Raphael Stevens

All drugmakers of the first 10 medicines selected for Medicare drug price negotiations have agreed to participate in the price talks.
President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act empowered Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time in the program’s six-decade history. 
The lengthy negotiation process won’t end until August 2024, with reduced prices going into effect in January 2026.

A pharmacist holds a bottle of the drug Eliquis, made by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, at a pharmacy in Provo, Utah, January 9, 2020.
George Frey | Reuters

All drugmakers of the first 10 medicines selected for Medicare drug price negotiations have agreed to participate in the talks, even after many of them sued to halt the process last month.
The companies confirmed their participation in separate statements to CNBC. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services did not immediately respond to a request to confirm that all drugmakers agreed to the talks.

President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, which passed last year, empowered Medicare to negotiate drug prices for the first time in the program’s six-decade history. The lengthy negotiation process won’t end until August 2024, with reduced prices going into effect in January 2026.
Sunday was the deadline for all 10 pharmaceutical companies to sign an agreement to engage in the negotiations, which aim to make costly medications more affordable for older Americans.
Monday, meanwhile, is the deadline for those companies to submit economic and market information on their drugs, including research and development costs and sales and revenue data. 
Here are the 10 drugs and the companies that manufacture them: 

Eliquis, made by Bristol Myers Squibb, is used to prevent blood clotting, to reduce the risk of stroke.
Jardiance, made by Boehringer Ingelheim, is used to lower blood sugar for people with Type 2 diabetes. 
Xarelto, made by Johnson & Johnson, is used to prevent blood clotting, to reduce the risk of stroke.
Januvia, made by Merck, is used to lower blood sugar for people with Type 2 diabetes.
Farxiga, made by AstraZeneca, is used to treat Type 2 diabetes.
Entresto, made by Novartis, is used to treat certain types of heart failure.
Enbrel, made by Amgen, is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. 
Imbruvica, made by AbbVie, is used to treat different types of blood cancers. 
Stelara, made by J&J subsidiary Janssen, is used to treat Crohn’s disease.
Fiasp and NovoLog, made by Novo Nordisk, are insulins.

Many of the drugmakers contend that they had no real choice but to participate in the negotiations, specifically due to the penalties they could face if they choose not to.

If drugmakers decline to engage in the negotiations, they could be forced to pay an excise tax of up to 95% of their medication’s U.S. sales or to pull all of their products from the Medicare and Medicaid markets, according to CMS.
“We have no choice other than to sign the ‘agreement.’ If we did not sign, we’d be required to pay impossibly high penalties unless we withdraw all of our medicines from Medicare and Medicaid. That is not a real choice,” a spokesperson for Bristol Myers Squibb told CNBC ahead of the Sunday deadline.
That statement echoes the arguments outlined in at least nine separate lawsuits drugmakers filed against the Biden administration in recent months seeking to declare the negotiations unconstitutional.
The pharmaceutical industry also argues that the process will threaten revenue growth, profits and drug innovation.
However, analysts expect minimal financial losses for companies, at least initially, since most of the drugs selected already face upcoming patent expirations that will likely weigh on revenue.

What happens next?

This fall, CMS will host one meeting with all 10 companies so they can provide context for the data they submitted by Monday. 
CMS will also host listening sessions with consumer and patient organizations to obtain information the agency can use to develop its initial price offers for the selected drugs. 
CMS will then make an initial price offer to manufacturers in February, and the companies have a month to accept or make a counteroffer. 
The negotiations will end in August, with agreed-upon prices published on Sept. 1, 2024. The reduced prices won’t go into effect until Jan. 1, 2026.
After the initial round of talks, CMS can negotiate prices for another 15 drugs for 2027 and an additional 15 in 2028. The number rises to 20 negotiated medications a year starting in 2029 and beyond.
CMS will only select Medicare Part D drugs for the medicines covered by the first two years of negotiations. It will add more specialized drugs covered by Medicare Part B, which are typically administered by doctors, in 2028. 
The drug price talks are expected to save Medicare an estimated $98.5 billion over a decade, according to the Congressional Budget Office. 
The negotiations are also anticipated to save money for people enrolled in Medicare, who take an average of four to five prescription drugs a month and increasingly face out-of-pocket costs that many struggle to afford.  More

Late -night hosts return to TV lineups Monday as the Writers Guild of America members vote on a tentative deal with studios.
Meanwhile, striking actors are resuming negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Expectations are that talks will move quickly, but production may not resume as fast.

