Business

Moderna’s first-quarter vaccine sales more than tripled over the same period last year, when it reported $1.7 billion in sales.
The biotech company reported $3.66 billion in net income for the quarter, a threefold increase over the $1.2 billion it reported in the same period last year.
Moderna maintained its full-year guidance of $21 billion in Covid vaccine sales.

The Moderna Covid-19 vaccine awaits administration at a vaccination clinic in Los Angeles, California on December 15, 2021.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images

Moderna sold $5.9 billion of its Covid vaccine in the first quarter, blowing out revenue and profit expectations.
The biotech company’s shares soared by more than 7% in premarket trading on Wednesday.

Moderna maintained its full-year guidance of $21 billion in Covid vaccine sales. The sales guidance is based on signed agreements with governments and does not include any orders from the U.S., so the final number could come in higher.
Moderna’s first-quarter vaccine sales more than tripled over the same period last year, when it reported $1.7 billion in sales shortly after the shots first rolled out. The Covid vaccine for adults ages 18 and over, Spikevax, is the company’s only commercially available product.
Moderna reported $3.66 billion in net income for the quarter, a threefold increase over the $1.2 billion it reported in the same period last year.
Here’s how the company performed compared with what Wall Street expected, based on analysts’ average estimates compiled by Refinitiv:

Adjusted EPS: $8.58 per share, vs. $5.21 expected
Revenue: $6.07 billion, vs. $4.62 billion expected

CEO Stephane Bancel said he expects Moderna to book even stronger vaccine sales in the second half of the year as governments order more shots to get ready for fall vaccination campaigns. Bancel said Moderna expects to receive regulatory approval in late summer for a redesigned vaccine that targets the mutations on the omicron variant in addition to the original strain that emerged in Wuhan, China in 2019.

“The virus is mutating to become more and more infectious, and there’s waning immunity,” Bancel told CNBC in an interview on Squawk Box. “It is going to be really important to boost people in the fall with a better adapted vaccine which is what we’re working towards.”
The current vaccines, which target the Wuhan strain, are becoming less effective at preventing mild illness as highly mutated variants like omicron evade the antibodies that block infections. However, the shots are still providing strong protection against severe illness and death.
The Food and Drug Administration’s advisory committee will meet June 28 to discuss whether the U.S. needs to adopt a redesigned vaccine that targets mutations on the virus.
Last week, Moderna asked the FDA to authorize its two-dose vaccine for children six months to 5 years old, the only age group left in the U.S. that is not yet eligible for a shot. The biotech company is also asking the FDA to authorize its shots for for kids ages 6 to 11 and teenagers ages 12 to 17. Moderna expects to finish submitting FDA applications for its pediatric vaccines in the next two weeks, according to a company press release.
The FDA advisory committee has set several dates in June to review submissions on Covid vaccines for children. Bancel told CNBC on Wednesday that Moderna is working toward a June launch for the shots.

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Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic:

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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Starbucks’ fiscal second-quarter revenue topped Wall Street’s estimates.
Chinese same-store sales sank 23% in the quarter as the country reimposed lockdowns after Covid outbreaks.
Starbucks suspended its fiscal 2022 outlook, citing lockdowns in China, inflation and investments in its stores and employees.

Starbucks on Tuesday suspended its outlook for fiscal 2022 as Covid lockdowns in China weighed on international sales.
Still, strong demand in the U.S. offset sharp declines from China, helping the company’s quarterly revenue top Wall Street’s estimates.

Shares rose 5% on the report in extended trading.
Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 59 cents adjusted, meeting expectations
Revenue: $7.64 billion vs. $7.6 billion expected

The coffee giant reported fiscal second-quarter net income attributable to Starbucks of $674.5 million, or 58 cents per share, up from $659.4 million, or 56 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, Starbucks earned 59 cents per share, in line with estimates from analysts surveyed by Refinitiv.

