Business

Walgreens is expanding the number of its retail stores served by its micro-fulfillment centers as it works to turn itself around and prepares to go private.
Those centers use robots to fill thousands of prescriptions for patients who take medications to manage or treat diabetes, high blood pressure or other conditions. 
Relying on those centers frees up time for pharmacy staff, reducing their routine tasks, eliminating inventory waste and allowing them to interact directly with patients and perform more clinical services such as vaccinations and testing.

A robotic arm fills prescriptions at a Walgreens’ micro-fulfillment center.
Courtesy: Walgreens

As struggling drugstore chains work to regain their footing, Walgreens is doubling down on automation. 
The company is expanding the number of retail stores served by its micro-fulfillment centers, which use robots to fill thousands of prescriptions for patients who take medications to manage or treat diabetes, high blood pressure and other conditions. 

Walgreens aims to free up time for pharmacy staff, reducing their routine tasks and eliminating inventory waste. Fewer prescription fills would allow employees to interact directly with patients and perform more clinical services such as vaccinations and testing.
Walgreens first rolled out the robot-powered centers in 2021, but paused expansion in 2023 to focus on gathering feedback and improving performance at existing sites. After more than a year of making upgrades, including new internal tools, the company said it is ready to expand the reach of that technology again.
Walgreens told CNBC it hopes to have its 11 micro-fulfillment centers serve more than 5,000 stores by the end of the year, up from 4,800 in February and 4,300 in October 2023. As of February, the centers handled 40% of the prescription volume on average at supported pharmacies, according to Walgreens. 
That translates to around 16 million prescriptions filled each month across the different sites, the company said. 
The renewed automation push comes as Walgreens prepares to go private in a roughly $10 billion deal with Sycamore Partners, expected to close by the end of the year. 

The deal would cap a turbulent chapter for Walgreens as a public company, marked by a rocky transition out of the pandemic, declining pharmacy reimbursement rates, weaker consumer spending and fierce competition from CVS Health, Amazon and other retail giants.
Like CVS, Walgreens has shifted from opening new stores to closing hundreds of underperforming locations to shore up profits. Both companies are racing to stay relevant as online retailers lure away customers and patients increasingly opt for fast home delivery over traditional pharmacy visits.
The changes also follow mounting discontent among pharmacy staff: In 2023, nationwide walkouts spotlighted burnout and chronic understaffing, forcing chains to reexamine their operational models.
Walgreens said the investment in robotic pharmacy fills is already paying off.
To date, micro-fulfillment centers have generated approximately $500 million in savings by cutting excess inventory and boosting efficiency, said Kayla Heffington, Walgreens’ pharmacy operating model vice president. Heffington added that stores using the facilities are administering 40% more vaccines than those that aren’t. 
“Right now, they’re the backbone to really help us offset some of the workload in our stores, to obviously allow more time for our pharmacists and technicians to spend time with patients,” said Rick Gates, Walgreens’ chief pharmacy officer.
“It gives us a lot more flexibility to bring down costs, to increase the care and increase speed to therapy – all those things,” he said. 
Gates added that the centers give Walgreens a competitive advantage because independent pharmacies and some rivals don’t have centralized support for their stores. Still, Walmart, Albertsons and Kroger have similarly tested or are currently using their own micro-fulfillment facilities to dispense grocery items and other prescriptions. 
Micro-fulfillment centers come with their own risks, such as a heavy reliance on sophisticated robotics that can cause disruptions if errors occur. But the facilities are becoming a permanent fixture in retail due to the cost savings they offer and their ability to streamline workflows, reduce the burden on employees and deliver goods to customers faster.

How Walgreens micro-fulfillment works 

Inside a Walgreens micro-fulfillment center, which helps fill thousands of prescriptions.
Courtesy: Walgreens

When a Walgreens retail pharmacy receives a prescription, the system determines whether it should be filled at that location or routed to a nearby micro-fulfillment center. Maintenance medications, or prescription drugs taken regularly to manage chronic health conditions, and refills that don’t require immediate pickup are often sent to micro-fulfillment.
At the core of each facility is a highly automated system that uses robotics, conveyor belts and barcode scanners, among other tools, to fill prescriptions. The operations are supported by a team of pharmacists pharmacy technicians and other professionals.
Instead of staff members filling prescriptions by hand at stores, pill bottles move through an automated and carefully choreographed assembly line. 
Pharmacy technicians fill canisters with medications for robot pods to dispense, and pharmacists verify those canisters to make sure they are accurate. Yellow robotic arms grab a labeled prescription vial and hold it up to a canister, which precisely dispenses the specific medication for that bottle.