Host Seth Meyers during Corrections on April 7, 2023.
Lloyd Barrell | Nbcuniversal | Getty Images

Now that the Hollywood writers’ strike is over, late-night hosts are preparing their first opening monologues since May, and actors are going back to the negotiating table with studios.
After nearly 150 days on the picket lines, the Writers Guild of America struck a tentative deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers last week, allowing writers to return to work and striking actors to start up their negotiations. WGA membership is currently in the process of voting on the contract, with expectations that ratification will come late next week.

The first people to return are late-night heavyweights Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers and Stephen Colbert on Monday, followed by John Oliver, host of “Last Week Tonight,” on Sunday.
Meyers, host of “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” spent much of his pre-strike shows commenting on former President Donald Trump’s compounding legal problems. He noted that his first show back will be an hourlong “Closer Look” segment, a recap of news items.
“I’m so excited to be back, but I didn’t pay attention to the news at all the last five months … I hope I didn’t miss like three indictments,” Meyers joked on “Today” Monday.
The WGA secured pay increases in each of the next three years, artificial intelligence restrictions and a new residual system for streaming based on viewership. The guild also negotiated higher contribution rates to health benefits and pensions, as well as a guaranteed number of writers in writers rooms for television shows.
Now it’s the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ turn.

The actors guild begins its negotiations with the likes of Disney, Paramount, Universal and Warner Bros. Discovery on Monday.
SAG-AFTRA is looking to improve wages, working conditions and health and pension benefits, as well as establish guardrails for the use of AI in future television and film productions. Additionally, the union is seeking more transparency from streaming services about viewership so that residual payments can be made equitable to linear TV. The guild is also looking to standardize the self-tape process.
Industry players expect the negotiations will be quick, with the WGA deal as a template.

Not so fast

Still, even if a tentative agreement is reached in the next few weeks, Hollywood will be slow to restart production on films and television shows. Not only will SAG-AFTRA members need to vote on the new contract, which could take a week or more, but there will be a scramble to gather crews and cast back to their respective sets.
In a situation that would be similar to the return from pandemic restrictions, productions will be competing for studio space, locations and talent schedules. This could become increasingly tricky as the holiday season approaches, a time when production typically slows down.
In addition, productions that were shooting internationally during the strike, like Warner Bros.’ “Beetlejuice 2,” Universal’s “Wicked,” and Disney and Marvel’s “Deadpool 3,” may need to wait for those crews to wrap up projects before returning to work on U.S.-based productions.

Timothee Chalamet and Rebecca Ferguson star in Denis Villeneuve’s adaptation of “Dune.”
Warner Bros.

Some studios have already indicated they will wait until next year to resume production. This means that post-production processes will also be delayed — including, editing and special effects. It’s unclear what impact that could have on the release calendar for upcoming film and TV shows.
Already, Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment’s “Dune: Part Two” fled to 2024 as did Sony’s “Kraven the Hunter” and “Ghosbusters: Afterlife” sequel.
And much of the reason “Dune: Part Two” departed the calendar was because its cast could not promote the film during the strike. Once SAG-AFTRA makes a deal with the AMPTP, those stars will be able to return to late-night shows to drum up interest for films.
That could be particularly important for Academy Award hopefuls set for release later this year.
In the meantime, late-night hosts will look elsewhere for guests. Meyers said viewers can expect to see politicians, journalists and authors as guests on the show until actors are permitted to promote their upcoming projects.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal is a member of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. NBCUniversal is the distributor of “Wicked” and “The Late Show with Seth Meyers.” More

The FCC announced its first penalty regarding space debris in a settlement with Dish Network.
Dish admitted it was liable for failing to properly dispose of the EchoStar-7 broadcast communications satellite and agreed to pay a fee of $150,000.
The FCC called the agreement “a breakthrough settlement” in the increasingly concerning realm of space debris.

Signage is seen at the headquarters of the Federal Communications Commission in Washington, D.C.
Andrew Kelly | Reuters

The Federal Communications Commission announced a settlement with Dish Network on Monday in the regulator’s first penalty related to space debris.
Dish admitted it was liable for failing to properly dispose of the EchoStar-7 broadcast communications satellite, and agreed to pay a fee of $150,000, the FCC said. The FCC called the agreement “a breakthrough settlement” in the increasingly concerning realm of space debris, brought on by governments and companies launching satellites into orbit at an unprecedented rate.

“As satellite operations become more prevalent and the space economy accelerates, we must be certain that operators comply with their commitments,” FCC Enforcement Bureau Chief Loyaan Egal said in a statement.