A pedestrian carries a Starbucks branded cup in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Thursday, April 28, 2022. Starbucks Corp.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Net sales rose 14.5% to $7.64 billion, topping expectations of $7.6 billion. Global same-store sales increased 7% in the quarter, fueled by strong growth in the United States.

U.S. same-store sales climbed 12%, as customers spent more per order and visited more often. Active membership of Starbucks’ loyalty program jumped 17% to 26.7 million customers.
While demand for its coffee stays strong in the U.S., the company’s baristas have been unionizing in the hopes of earning better pay and working conditions. About 50 company-owned locations have voted in favor of unionizing in the last six months. Since Howard Schultz returned as interim CEO in early April, he has paused stock buybacks and embarked on a listening campaign with baristas nationwide to curb the growing union push.
As the company seeks to curb the union push, Schultz announced $1 billion in investments for fiscal 2022 on wage hikes, improved training and store innovation during fiscal 2022. However, the coffee giant will not offer the enhanced benefits to workers at the cafes that have voted to unionize. Such changes at unionized stores would have to come through bargaining, Starbucks said.
“The union contract will not even come close to what Starbucks offers,” Schultz told analysts on the company’s conference call.
Outside the U.S., it was a grim quarter for Starbucks. International same-store sales shrank 8%, dragged down by sharp declines in China, the company’s second-largest market. Chinese same-store sales sank 23% in the quarter as the country reimposed lockdowns after Covid outbreaks. Executives said 72% of the Chinese cities where it has cafes experienced outbreaks of the omicron variant during the quarter.
Roughly a third of Starbucks’ stores in China are temporarily closed or only accepting mobile order and pay or delivery orders.
“We expect an even greater impact on our [third-quarter] results due to the timing of the Shanghai lockdown and the further resurgence of the virus in other cities, including Beijing,” said Belinda Wong, chair of Starbucks China.
Citing China’s lockdowns, inflation and investments in its stores and employees, Starbucks suspended its fiscal 2022 forecast. Last quarter, it said it expects GAAP earnings per share to fall by a range of 4% to 6% and adjusted earnings per share to rise by 8% to 10% during the fiscal year.
Starbucks opened 313 net new locations in the quarter.
The company also announced it is moving up its investor day from December to September and shifting its location from New York City to Seattle.
Read the full earnings report here.

