov | E+ | Getty ImagesIt’s tempting to go on a post-pandemic shopping spree.After a year of hunkering down, skipping vacations and restaurant dining, many Americans can’t wait to start spending again.Just over 50% of U.S. consumers plan to spend extra money splurging or treating themselves, according to a May survey by McKinsey & Company. The global management consulting firm polled 2,076 U.S. adults in February and weighted it to match the national general population.While many Americans are still struggling financially, others are doing well. They cut down their debt and saved more money over the past year. While treating yourself may be well-deserved, tread carefully, experts warn.More from Invest in You:Before you start some post-pandemic spending, make these money movesHow to avoid overspending in this hot housing marketHere are some budget basics to brush up on”We are all experiencing freedom, euphoria and relief post-Covid to varying degrees,” said financial therapist and coach Carrie Rattle, CEO and founder of New York-based Behavioral Cents.”It is easy to take that emotional release and translate it into shopping for material goods,” she added. “In these instances, there may be overspending and definitely splurging.”‘Revenge spending’ can backfireThe urge to splurge post-pandemic is being called “revenge spending.”Yet that could impact not only your finances but your happiness, if you wind up overspending, said researcher Elizabeth Dunn, PhD, chief science officer for financial technology firm Happy Money and author of “Happy Money: The Science of Happier Spending.”Sample monthly budgetAlex KuzoianPeople who spend less money than they bring in reported about 17% higher levels of life satisfaction than those who outspend their income, Happy Money research shows. They have 14% more life satisfaction versus those spending the equivalent of their income.”[By] going beyond the amount of money that you have coming in … you’re ultimately not getting revenge on the pandemic, you’re setting yourself up for lower happiness,” she said.Be analyticalBefore you splurge, approach your purchase analytically before you even put it in your cart, Rattle said.Ask yourself: “Do you already have one? How often will you be using it? Have you priced compared to ensure you’re getting value for your money?”Think aheadBefore you make a purchase, ask yourself if it will change the way you spend your time, advises Dunn, who is also a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of British Columbia.”This is a really simple question that people can ask themselves that can help them sometimes pull the items back out of the cart,” she said. “This is not actually going to have any bearing on the way I spend my time.”Beware shopping breaksWe often take shopping breaks, either by picking up our phone or shifting away from a project on our computer. Instead, walk away and do something else to let your emotion subside, Rattle suggests.Track your spendingWhen you buy something, write down what you bought and how much it was.Keeping a real-time, running tally of your spending can help you see patterns, such as days when you spend, situations that drove you to spend and sites you spent a lot of time on, Rattle said.”Often when we total the spend per week, it can have an incredible dampening effect on our urge to shop further,” she explained.How and when to treat yourselfThere’s nothing wrong with treating yourself, as long as you are smart about it.Dunn recommends spending on experiences, since we’ve been deprived of them over the past year and they tend to make us happier, according to her research.”Really actively anticipating a vacation can give you this sort of free source of pleasure, before the actual experience,” she said. “So you’re getting kind of a double dip in terms of happiness.”Westend61 | Westend61 | Getty ImagesJust make sure your finances are in order.If you have credit card debt you aren’t paying off, have refinanced credit card debt into your mortgage and accumulated more, are falling short on savings goals and are spending more time shopping than interacting with friends and family, you are likely overspending to the detriment of your personal or financial health, Rattle said.She looks at smart spending as purchasing items or experiences that add value to your life.”Spending smartly means you can afford these items and experiences without going into debt, while saving for those compelling goals in your life,” she said.”If you’re not yet clear on what those goals are you’re probably overspending in all the wrong places.”SIGN UP: Money 101 is an 8-week learning course to financial freedom, delivered weekly to your inbox.CHECK OUT: 4 content-creating side hustles that can produce passive income, with tips from the pros via Grow with Acorns+CNBCDisclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns. More

In this articleBAA Boeing plane sits on the tarmac at the Boeing South Carolina Plant in North Charleston, South Carolina, March 25, 2018.Randall Hill | ReutersBoeing’s aircraft sales outpaced cancellations for a fourth consecutive month in May as customers like Southwest Airlines ordered more planes.The manufacturer last month logged 73 new orders, more than 60 of them for its bestselling Max aircraft as well as wide-body passenger and freighter aircraft last month, Boeing said Tuesday. Customers Aeromexico and Norwegian Air Shuttle canceled Max orders while an unidentified customer axed orders for five 787 Dreamliners.Deliveries in the month totaled 17. Boeing again halted deliveries of 787 planes last month as the Federal Aviation Administration reviews the planemaker’s inspection methods. Handovers of those planes to customers, when Boeing usually collects the majority of a plane’s price, had been paused for about five months until April because of production flaws.”I don’t think we’re going to introduce as many changes as we did in this last five-month pause,” Boeing’s CEO, Dave Calhoun, said at Bernstein’s Strategic Decisions Conference last week, regarding the latest Dreamliner delivery suspension. “So we don’t regret any of that, but … it would be unfair of us to shove it down the FAA’s throat. That wouldn’t be right.”Tensions between the FAA and Boeing over the 737 Max, which was grounded for 19 months after two fatal crashes, cost previous CEO Dennis Muilenburg his job in December 2019.Boeing has 4,121 planes on backorder as of the end of May, up from 4,045 a month before. More