Robotic arms fill prescriptions at a Walgreens micro-fulfillment center.
Courtesy: Walgreens

Certain prescriptions are filled at separate manual stations, including inhalers and birth control pill packs. Each prescription is then sorted and packaged for delivery back to retail pharmacy locations for final pickup.
There are other security and safety measures throughout the process, said Ahlam Antar, registered group supervisor of a micro-fulfillment center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. 
For example, the robot pods automatically lock and signal an error with a red-orange light if a worker attaches a canister to the wrong dispenser, preventing the incorrect pills from going in a prescription, she said. 
Properly training workers at the centers to ensure accuracy and patient safety is also crucial, according to Sarah Gonsalves, a senior certified pharmacy technician at the Mansfield site. 
She said a core part of her role is to make sure that technicians can correctly perform the different tasks in the process. 

Improvements to robotic prescription fills

Antar, who has worked at the Mansfield site since its 2022 opening, said Walgreens has made improvements to the micro-fulfillment process after considering feedback from stores and patients during the paused expansion. That includes establishing new roles needed to support the process at the sites, such as a training manager for all 11 locations. 
The facilities also plan to transition to using smaller prescription vials after hearing concerns that the current bottles are too large, according to a Walgreens spokesperson. They said that will allow the centers to ship more prescriptions per order and reduce costs.

A robotic arm fills a prescription vial at a Walgreens micro-fulfillment center.
Courtesy: Walgreens

Heffington said the automated locations have helped reduce Walgreens’ overall prescription fulfillment costs by nearly 13% compared to a year ago. 
She said Walgreens has also increased prescription volume by 126% year-over-year, now filling more than 170 million prescriptions annually. The company hopes to raise that number to 180 million or even more. 
Heffington added that Walgreens implemented new internal tools to track the work across all 11 centers and provide real-time data on where a patient’s prescription is in the micro-fulfillment process. 
“If a patient called the store and said, ‘Hey, can you tell me where my prescription is today?’ [Workers] can do that with great specificity,” thanks to the new tools, Heffington said. 
Despite the company’s progress, Gates said there is more work to be done with micro-fulfillment centers. 
For example, he pointed to the possibility of shipping prescriptions directly to patients’ doorsteps instead of putting that burden on retail stores. 
“It’s only step one right now,” he said. 
Other improvements may still be needed at facilities, according to some reports. For example, WRAL News reported in April that some customers at a Walgreens store in Garner, North Carolina, say they are only getting partial prescription fills, with several pills missing, or their medicine is being delayed.

Retail store pharmacy staff see benefits 

A customer views merchandise for sale at a Walgreens store in the Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Christopher Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Before Brian Gange’s Arizona store started relying on an automated facility, he walked into the pharmacy every morning knowing that a massive list of prescriptions was in his work queue waiting to be filled for the day. 
Now, with help from micro-fulfillment, that list is significantly smaller each day, according to Gange. 
“We don’t have to spend as much time on just those repetitive fulfillment tasks,” he told CNBC. “It really takes a huge weight off our shoulders.” 
Gange said that gives him and his team time to step behind the pharmacy counter and interact with customers face-to-face, answering questions, providing advice, performing health tests or administering vaccines. 
That kind of attention can make all the difference for a patient.  
For example, Gange recalls stepping away for five minutes to take a patient’s blood pressure despite being overwhelmed with tasks while working at a different Walgreens location several years ago. He ended up sending that person to the emergency room because their blood pressure was “off the charts.” 
That patient’s wife visited the pharmacy the next day to thank Gange, saying her husband “probably wouldn’t be here with us today” without that blood pressure test. 
“I shouldn’t have to question whether I have that five or 10 minutes to check a blood pressure for a patient,” Gange said. “Micro-fulfillment and centralized services are really what are going to allow us to be able to do that, to have that time.” 
“That really allows us to provide better care for them,” he added. More

Media giants’ annual pitch to advertisers kicks off in the Upfronts this week, and discussions are clouded by economic uncertainty.
Media ad chiefs say chief marketing officers across industries are making contingency plans in light of the trade war.
The trade war, inflation and other macroeconomic trends have cast a cloud on the ad market after it was showing signs of stabilization following the disruptions of the Covid pandemic and Hollywood strikes.