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“WHITE HOT”, a new documentary, traces the rise and fall of Abercrombie & Fitch, an American fashion label that soared in the early 2000s before crashing just as dramatically. The film explores the firm’s obsession with employing a certain type of staff—handsome, chiselled, white—which led to damaging claims of racism and sexual harassment. But just as harmful to Abercrombie was that it became dated. Its low-rise jeans, cropped ­T-shirts and migraine-inducing cologne, “Fierce”, became inseparably linked with Americans who came of age around the turn of the century. The price of being so closely associated with one generation was that the next wanted nothing to do with it.Facebook, which took off around the same time, may be experiencing a similar problem. Its millennial identity is embodied in its 37-year-old founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who still wears his college uniform of skinny jeans and hoodie (though these days his hoodies are bespoke). The social network, which began as a way for oversexed Harvard undergraduates to rate each other’s looks, is now seen by youngsters “as a place for people in their 40s and 50s”, in the words of one leaked internal memo. Investors consider ­Facebook unfashionable, too: its parent company, Meta, has lost 39% of its market value this year, including a plunge of $232bn in February, the biggest one-day drop in stockmarket history.Some of Facebook’s problems are overstated. With 2bn daily users, nearly one in three humans, growth was bound to sputter. Its loss of 1m users in the last quarter of 2021—the firm’s first ever fall—was attributed to a rise in the price of mobile data in India. A decline in European users in the latest quarter followed Meta’s ejection from Russia. Privacy rules introduced by Apple are a more serious problem, expected to cost Meta about $10bn this year by making it harder to target ads for iPhone users. But the company is devising workarounds. In February it said that since September it had clawed back half of the 15% reduction in its ability to determine ads’ effectiveness. Similarly, it may be better able than most to absorb the cost of new tech rules being written in Europe. Firms like Meta “have a cockroach-like ability to find ways to maintain business as usual”, says Mark Shmulik of Bernstein, a broker.Yet if these hurdles can be overcome at a price, the ageing of ­Facebook’s audience seems inexorable. In rich countries, which matter most to advertisers, young users appear to be drifting away. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook executive, made headlines last year for blowing the whistle on failures of content moderation. But her more important revelation was that engagement among young Americans had plummeted. In Facebook’s five most important countries, account registrations for under-18s had fallen by a quarter within a year, she said. Independent estimates corroborate her claims. In Britain 18- to 24-year-olds are spending half as much time on Facebook and Instagram, its sister app, as they were four years ago, estimates Enders Analysis, a research firm. Mr Zuckerberg admitted last year that, amid competition from TikTok and others, Facebook had neglected young people: “Our services have gotten dialled to be the best for most people who use them, rather than specifically for young adults.”In the past, saving the flagship app was Mr Zuckerberg’s priority. After the acquisition of Instagram in 2012, Facebook reportedly limited its adoptive sibling’s ability to hire staff, out of fear that it would cannibalise Facebook’s users—“like the big sister that wants to dress you up for the party but does not want you to be prettier than she is”, in the words of a former Instagram executive quoted in “No Filter”, a book by Sarah Frier. Today Mr Zuckerberg seems willing to sacrifice his first-born to protect the wider business. Efforts to attract young people have focused on other apps, such as Messenger Kids and Instagram Kids (which was shelved last year). Reels, Meta’s TikTok clone, was rolled out first on Instagram. Last year Mr Zuckerberg even dropped the Facebook name from his company, the better to insulate the business from its least fashionable brand. Where once Mr Zuckerberg’s obsession was repairing the ageing Facebook mothership, now he is scrambling lifeboats in all directions: four new virtual-reality headsets are expected in the next two years, as well as a smart watch.The Face that launched a thousand shopsThat is the right thing to do. But it raises the question of what will become of the world’s biggest social network as it begins to decay. Once-mighty sites like MySpace endure, like abandoned digital ruins. Far in the future, will Facebook, too, become a ghost town?Not necessarily. Young users are unlikely ever to return to Facebook for social networking, which they increasingly do on apps like Snapchat or BeReal, a photo-messaging service that is spreading on college campuses. But networking is only one function of social media. People also use it to be entertained, and increasingly to buy things. Facebook is losing its appeal as a place to socialise, but it may reinvent itself as a platform for other activities.In entertainment, TikTok is well ahead. Meta’s first attempt to copy it, with Lasso, in 2018, failed. Having proved a hit on Instagram, where it accounts for 20% of time spent, Reels is building an audience on Facebook, too. Facebook’s newsfeed is being revamped along TikTokian lines, to recommend content suggested by artificial intelligence, whether or not it was posted by a friend. Facebook has long run an eBay-esque Marketplace, and in the pandemic launched Shops, to bring more e-commerce onto its own platform. Its latest earnings call promised investment in a service to let users send messages to companies through ads.Abercrombie has dropped its elitist style in favour of “championing inclusivity and creating a sense of belonging”. Half-naked hunks are out, replaced by plus-size models in comfy athleisure wear, and last year revenue was back to 80% of its peak. Facebook will likewise never be cool again. But there is plenty of less glamorous money to be made.For more expert analysis of the biggest stories in economics, business and markets, sign up to Money Talks, our weekly newsletter. More

Monday – Friday, 6:00 – 7:00 PM ET

It’s that time again! “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer rings the lightning round bell, which means he’s giving his answers to callers’ stock questions at rapid speed.

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AT&T Inc: “I think you let the stock go for a couple of bucks.”