Dr. Marty Makary told CNBC on Tuesday people have failed recognize that the threat presented by the coronavirus in the U.S. is dramatically lower now than during earlier stages of the pandemic.”There’s a lot of good news out there, and I think that people need to hear that good news right now. People have an entirely distorted perception of risk,” the Johns Hopkins surgeon and professor said in an interview on “Squawk Box.”The case fatality rate for Covid in the U.S. has become “much different” now that the disease is circulating more among younger populations, said Makary.For those younger Americans, he said, the case fatality rate of Covid has become similar to seasonal flu. “Right now, we’ve got 1/50th the number of daily cases of this virus” compared with cases of flu during a mild season in the U.S., he added.The seven-day average of new daily Covid cases in the U.S. is around 15,800, according to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins University data. That’s down more than 60% from roughly a month ago, when the U.S. average of new daily coronavirus infections was around 45,000. The highest single day of new cases in the U.S. was 300,462 on Jan. 2.The sharp drop in Covid cases has coincided with more Americans receiving vaccines. As of Monday, nearly 64% of U.S. adults had received at least one vaccine dose and 53% are fully vaccinated, according to data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The country’s seven-day average of new daily reported Covid deaths is around 460, according to CNBC’s analysis of JHU data. That’s down 21% from a week ago. The highest single day of new fatalities in the U.S. was 4,477 on Jan. 12.People “need to be careful if they’re unvaccinated and not had the infection, but we need to move on at some point,” said Makary, author of many books, including “The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care — And How to Fix It.” It’s now in paperback with a new Covid section.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic:U.S. CDC eases travel recommendations on 61 countries, including Japan Fauci says U.S. must vaccinate more people before Delta becomes dominant Covid variant Florida, Alabama discontinue daily Covid data reporting in shift to ‘next phase’ of pandemicCovid vaccination tours? Russia is looking at travel packages to revive its tourism industry Major Chinese city battles Delta Covid variant first detected in India with lockdowns, mass testing In February, Makary wrote an attention-grabbing op-ed in The Wall Street Journal titled “We’ll Have Herd Immunity by April.” Not everyone agreed with his prediction after the piece was published, with some seeing it as too aggressive at the time.Makary said Tuesday he believes “the concept of herd immunity was one that got misinterpreted as eradication.” He noted that he acknowledged in the op-ed that the coronavirus will be around for decades.”We’re using the term population immunity right now so people don’t misconstrue herd immunity as a finish line or something that’s binary,” Makary said. “I do think you’re going to see it circulate in younger communities and that’s different from the threat that was just posed just, say, two months ago.” More