Michelle Monaghan, Leslie Bibb, and Carrie Coon in ‘The White Lotus’ on HBO. 
Courtesy: Fabio Lovino | HBO

Media companies are staring down widespread economic uncertainty as their annual pitch to advertisers and marketers kicks off.
This week legacy entertainment giants including Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery will stage presentations to ad buyers about why they should commit money to their upcoming slates of sports, entertainment and news programming. Netflix and Amazon’s Prime Video are crowding the field holding their second annual Upfronts. Paramount Global held its presentations with advertisers and agencies last week.

This year the stakes are high as chief marketing officers across brands formulate contingency plans for a variety of outcomes regarding tariffs, inflation, consumer sentiment and other macroeconomic shifts that could affect their spending.
The evolving cost landscape adds to the existing headwinds facing the media industry: Pay-TV subscribers are fleeing for streaming options. And while streaming has begun to reach profitability for some companies, the services have yet to prove as lucrative as the traditional bundle. Meanwhile competition is stiff as digital and social media players capture the lion’s share of ad dollars.
It’ll prove another year of Upfronts clouded by concerns following the Covid pandemic and Hollywood strikes. Last year showed stabilization in an ad market, and executives had earlier told CNBC 2025 was expected to be another year of normalization.
Instead, the industry is bracing itself — and executives are fine-tuning their pitch for the moment.
“Media becomes more complicated in the landscape that’s defined by inflation, regulatory uncertainty, shifting go-to-market timelines, and that serves as this backdrop for the season,” said John Halley, ad sales chief at Paramount. “In moments of uncertainty like this there are very few places that offer the reach, the brand safety and the impact of the Paramount portfolio. That’s an important point to make in a market like this.”

In interviews with the top ad chiefs among the legacy media companies, executives touted sure-fire content and reliable viewership metrics in an effort to demonstrate the importance of advertising during uncertain times. Many executives said they have yet to see a “material” pullback on ad spending, as had been feared.
Chief among the top categories during Upfronts is live sports, they said. Live events, like awards shows, and so-called “must-see TV” will also be a big factor in conversations.
“Sports is having a halo on live [TV] in general,” said Gina Reduto, executive vice president of ad strategy at NBCUniversal.
Although general entertainment has fallen behind sports in ratings, shows like Warner Bros. Discovery’s “The White Lotus,” which generated steady viewership and controlled the cultural conversation on a weekly basis, stand out.
“I think everyone knows that regardless of what happens, they still have to sell, they still have to move [product],” said Rita Ferro, Disney’s president of global advertising. “They say, ‘We still have to deliver products and services to our customers, and we have to do that in the best ways possible.’ That’s understanding the parameters we’re dealing with and what those implications are in terms of pricing.”

Making plans

Big brands that have in some cases sat out for years the TV advertising frenzy around the biggest US sporting event — the Super Bowl — are returning Sunday and spending big amid record ad prices. It’s been a bumpy couple years marked by pandemic-era restraint and political polarization, but the American football championship offers an increasingly unequalled viewership too big to pass up.
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images