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Lucid Group Inc: “Lucid missed the quarter so badly that I have to tell you, I’ve pulled in my horns on the name.”

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Companies were reticent to weigh in on a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision that would strike down abortion rights.
Dozens of companies, including Walmart, American Airlines and Disney, have yet to issue statements or respond to CNBC requests for comment.
The Business Roundtable, a trade group that’s made up of top CEOs, said it “does not have a position on this issue.” The U.S. Chamber of Commerce declined to comment.

Demonstrators hold up signs during a protest outside the U.S. Supreme Court, after the leak of a draft majority opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito preparing for a majority of the court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision later this year, in Washington, U.S. May 3, 2022. 
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters

As protesters gathered and politicians scrambled to speak out, the country’s largest corporations remained largely silent Tuesday after a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision indicated that conservative justices are poised to overturn a landmark ruling that guarantees access to legal abortions.
Dozens of companies, including Walmart, American Airlines and Disney, have yet to issue statements or respond to CNBC requests for comment. The Business Roundtable, a trade group that’s made up of top CEOs, said in a statement that it “does not have a position on this issue.” Microsoft, JPMorgan and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce all declined to comment.

Many companies and major trade groups are remaining reticent to weigh in, even as the Supreme Court on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft of the majority opinion, which would toss out Roe v. Wade and nearly 50 years of abortion protection if the justices maintain their position when a decision becomes official. The preliminary vote was first reported Monday night by Politico, which obtained the draft opinion.
The report has thrown companies into an unexpected and urgent communications challenge. The leaked decision is a draft, not the final decision that is expected by the high court around the end of June.
The ruling would permanently alter the health-care decisions of thousands of company employees and customers, but it’s also a divisive issue in U.S. politics — and the leak has exacerbated passions just months before the midterm congressional elections. Plus, the harsh backlash against Disney and other companies that have recently taken a stand on social issues may also be having a chilling effect on corporate America.
“There is no upside in speaking out alone on this. So that is why they need to work collectively,” said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, professor and senior associate dean of the Yale School of Management. “Nobody wants to have 40% of the country mad at them.”
Sonnenfeld said trade groups, which historically have been the most powerful and safe way for companies to step out, have become “overly cautious” and “neutered” by professional staffs who pingpong between lobbying jobs and don’t want to make waves.

“They would rather write mealy-mouthed, inconsequential, tedious working papers that don’t lead to any clear directives, so that the more you read, the less you know,” Sonnenfeld said.

A new era of uncertainty

Some companies decided to take a wait-and-see approach.
Home Depot, for example, declined to comment through a spokesperson, saying “since this is a draft, it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to speculate on the court’s final ruling.” CVS Health, which owns thousands of drugstores and health insurer Aetna, said in a statement that it is “monitoring the situation closely and evaluating how we can best support the coverage needs of our colleagues, clients and consumers.”
By staying quiet, companies may be courting a harsh response from customers and employees. About 58% of Americans said they would not like to see the Supreme Court overturn its Roe v. Wade decision, versus 32% who would like to see it go, according to the most recent Gallup poll available, which was conducted in May 2021. An NBC News poll from September shows that 54% of Americans believe it should be legal to get an abortion in all or most instances.
A few companies, however — mostly in the tech industry — have responded directly to the draft decision.
Crowd-sourced review site Yelp said in a statement Tuesday “overturning Roe v. Wade will jeopardize the human rights of millions of women who stand to lose the liberty to make decisions over their own bodies.”
“Turning back the clock on the progress women have made over the past 50 years will have a seismic impact on our society and economy,” Yelp said. “Congress must codify these rights into law. In the meantime, more companies will need to step up to safeguard their employees, and provide equal access to the health services they need no matter where they live.”
OkCupid, a dating app owned by Match Group, wrote on Twitter that #RoeVWade “being overturned is unacceptable. OkCupid has proudly supported reproductive rights for years, and we’re not stopping now. Gender equality is at stake and more brands need to step up.”
The company asked followers to tag brands they wanted to see take action and to sign a petition to “stand up for reproductive healthcare.” Match itself did not provide a comment on the draft decision.
Facebook parent Meta didn’t provide a comment on the report, but company Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg put out a statement on her personal Facebook page.
“This is a scary day for women all across our country,” said Sandberg, who has been a longtime advocate for addressing disparities facing women in the workplace. “If the leaked draft opinion becomes the law of the land, one of our most fundamental rights will be taken away. Every woman, no matter where she lives, must be free to choose whether and when she becomes a mother. Few things are more important to women’s health and equality.”