In this articleAMCA man walks past the AMC Georgetown 14 Theatres in Washington, DC on June 3, 2021.Mandel Ngan | AFP | Getty ImagesAMC Entertainment’s revitalization plan hinges on adding new theaters, but former Regal Entertainment CFO David Ownby told Jefferies there are too many screens in North America.Box office experts agree that moviegoing is not going to disappear. The pastime is inexpensive, enjoyable and can drive billions of dollars in ticket sales. In the last two weeks, the domestic box office has set ticket sales records for the pandemic era, a welcome sign of recovery for the industry.It’s a particularly promising signal for AMC, which raised around $2 billion in cash over the last six months and plans to use some of the fresh funds to acquire more theater locations. Its best-case scenario is that the public will continue to turn out to see films on the big screen, and with more market share, AMC will reap the benefits of those ticket sales.As AMC moves to add more theaters, it’s searching for high-performing locations that were abandoned during the pandemic, it may also need to shed some of its underperforming cinemas.Speaking with Jefferies, Ownby said America is “over-screened.” Before the pandemic, there were around 40,000 screens. The bottom 15% of those locations generated only around 5% of the box office, Jefferies said in a research note Monday.Ownby, who worked for Regal from 1999 to 2018, suggested that a healthy screen count would be 32,000 to 35,000.His thesis matches others in the industry who have noticed a decline in moviegoing even before the pandemic. These analysts foresee that trend continuing.”I don’t know if we can sustain the kind of attendance we had in the past,” said Doug Stone, a box office consultant and former theater operator. “I personally don’t think we’ll ever get back to the [levels] in 2019.”In the last two decades, the highest number of tickets sold was 1.6 billion. That happened in 2002. In 2019, attendance hovered around 1.2 billion. Cinema owners have kept ticket revenue high by raising prices.”I think you are going to see a reduction in the number of seats, if not screens,” Stone said. “I think you are going to see more luxury-based entertainment. I think you are going to see these giant 30-screen complexes dry up, either get reduced or turned into some sort of luxury venue.”In the last decade, movie theaters have increasingly retrofitted their locations with recliner seats in an effort to make the moviegoing experience more appealing to audiences. With these improvements, cinema owners are also able to charge more per ticket.These seats are much larger than the stadium seating that is being torn out. So, as these refurbishments are happening across the industry, theater chains are actually decreasing the number of available seats per showing.AMC’s CEO Adam Aron said some of the money raised from recent stock sales will go toward theater improvements. These upgrades would likely be paid for in cash, meaning AMC wouldn’t be adding to its more than $5 billion debt pile. The same would be true for any new theater leases or purchases.While some box office analysts see a long-term payoff for this strategy, others feel AMC should make debt repayment a top priority.”AMC should focus on debt reduction rather than acquisitions,” MKM Partners’ Eric Handler said in a research note Tuesday. “In our view, with a stabilized balance sheet, AMC would be best served by using its newly raised capital to reduce its sizable $5.5 billion debt load rather than pursue acquisitions.”Insiders including Ownby and Stone have questioned whether AMC will be able to generate positive cash flow in the near term. They say paying down debt now, even if the majority of it isn’t due for three to five years, could be a better use of AMC’s funds.”Management has been gifted an unforeseen opportunity from the recent wave of (fanatical) retail investor momentum, which has pushed the shares far above historical valuation levels,” Handler said. “We believe shareholders would be best served through debt repayment.”Shares of AMC have spiked more than 478% in the last month and are up 2,600% this year as AMC’s surge forces short sellers to give up their bearish positions. The stock was up 9% in early trading Tuesday. More

Boeing 737 MAX airplanes are seen parked at a Boeing facility on August 13, 2019 in Renton, Washington.David Ryder | Getty ImagesSouthwest Airlines said Tuesday it is increasing its order for Boeing’s smallest 737 Max model by nearly three dozen planes, citing an improvement in travel demand.The Dallas-based airline said in a filing that will exercise options to increase its firm orders of 737 Max 7s by 34 planes, bringing its total order book for that plane to 234. The all-Boeing 737 airline also has orders for 149 Max 8 planes to be delivered through 2031, as the company retires older 737s.Southwest expects its 2022 capital expenditures to total $1.5 billion, up from a previous estimate of $700 million.United Airlines and Alaska Airlines have also increased their Boeing Max orders in recent months, helping boost demand that dried up after the planes were grounded in 2019 after two fatal crashes. U.S. regulators lifted the grounding last November.Southwest said it expects demand and revenue to continue to improve into July as vacationers return to air travel, pushing leisure fares up to 2019 levels.It forecast June revenue will be down 20% compared with 2019 and that July sales will come in at 15% to 20% lower than two years ago.Business travel demand, the laggard in the recovery, is also improving but remains far below 2019 levels, a trend that will weigh on fares, Southwest said. More

In this articleGPSThe first item from rapper Kanye West’s Yeezy Gap line is a $200, blue puffer jacket.Source: Gap Inc.The first item from rapper Kanye West’s highly anticipated Yeezy Gap line is already sold out. A $200 bright blue nylon puffer jacket was released on Tuesday in tandem with West’s 44th birthday. Shoppers were able to preorder the unisex coat, which will be shipped later this fall.After only a few hours, the puffer jacker was already shown as sold out on Gap’s website. It’s unclear when additional items will be launched. The duo is likely using the jacket’s debut as a way to gauge consumer interest in the collaboration.It has been almost a year since Gap’s tie-up with West was announced. Questions have since swirled around when exactly the line would go on sale, how much the merchandise would cost, and what the pieces would look like. Gap Chief Executive Officer Sonia Syngal has been tight-lipped about any details.The partnership is supposed to be a 10-year agreement, with Yeezy expected to receive royalties and possibly receive equity based on how much it sells. Gap has not disclosed any other financial terms of the deal.Yeezy — which is West’s sneaker and apparel business with both Adidas and Gap — has been valued at $3.2 billion to $4.7 billion by UBS, Bloomberg previously reported, based on internal documents compiled by the bank. The value of the Gap tie-up could be worth as much as $970 million of that total, according to the report.With the deal, Gap hopes to build momentum to draw in new customers or entice long-time customers to return to its stores. The retailer is in the process of shedding underperforming locations in malls, to help drive future profitable growth. In Gap’s fiscal first quarter, sales surpassed pre-pandemic levels, driven by strength at Old Navy and Athleta.Gap shares were up nearly 3% in premarket trading. The stock has gained nearly 130% over the past 12 months. It has a market cap of $11.8 billion. More