Concerns that President Donald Trump’s trade war could jack up prices have yet to translate into a pullback in advertising spending, media executives told CNBC. Quarterly reports for media companies have yet to reflect any decrease in spend due to tariffs, although the decline of the linear TV bundle has weighed down financials.
WBD has yet to see “any material cuts” to its advertising volume, said Ryan Gould and Bobby Voltaggio, the company’s presidents of U.S. advertising sales.
“The sentiment in the market isn’t really indicative of what we’re seeing currently. But you know, obviously, the future state of impact is yet to be known,” said Voltaggio.
Jeff Collins, Fox’s president of ad sales, echoed his peers: “Every client that we’re talking with obviously has their scenario planning down for different things that could happen. But I think one of the important lessons that they learned during Covid was not to overreact to uncertainty.
“Obviously you need to have a plan, and they all have plans,” Collins said. “But until there’s some sort of tangible impact to their business, we haven’t seen anyone really looking to pullback.”
Disney’s Ferro said her team has spent additional time with advertising partners in recent months, discussing various scenarios in which tariffs could affect different categories and products. She added chief marketing officers she’s spoken with are operating in what she called “war rooms.”
Ferro recounted specific conversations with a mobile phone company (which she declined to identify) that highlight the trade policy volatility: The phone company on a Friday in mid-April decided to pull an order for roughly $1.5 million in advertising for the month in light of tariff exposure. That weekend, the Trump administration exempted smartphones and other devices from the tariff scheme.
“So on Monday, that deal that went away on Friday went to order,” said Ferro.
“It’s literally in real time what’s happening. I think there’s a lot of scenarios they’re going through and it’s very in real time,” Ferro said.
Data firm eMarketer estimated traditional TV advertising spending during Upfronts will decline by between $2.78 billion and $4.12 billion, depending on the severity of the tariff impact. Spending on streaming in these annual discussions will be more stable, however, with eMarketer expecting $1 billion in growth in that category. Media companies sell advertising for both platforms together.
This gives advertisers the upper hand when negotiating pricing, with the exception of sports content. It’s likely the companies that are more affected by the loss of pay-TV subscribers will be willing to lower their pricing, said Jonathan Gudai, CEO of Adomni, a digital advertising platform.
Ad data firm EDO said there has already been a pullback on estimated ad spending in the automotive and various retail and consumer sectors since Trump’s announcement on tariffs.
At the same time, concerns from consumers on soon-to-be higher prices has translated to higher ad effectiveness. For example, home appliances brands cut estimated spending by 30%, but consumers’ responsiveness to ads rose 77%.
Media executives — who largely declined to discuss pricing — all said data from firms like EDO is key in discussions with advertisers, which are increasingly looked for tailored, targeted buys rather than sheer audience size.
“Advertisers are saying, ‘I want to buy very specific audiences.’ That’s why outcomes are so important,” said Kevin Krim, CEO of EDO. “You’ve got to have a very granular view of what you’re willing to pay for.”

The Upfronts are dead! Long live the Upfronts!

Paramount ad sales chief, John Halley speaks during an upfront event.
Getty Images for Paramount

All of these factors play into a recurring question for the advertising market: Do the annual Upfronts still matter?
“I’ve been in the business for about 30 years and the question of do we still need the Upfront [presentations] comes up every single year,” said Fox’s Collins.
The answer this year for the traditional media giants may be: more than ever.
“That’s the last moment that you want to quit advertising because, you know, you got to try harder, not sort of capitulate,” said EDO’s Krim.
Krim added the need for flexibility makes real-time data more important: “You cannot be using last year’s model.”
He also said it may further shift ad dollars to programmatic buying, putting media companies on a more “level playing field” with digital companies like Meta, Amazon and Google. Despite being behemoths in the ad space, these tech companies have started to reveal the beginnings of cracks in their ad businesses.
The annual presentations could also lock in buying for some of the consistent favorite categories.
NBCUniversal’s Reduto told CNBC that locking in ads during the Upfronts gives “an opportunity for advertisers to guarantee they have access to the things they know truly drives sales.”
Earlier this year, Mark Marshall, NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships said in a letter that mapped out the company’s upcoming slate of big sports events, including the Super Bowl, Olympics and World Cup, as proof of Upfronts’ utility.
“I think from an advertiser perspective they still value the ability to lock in the franchise positions that they want to own, lock them in at desirable pricing, and be afforded flexibility,” said Collins.
Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC. More

A one-of-a-kind 1999 platinum Rolex Daytona, custom-made and never commercially sold, is hitting Sotheby’s auction on May 11 — and could fetch up to $1.7 million.
Rolex didn’t start producing platinum Daytonas until 2013, making this early piece exceptionally rare. Only four were made for a private family commission, and this is the last one to hit the market.
Rare watches like this are booming as investment assets, with global demand from younger and international buyers helping drive prices up more than 125% over the past decade.

A rare 1999 platinum Rolex Daytona featuring a mother-of-pearl dial with diamond hour markers — one of only four known to exist.
Courtesy of Sotheby’s

A legendary timepiece is about to step into the spotlight.
A 1999 platinum Rolex Daytona is heading to auction on Sunday at Sotheby’s Geneva, and could sell for up to $1.7 million.