A path forward?

Some companies declined to respond directly to the draft opinion and the potential for Supreme Court action, but reiterated earlier commitments to help employees gain access to abortion services.
Earlier measures from Amazon and Apple, made in the wake of several Republican-backed state laws that have sought to restrict abortion access, hint at how corporations may respond to a broader crackdown on abortion rights. (Amazon’s policy only applies to U.S. employees who are enrolled in company health plans, a company spokesperson told Vice’s Motherboard.)
Both companies have added travel reimbursement for employees who are forced to seek abortions or other medical care out of state, as more governments across the nation’s Sunbelt pass laws that shutter abortion clinics or limit access in other ways.
Uber and Lyft each said they would cover legal fees for drivers who are sued under an anticipated abortion law in Oklahoma and one recently passed in Texas that bans most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy. Under both bills, people aiding abortions, including those transporting them to clinics, can be fined up to $10,000.
CVS said Tuesday it has similarly “made out-of-state care accessible and affordable for employees in states that have instituted more restrictive laws,” but declined to elaborate. The company has approximately 300,000 employees.
Yale’s Sonnenfeld said the stakes are high for companies to speak up. Sonnenfeld is a leading advocate for corporate accountability and in recent months compiled an extensive list of corporate actions in Russia around the war in Ukraine.
Corporate brands have retained a high level of trust, he said — even as Americans’ trust of other institutions has eroded. Yet some companies have felt reluctant to take on issues and become the target of governors, he noted, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, both Republicans.

That risk recently played out in Florida between DeSantis and Disney, one of the state’s best-known corporate residents. DeSantis last month signed a bill that would remove long-standing privileges that have allowed the Walt Disney Co. to essentially self-govern the area around its theme park.
Critics and Democratic members of the Florida legislature argued the move, which carries sweeping tax implications, was motivated by a back-and-forth with Disney over Florida’s so-called “Don’t Say Gay” bill that limits early education teachings on sexual orientation and gender identity.
Disney CEO Bob Chapek faced criticism from employees and creative leaders for initially staying quiet on the bill, but he later apologized for not speaking up sooner and said the company would pause donations in Florida.
Though the bill eliminating Disney’s special district status passed about a month after the “Don’t Say Gay” controversy, Florida state Rep. Randy Fine, a Republican, told CNBC at the time it wasn’t a retaliatory move. However, he also said that “when Disney kicked the hornet’s nest, we looked at special districts.”
DeSantis is widely considered a leading contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024. Disney did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday on the draft of the Supreme Court decision.
Sonnenfeld said corporate leaders have demonstrated that their words and actions can make a difference, especially when they band together.
In 2017, CEOs from major companies including AT&T, American Airlines and Texas Instruments spoke out in a letter that opposed the so-called “bathroom bill” in Texas that would have prohibited transgender people from using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity.
The bill ultimately died in session, after pushback from business leaders and civil rights groups.
“There’s a history of them making a difference,” he said. “These companies are not edgy, fringe progressive companies, but speak to the heartland of the nation.”
—CNBC’s Jessica Bursztynsky, Leslie Josephs, Hugh Son, Morgan Smith and Lauren Thomas contributed to this story.