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Dish launched the EchoStar-7 satellite in 2002 and planned to remove it from service in May 2022. But a few months before then, Dish found the satellite did not have enough fuel remaining to navigate to a disposal location.
The company had previously agreed to an “orbital debris mitigation plan” with the FCC to relocate the satellite. Instead of retiring the satellite 300 kilometers away from where it was operating in geostationary orbit, Dish retired the satellite about 122 kilometers away, “well short of the disposal orbit,” the FCC noted.
Dish did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on the settlement. More

The average total time spent in a drive-thru lane shrank 29 seconds this year.
Wait times to order were 25 seconds shorter, as the average number of cars in line to place their order fell from 2.76 to 1.27.
Restaurant companies such as McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A are working to speed up service and reduce errors.

Chick-fil-A had the slowest average drive-thru experience in 2022, but the highest customer satisfaction.
Jeff Greenberg | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Fast-food drive-thru lanes are speeding up as fewer customers choose to order their meals and milkshakes sitting in their car, according to an annual study by Intouch Insight released Monday.
The average total time spent in a drive-thru lane shrank 29 seconds this year. Wait times to order were 25 seconds shorter, as the average number of cars in line to place orders fell from 2.76 to 1.27.

The Intouch Insight study was based on visits to nearly 1,500 locations of Arby’s, Burger King, Carl’s Jr., Chick-fil-A, Dunkin’, Hardee’s, KFC, McDonald’s, Taco Bell and Wendy’s. Mystery shoppers ordered from the drive-thru lanes during a range of times between June and July.
Taco Bell, KFC and Carl’s Jr. had the fastest overall times for their drive-thru lanes. But Chick-fil-A, McDonald’s and Wendy’s bested all three chains when their longer average total times were divided by the number of cars in line. In other words, Carl’s Jr and Yum Brands’ Taco Bell and KFC were only speedier because their drive-thru lanes weren’t as popular.
But across the board, drive-thru lanes have waned in demand since the Covid-19 pandemic began. At that time, customers shifted from ordering inside to ordering from their cars. The trend continued even as fast-food restaurants reopened their dining rooms.
But the surge in popularity put pressure on workers to assemble orders quickly and accurately, and fast-food chains had to come up with solutions such as curbside pickup for mobile orders to address the problem. Despite those efforts, this year’s total drive-thru times still lag 2019 times by 15 seconds.
Many diners have now shifted to ordering online or using self-order kiosks inside restaurants.

Even as drive-thru visits stabilize, restaurant companies such as McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A are still working to speed up service and reduce errors. Some are testing artificial intelligence software to take orders or are building new locations with as many as four drive-thru lanes.
Intouch Insight’s mystery shoppers visited two special restaurants this year: a McDonald’s test restaurant outside of Fort Worth, Texas, with an order-ahead lane and a drive-thru lane, along with a Taco Bell location in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, with one traditional drive-thru lane and three additional lanes reserved for delivery drivers and customers who ordered ahead.
Both locations’ service times outperformed their broader brands’ times by roughly a minute. The Taco Bell restaurant also outperformed on order accuracy with a score of 88%, versus the chain’s rate of 85%. But the McDonald’s test location fell short with an accuracy score of 80%, well below the chain’s rate of 88%. More

Rivian Automotive on Monday reported record third-quarter electric vehicle deliveries and said it remains on track to produce 52,000 EVs in 2023.
Rivian produced 16,304 vehicles during the third quarter, all at its factory in Normal, Illinois.
Rivian took several steps earlier this year to reduce spending and bolster its balance sheet, including a 6% staff reduction in February and a $1.3 billion sale of convertible notes in March.

The Rivian name is shown on one of the company’s new electric SUV vehicles in San Diego, California, Dec. 16, 2022.
Mike Blake | Reuters

Rivian Automotive on Monday reported record third-quarter electric vehicle deliveries and said it remains on track to produce 52,000 EVs in 2023.
The company said it delivered 15,564 vehicles during the period, up 23% from the second quarter of 2023 and ahead of Wall Street estimates. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had expected Rivian to deliver about 14,000 vehicles in the quarter, on average.

Shares of the EV maker, however, fell 4% in premarket trading after the report.
Rivian produced 16,304 vehicles during the third quarter, all at its factory in Normal, Illinois.
Rivian also confirmed that it remains on track to build 52,000 vehicles in 2023, in line with its previous guidance to investors. Rivian currently builds a series of delivery vans for Amazon as well as its own R1T pickup and R1S SUV. All are fully electric vehicles.
Rivian took several steps earlier this year to reduce spending and bolster its balance sheet, including a 6% staff reduction in February and a $1.3 billion sale of convertible notes in March. The company also delayed the launch of its upcoming smaller R2 vehicle platform to 2026, from 2025. It had $10.2 billion in cash on hand as of June 30, its most recent update.
Rivian will announce its third-quarter earnings result after the U.S. markets close on Nov. 7. More