The watch is made from platinum, a material Rolex did not use on Daytona models until 2013. Its face is mother-of-pearl, set with 10 diamonds. Unlike nearly every other Rolex on the market, it was not part of a standard collection. It was privately commissioned, custom-made for a client — something almost unheard of for Rolex.
“It’s very unusual to come across a commission,” said Pedro Reiser, senior watch specialist at Sotheby’s. “There are other brands which might be more flexible and do these kinds of exercises, maybe on a regular basis — but not in the space of Rolex pieces where you barely can come across any commission whatsoever.”
Only four of these watches are known to exist, made for the same family, each with a different dial. The watch heading to the auction block is the last one to be sold. The others have already gone for massive prices, topping $3 million.
There is big hype around this small work of metal. It is believed to have been created under the leadership of Patrick Heiniger, Rolex’s CEO from 1992 to 2008. He ran the company during a time of major growth and secrecy and helped turn Rolex from a respected watch brand into a global luxury icon.

Get Inside Wealth directly to your inbox

While rumors have swirled that Heiniger personally commissioned or wore a similar platinum Daytona, Reiser cautions that there is no confirmed link to this watch.

“That’s more of a rumor,” Reiser said. “Personally, I’ve never seen him with this piece, but I know that he used to love platinum watches — mainly Day-Date models. It’s a nice story that accompanies the watch, but I think it’s more of a myth.”
The fact that Rolex made a platinum Daytona in 1999, long before it introduced platinum models publicly in 2013, is a major part of the watch’s mystique.
“Back then, they only existed in stainless steel, yellow gold and white gold,” Reiser said. “Having a platinum — the only known platinum Zenith Daytona — is very special.”

Rolex didn’t begin producing platinum Daytonas until 2013, making this 1999 custom-ordered timepiece a historic anomaly in the brand’s legacy.
Courtesy of Sotheby’s

This particular model stands apart even from its siblings.
“This is the only one that has a diamond-set dial,” Reiser said. “The others had dark mother-of-pearl, lapis lazuli and turquoise stone dials, but no diamonds.”
As more people, especially wealthy collectors and younger buyers, increasingly see rare watches as investments, the prices of these rare timepieces have climbed.
According to Knight Frank’s latest index, watches have jumped more than 125% in value over the past decade, ranking them among the top-performing luxury investments, just behind rare whisky and high-end designer furniture. Even after a slight cooling, with prices rising only 1.7% over the past year, the five-year growth rate for watches of 52.7% signals the category remains a reliable long-term play.
Demand has only broadened, with more international buyers and a wave of under-30 collectors entering the market, Reiser said. More

Air traffic controllers who guide planes in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport again lost contact with planes.
The outage lasted about 90 seconds overnight Friday, when far fewer planes are flying, the FAA said.
The incident comes a day after the Trump administration announced plans to overhaul aging air traffic controller technology.

A man stands outside Terminal C with the airport control tower in the background at Newark Liberty International Airport, on May 6, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey.
Andres Kudacki | Getty Images

Air traffic controllers who guide planes in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport lost radar and communication with aircraft before dawn on Friday in another 90-second outage, the Federal Aviation Administration said, hours after the Trump administration unveiled a plan to overhaul the aging technology that keeps U.S. airspace space safe.
The outage occurred at about 3:55 a.m. ET, the FAA said. There are far fewer aircraft flying overnight, so disruptions were minimal compared with a similar outage on the afternoon of April 28, which snarled air travel for days.

Several controllers took leave because of the stress of that April incident, the FAA said. That exacerbated low staffing levels at the Philadelphia facility, where controllers oversee planes at Newark, New Jersey, airport, forcing the FAA to slow the airport’s traffic.
Like in the April incident, Friday’s outage left controllers unable to communicate with aircraft and their radar screens dark.
On Thursday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy unveiled plans to overhaul several aging facilities and modernize technology used by controllers, who oversee about 45,000 flights a day in the U.S.
Aviation-industry groups and labor unions applauded the proposal and said Thursday that Congress should approve at least $31 billion over the next three years for improvements. That includes $12.5 billion outlined in a House spending proposal last month, for air traffic control modernization and more hiring of controllers.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

ESPN’s all-access streaming service will simply be called ESPN, sources told CNBC.
Pricing for the service will be announced next week. CNBC has previously reported the price is expected to be either $25 or $30 a month.
ESPN executives decided to name the streaming application “ESPN” to simplify what has become a confusing streaming landscape, filled with different product names and prices.
ESPN+ will continue to exist after the launch of ESPN’s more robust streaming product this fall.