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President Joe Biden reacted to a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would reverse the Roe v. Wade decision by calling on elected officials around the United States to protect women’s right to abortion.
“I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental, Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned,” Biden said.
The Democratic president also called for the election of “more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House” this fall to pass federal legislation that would ensure the right to abortion.
The statement came a day after a report by Politico said that a draft of an opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito indicates that a majority of the court had voted to overturn Roe.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday reacted to a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion that would reverse the Roe v. Wade decision by calling on elected officials around the United States to protect women’s right to abortion.
“I believe that a woman’s right to choose is fundamental, Roe has been the law of the land for almost fifty years, and basic fairness and the stability of our law demand that it not be overturned,” Biden said in a statement.

Biden also called for the election of “more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House” this fall to pass federal legislation that would ensure the right to abortion.
And he later warned reporters that if the rationale used in the leaked draft decision is formally endorsed by the Supreme Court, “it would mean that every other decision relating to the notion of privacy is thrown into question.”
“If it becomes the law and if what is written is what remains, it goes far beyond the concern of whether or not there is the right to choose, and into other basic rights,” Biden said.
“The right to marriage, the right to determine a whole range of things.”A number of the members of the court have not acknowledged that there is a right to privacy in our Constitution. I strongly believe there is.”
The Democratic president’s statement came a day after a bombshell report by Politico about a draft of an opinion written by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on a case involving Mississippi’s restrictive new abortion law, which has been blocked by lower federal courts.

The leaked draft indicates that a majority of the Supreme Court has voted to overturn the nearly 50-year-old Roe v. Wade ruling, along with another decision that affirmed there is a constitutional right to abortion.
If the substance of the opinion becomes the final ruling by the court, individual states could totally ban abortion, or much more severely limit that procedure currently allowed.
“We do not know whether this draft is genuine, or whether it reflects the final decision of the Court,” Biden said, several hours before the court’s chief justice, John Roberts, confirmed its authenticity and announced he had ordered an investigation into the leak.
But Biden noted that his “administration argued strongly before the Court in defense of Roe v. Wade.”
“We said that Roe is based on ‘a long line of precedent recognizing ‘the Fourteenth Amendment’s concept of personal liberty’… against government interference with intensely personal decisions,’ ” he said.
Biden also noted that shortly after Texas passed a law that bars abortions as early as six weeks into a pregnancy, he had directed White House lawyers and his Gender Policy Council and White House Counsel’s Office “to prepare options for an Administration response to the continued attack on abortion and reproductive rights, under a variety of possible outcomes in the cases pending before the Supreme Court.”
“We will be ready when any ruling is issued,” Biden said.
If the Supreme Court overturns Roe “it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose,” he said.
“And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November,” the president said
“At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law,” he said.
Biden’s statement, notably, did not say he supports ending the Senate’s 60-vote threshold, known as the filibuster rule, in order to pass legislation to protect abortion rights with just 50 votes in that chamber of Congress.
Democrats currently hold 48 Senate seats and have two independents who caucus with them, as well as a tie-breaking vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.
Biden has been under intense pressure to back a move to “blow up the filibuster” as it’s known in Washington, ever since it became clear that a challenge to Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban would be decided by the Supreme Court, and that the protections guaranteed by Roe would likely be either gutted or struck down completely.
But even if Biden were to agree to back a change to the filibuster rule so that the Senate could pass a bill enshrining abortion protections into law with just a simple majority, it is far from certain he would get even the 50 Senate votes he would need to do so.
With the Senate split evenly between Republicans and Democrats and independents, all 50 senators who caucus with the Democrats would need to back filibuster reform and an abortion protection bill.
This spring, West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin voted against proceeding on a bill called the Women’s Health Protection Act, which was seen as a trial balloon for how an abortion protection bill would fare among Democrats.
Democrats hold a slim majority in the House of Representatives, where a simple majority is needed to pass legislation.
Before Monday’s report by Politico, there was widespread concern among Democrats about losing their majorities in both chambers of Congress in this fall’s election.
While there is outrage among Democrats about the contents of the leaked draft by Alito, there was also hope that voters would be more motivated to support their party in the upcoming elections because of the possibility Roe v. Wade will be undone.
A political party that holds the White House routinely suffers significant losses in midterm elections for congressional seats.