A general view of the ESPN logo on a camera at Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 6, 2024.
Wes Hale | UFL | Getty Images

At long last, ESPN has chosen a name for its upcoming all-access streaming service.
Ready?

It’s “ESPN.”
Disney’s sports media division will announce the new — and also sort of old — name for the all-access streaming application at a media event next week, according to people familiar with the matter who declined to be named speaking about not-yet-public details. A Disney spokesperson declined to comment.
Disney executives have referred to the streaming product, which is expected to cost $25 or $30 a month, as “flagship” internally for the past two years as they have developed the service. It will consist of everything ESPN has to offer, including all games; programming on other ESPN cable networks such as ESPN2 and the SEC Network; ESPN on ABC; fantasy products; new betting tie-ins; studio programming; documentaries and more.
This will differ from ESPN’s current streaming product ESPN+, which does not include the most-watched live games, such as Monday Night Football, that currently only air exclusively on traditional pay-TV. ESPN+ costs $11.99 per month and can be bundled with Disney+ and Hulu for $16.99 per month with commercials. ESPN+ will remain a less expensive offering for consumers, according to people familiar with the matter.
ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro decided to name the application ESPN to simplify what has become a cluttered streaming world, filled with different media products that can be bundled with other services at different price points, according to those people. The CNBC Sport newsletter first reported in February that ESPN executives were considering naming the application ESPN among other options.

Get CNBC Sport directly to your inbox

The CNBC Sport newsletter with Alex Sherman brings you the biggest news and exclusive interviews from the worlds of sports business and media, delivered weekly to your inbox.
Subscribe here to get access today.

The new ESPN streaming service is a new distribution mechanism, but most of the content is not new. Rather, the launch is about introducing consumers to a different way customers can access ESPN’s programming. That led executives to gravitate toward carrying over the legacy name, said the people.
The ESPN mobile application will be reimagined and act as the gateway to the all-access service on smart TVs and devices. Pay-TV subscribers who already get ESPN will automatically be able to authenticate into the new app to get the digital bells and whistles that are not available through cable TV. That overlap also played into executives’ decision to maintain uniformity with the name ESPN, rather than a different name that may increase confusion, the people said.
ESPN will next week announce the pricing of the application, as well as associated bundled discounts, Disney CEO Bob Iger said Wednesday during Disney’s quarterly earnings conference call.
ESPN has previously said the service will debut in the fall. More

The FDA approved the first at-home test for cervical cancer screening, developed by Teal Health.
In clinical trials, the accuracy of self-testing with Teal’s wand matched that of a cancer screening performed in a doctor’s office.
Teal will offer its home screening test through a telehealth visit, eliminating the need for an appointment at a doctor’s office

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday approved the first-ever at-home test for cervical cancer screening, developed by San Francisco-based startup Teal Health.
The company began developing the prototype for its Teal Wand just over five years ago. The concept was to make cervical cancer screening more accessible via telehealth and a test that could be self-administered at home, rather than at a doctor’s office.

“The pandemic showed everyone that telehealth is a thing that is preferred … and made it easier to get care for most Americans,” said Kara Egan, CEO of Teal Health, adding that Covid also demonstrated “at-home testing was a thing that people could handle and really understand.”
The Teal Wand works much like a tampon applicator, with a large swab that the user can insert themselves to collect a sample for testing. The FDA designated the tool as a breakthrough device after the company’s clinical trial results showed the precision of the self-administered test was comparable with an in-office screening performed by a clinician, with a 96% accuracy rate.
Teal plans to make the wand available in California first, starting in June.

More CNBC health coverage

The company has had discussions with carriers about insurance coverage for the test as a preventive screening, which for most women would be covered without copays just like an annual doctor’s visit.
The American Cancer Society recommends women get screened for cervical cancer every three years starting at age 21.

Yet Egan says 1 in 4 women fall behind on screening, in part because they can’t find time for an in-person gynecologist appointment, a problem especially for women in rural areas who often have to travel beyond their community to get to a doctor.  
“This is about increasing access to care and making sure we have more options to get that care,” she said.
Ahead of its anticipated FDA approval, Teal Health raised $10 million in its latest funding round in January to help ramp up production for the launch of the Teal Wand. The investment was led by Forerunner Ventures and Laurene Powell Jobs’ Emerson Collective. The company has raised a total of $23 million from investors including Serena Williams’ Serena Ventures, as well as testing firm LabCorp.  
The company’s milestone comes as investors have grown more interested in women’s health tech.
Last year, there was an influx of $680 million into the space invested across 30 deals, according to data from Deloitte. About 60% of those funds went to later-stage investments, according to Jen Radin, principal in Deloitte’s life sciences and health-care practice.
“From 2023 to 2024 femtech saw 41% growth, outpacing overall health tech, which grew only 10%,” Radin said.
FemHealth Ventures managing partner Maneesha Ghiya says while investors are now more cautious, in general, interest in women’s health tech is moving beyond maternity and menopause.   
“Many more people are thinking about women’s health more broadly and supporting these types of innovations — and that includes from the large, established players like medtech, pharma, biotech, large public companies that are thinking more broadly about women’s health,” Ghiya said.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

More renters are choosing to stay in their apartments when their leases are up.
Typically, about half of apartment renters in large urban markets move when their leases end, but some of the largest landlords are now seeing turnover at just 30%.
There are a number of reasons for the change, including the cost of moving and unaffordable for-sale market, among other things.

Renting has its benefits. It’s usually cheaper than buying a home, and it offers the freedom of moving without much hassle. That’s why about half of apartment renters in large urban markets usually move when their leases expire. But that is not happening now.
The low turnover is “striking,” according to real estate analyst Alex Goldfarb at Piper Sandler. He said some of the largest landlords are seeing turnover at just 30% compared with the industry norm of 50%.

He cited reasons including an unaffordable for-sale market, lack of rental supply on the coasts, nervousness about the economy and tariffs, the cost of moving and a shift to suburban apartments, which tend to be larger and more comfortable.
“The consequence is landlords are getting better pricing from renewals, as people don’t want to leave,” said Goldfarb. “It also improves [their] cash flow, because of lower turnover costs.”
Those costs would include repairs, painting and cleaning.
As a result, in the multifamily REIT sector, Goldfarb likes Essex Property Trust, with its large West Coast footprint. Equity Residential also benefits from that regional presence.
He noted the rebounds of San Francisco and Seattle, driven by artificial intelligence and tech companies like Amazon issuing return to office mandates, have helped real estate.

He’s neutral on the Sunbelt, which had been a hot pandemic play. Names like Camden Property Trust and Mid-America Apartment Communities had strong performances in the first quarter of this year, but could be hit hardest if there is a recession that leads to job losses.
As for the overall multifamily market, after declines last year due to record levels of new supply, rents are now coming back, up 0.9% year over year in the first quarter, according to CBRE. That is thanks to the strongest positive net absorption, or the change in the number of occupied units, since 2000 and more than triple the pre-pandemic first quarter average.
It marks the fourth consecutive quarter in which demand surpassed new construction completions, and that pushed the multifamily vacancy rate down to 4.8%, below its long term average of 5%. 
“The first drop in vacant units in more than two years signals a crucial turning point in the multifamily sector,” said Kelli Carhart, leader of multifamily capital markets for CBRE. “This boost will lead to increased investment activity in 2025 as improving fundamentals continue to drive investor confidence capital deployment.” More

Ferrero announced a slate of new products, like Nutella Peanut and Ferrero Rocher chocolate squares, ahead of the annual Sweets and Snacks Expo.
The European company has been investing in growing its U.S. sales for the last decade through an acquisition spree and introducing its iconic brands to consumers stateside.
Ferrero has also been localizing its supply chain by investing in U.S. production facilities.

Containers of Nutella hazelnut spread made by the Ferrero company is displayed on March 27, 2024 in San Anselmo, California. 
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Ferrero North America is adding peanuts to its Nutella, turning its Ferrero Rocher spheres into squares and adding Dr Pepper flavor to Tic Tacs, all in the hopes of winning over more U.S. consumers.  
The confectioner announced its slate of new products ahead of the annual Sweets and Snacks Expo, which kicks off Monday in Indianapolis. The company plans to display its largest-ever array of new products, like Butterfinger Marshmallow and Crunch White, at the trade event.