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Up to 26 states, or about half of the United States, are expected to quickly ban or severely limit abortions if the Supreme Court reverses its 49-year-old ruling in Roe v. Wade.
That prediction from the Guttmacher Institute, issued in the fall, gained renewed attention with the leak of an initial draft of a Supreme Court decision that would reverse Roe and a related ruling, and thus eliminate the constitutional right to abortion.
Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the draft as reported by Politico, which, as of now at least, is not the official ruling of the court.
But abortion rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers fear it soon will be, which would again allow individual states freedom to regulate abortion without the oversight of federal courts.

Up to 26 states, or about half of the United States, are expected to quickly ban or more severely limit abortions if the Supreme Court reverses its 49-year-old ruling in Roe v. Wade, according to a leading reproductive rights advocacy group.
That prediction from the Guttmacher Institute, issued last fall, gained renewed attention Tuesday with the leak of an initial draft of a Supreme Court decision that would reverse Roe and a related ruling, and thus eliminate the constitutional right to abortion.

Chief Justice John Roberts confirmed the authenticity of the draft as reported by Politico, which, as of now at least, is not the official ruling of the court.
But abortion rights advocates and Democratic lawmakers fear the court will soon issue a similar opinion. It would again allow individual states freedom to regulate abortion without the oversight of federal courts.

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“This is going to be devastating for abortion access across the country,” said Elizabeth Nash, interim associate director of state issues at the Guttmacher Institute.
Nash said that 36 million women of reproductive age live in the 26 states that Guttmacher expects to automatically ban abortion, or considers likely to do so.
Those states are concentrated in the South, the Midwest, and the far West.

Arrows pointing outwards

If Roe v. Wade Falls: Travel Distance for People Seeking Abortion
Guttmacher Insitute

They include Texas and Florida, which together accounted for nearly 15% of the more than 862,000 abortions performed nationally in 2017.
Nash said nine of the states still have bans on abortion that predate the 1973 ruling by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade, which would again theoretically take effect with the repeal of the ruling.
Roe v. Wade barred outright prohibitions on abortion. It said a state could bar abortions only in the third trimester of pregnancy, and only then if they allowed exceptions for cases to save the life of the mother or to protect her health.
The nine states with pre-Roe bans are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
And 13 states on the list have passed so-called trigger laws that would ban abortion or further restrict it if Roe is overturned, Nash said.
Those states are Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
Nash said that some of the states on Guttmacher’s list of states on track to ban or severely limit abortion, including Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin, might not do so because they have governors who support abortion rights, along with other factors.
Nash noted that one in four American women will have an abortion in their lifetime.
“That means abortion is incredibly common, and when you see a state start to ban it, that means they are denying people access to health care,” Nash said.
Guttmacher has an interactive map on its website that shows how far a woman in a given state needs to drive on average to obtain an abortion under current law, and how far they would need to drive if a ban went into place in their home state.
In Idaho, the current average driving distance would be 21 miles, one way. It would increase to 250 miles with a total ban on abortion in that state.
In Texas, which last year adopted a law barring abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the average distance women would need to drive to get an abortion is 17 miles, one way. That would increase to 542 miles, one way, if a total ban is adopted there, as is considered certain if Roe is reversed.
Nash said that as a result of Texas’ new law, “we’re already seeing wait times in some [abortion] clinics increase to three and four weeks.”
“Imagine what happens to clinic access if more states ban abortion,” Nash said.
Guttmacher’s data shows that there were more than 55,400 abortions performed in Texas alone in 2017, the last year that statistics are available.