Ferrero, which was founded in Italy but is now based in Luxembourg, entered North America nearly a half century ago, but the company only really started investing in the market over the last decade. It has recently brought some of its global brands over to the U.S., like Kinder, the maker of Kinder Buenos and Joy eggs.
Ferrero has also expanded its U.S. business through a series of acquisitions: Fannie May, Brach’s owner Ferrera, Nestle’s U.S. candy business and Halo Top owner Wells Enterprises. The Nestle deal in particular brought Nerds, Butterfinger and Raisinets into Ferrero’s portfolio.
Ferrero has grown to become the third-largest U.S. candy company, trailing only Hershey and Mars, according to Evercore ISI. But to close the gap, it still has a lot of ground to cover. Ferrero Rocher held 2% of the U.S. chocolate market share in the 12 weeks ended April 6, according to the bank, citing Circana data. That’s well below the double-digit share held by Hershey’s namesake candy and Reese’s, as well as Mars’ M&M’s.
“Mr. Ferrero has been very clear: the U.S. is the biggest market in the world, it’s the most important market in the world. We will win in the U.S.,” Michael Lindsey, president and chief business officer of Ferrero North America, told CNBC, referring to the company’s executive chairman, Giovanni Ferrero.
While publicly traded candy companies like Hershey and Mondelez have seen sales struggle in recent months, Ferrero’s U.S. business saw 3.4% dollar growth in the 52 weeks ended April 20, according to the company. Its privately held parent company saw an 8.9% increase in turnover — or revenue — in the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, Ferrero disclosed.

Now the company is focusing on organic growth through innovation meant to appeal specifically to U.S. consumers.  
“You do have to Americanize it at some point to get to that next level of love with the American consumer,” Lindsey said. “In a very simple way, our strategy is to take these global power brands, or the recently acquired U.S. power brands, and then introduce an American twist to them that the consumer here hasn’t seen before and hopefully will end up loving.”

American-izing Ferrero Rocher and Nutella

A timeline of Ferrero’s coming innovation
Source: Ferrero

Ferrero plans to bring American twists to many of its biggest products.
Its iconic Ferrero Rocher candy will transform into squares with a chocolate shell, hazelnuts and a creamy filling. The product will come in at least five varieties – milk, dark, white, caramel and assorted – and will hit shelves in September.
Ferrero Rocher isn’t the only brand getting a dramatic addition.
For the first time in six decades, Nutella will introduce a new flavor: Nutella Peanut. The spread mixes the taste of classic Nutella’s cocoa and hazelnut with roasted peanuts. It will hit grocery shelves next spring.
While the product will first launch in the U.S., Lindsey said that he’s already fielding calls from international colleagues excited about the new flavor.
“I assume it will do extremely well, and then as soon as we’re able, we’ll start shipping some overseas,” he said.
Given existing preferences for both peanuts and Nutella, Lindsey expects that Nutella Peanut will be a huge hit in Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf. Saudi Arabia has the highest per capita Nutella consumption in the world, according to Lindsey.
Ferrero is investing $75 million to support manufacturing of Nutella Peanut at its existing plant in Franklin Park, Illinois. The company is also expanding a production plant in Ontario, Canada, to support production of Ferrero Rocher chocolate squares and Nutella Biscuits.
Ferrero is also sourcing hazelnuts from Oregon as it moves to localize its supply chain for the nut, a key ingredient for both Nutella and Ferrero Rocher.
The company’s investments in its North American supply chain were in place before the Trump administration’s tariffs on dozens of countries, but the timing is fortuitous.
“This has been in progress for multiple years and been part of our long-term strategy for Mr. Ferrero when he entered the U.S. market about 10 to 15 years ago. … Obviously recent events have made it even more important that we localize the supply chain,” Lindsey said, adding that the company has grown from 300 U.S. employees a decade ago to more than 5,000 today.
And Ferrero’s U.S. investments aren’t limited to its supply chain. Lindsey said the company plans to start “going very large” on marketing its brands.
“In fact, without spoiling it too much, you can expect to start seeing us in the biggest sporting events in the world, starting next year, in let’s say, February of ’26 and then over the summer of ’26 as well,” he said, hinting at marketing pushes during the Super Bowl and the World Cup.
After all, what’s more American than football?
Correction: Michael Lindsey is president and chief business officer of Ferrero North America. An earlier version misspelled his name.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More