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Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said prescriptions for Paxlovid in the U.S. increased to nearly 80,000 patients for the week ending April 22, up from about 8,000 patients in late February.
More than 33,000 sites in the U.S. now have supply of Paxlovid, Bourla said, a fourfold increase over February.
Pfizer on Tuesday reported $1.5 billion in Paxlovid sales for the first quarter and maintained its guidance of $22 billion in sales for 2022.

Paxlovid, a Pfizer’s coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pill, is seen manufactured in Ascoli, Italy, in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on November 16, 2021.
Pfizer | Handout | via Reuters

Pfizer on Tuesday said prescriptions for its oral antiviral to treat Covid-19 have increased nearly tenfold in the U.S. since late February, as more pharmacies and other locations receive supply.
CEO Albert Bourla, in an earnings call Tuesday morning, said nearly 80,000 patients were treated with Paxlovid in the U.S. the week ending April 22, up from about 8,000 patients in late February. More than 33,000 sites in the U.S. now have supply of Paxlovid, Bourla said, a fourfold increase over February.

Shares of Pfizer were up over 1% in Tuesday afternoon trading.
Paxlovid supply was constrained when the antiviral first rolled out over the winter, but Pfizer is ramping up production with 6 million courses produced through the end of March, according to Bourla. Pfizer is on track to manufacture 30 million courses in the first half of 2022 and 120 million by the end of the year, Bourla said.

Pfizer on Tuesday reported $1.5 billion in Paxlovid sales for the first quarter and maintained its guidance of $22 billion in sales for 2022. Angela Hwang, Pfizer’s head of biopharmaceuticals, told analysts Tuesday that demand for the antiviral will increase as nations reorder doses and lower the eligibility age.
Covid transmission will increase as governments ease public health restrictions, and Paxlovid will play an important role in treating people who get infected, Hwang said. Pfizer doesn’t have any inventory on hand because every dose manufactured gets shipped, she said.
The U.S. has ordered a total of 20 million Paxlovid courses, with the delivery of the first 10 million courses to be completed in June and fulfillment of the second 10 million scheduled for September, according to the Biden administration. Patients in the U.S. had used more than 500,000 Paxlovid courses as of late April, a senior administration official told reporters last month.

The White House is ramping up distribution of Paxlovid as a key component of its strategy to fight Covid. The Health and Human Services Department aims to bring the antiviral to 40,000 locations across the nation. The U.S. has set up at least 2,200 sites where people can receive Paxlovid as soon as they test positive for the virus, including pharmacies, community health centers and long-term care facilities.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized Paxlovid in December for adults and children ages 12 and older who are infected with Covid and at risk of severe illness from the virus. The FDA authorized Merck’s molnupiravir shortly after, but said it should only be used for adults ages 18 and over who don’t have access to Paxlovid or other Covid treatments.
Paxlovid proved more effective and had a better safety profile than molnupiravir in clinical trials. Pfizer’s antiviral reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 90% in adults who had Covid and were at risk of developing severe illness. Molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization and death by 30% in clinical trials among Covid patients at risk of severe illness.
Paxlovid now has a 90% market share compared to Merck’s molnupiravir in the U.S. retail pharmacy, long-term care and mail order markets, Bourla said. The antiviral is now authorized in more than 60 countries, and Pfizer is in discussions to bring the treatment to additional markets, he said.
Patients prescribed Paxlovid take a three tablet course twice daily for five days. The course includes two nirmatrelvir pills developed by Pfizer, and one tablet of ritonavir, a widely used HIV drug. Nirmatrelvir inhibits an enzyme the Covid virus uses to reproduce, and ritonavir slows the patient’s metabolism so the medication remains active in the body for a longer period.
While Paxlovid is effective at preventing hospitalization and death in people who already have Covid, it failed to prevent infection from the virus in clinical trial results published Friday.

CNBC Health & Science

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