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Deshawn “DJ” Chow is one of just over 100 sickle cell patients who have undergone treatment with new gene therapies.
CVS Health CEO David Joyner said private insurers and employer-sponsored health plans are looking at how to create a new risk pool arrangement to help manage the costs of the therapies.
The Biden administration introduced a new federal payment model to help state Medicaid programs afford the gene therapies, but Medicaid is now facing federal funding cuts in Washington.

Starting in his early teens, Deshawn “DJ” Chow wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to live a normal life. Crushing pain episodes brought on by his sickle cell disease were getting progressively worse.   
“It’s just been hard skipping school and always being in and out of the hospital,” the 19-year-old said. “And just severe pain in … my head and my lower back.”

When new sickle cell gene therapies were approved by the Food and Drug Administration just over a year ago, Chow’s adopted parents sought out City of Hope Children’s Cancer Center in Los Angeles to get him access to the new treatment. To their relief, the center accepted him as patient, and quickly secured authorization from the Chows’ employer-sponsored insurance.
“They’re covering pretty much all of this [at] almost no cost out of pocket for us. So, we’re really grateful for those benefits,” said DJ’s dad, Sean Chow. “I’m amazed.”
DJ Chow is one of a handful of the hospital’s patients who have been treated with Casgevy, the sickle gene therapy produced by Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which costs more than $2 million per patient. The treatment process involved multiple hospitalizations as well as chemotherapy treatments at additional cost over the course of the past year.
Sickle cell is a blood disorder in which a person’s red blood cells become misshapen into crescent moons. It disproportionately affects Black people and causes severe pain episodes that can frequently land patients in the hospital.
Chow is one of small number of patients to complete treatment with new gene therapies. After completing the full course of Casgevy treatments in January, he is starting to let himself dream about doing the things he’s always wanted to do.

“Learn how to snowboard and surf and do all these things … experiences I never really got to do because of my sickle cell,” he said.

Slow ramp up

While more than 100,000 Americans suffer from sickle cell disease, younger patients whose organs have not been damaged by the disease are the most promising candidates to benefit from the new treatments.
Still, the ramp up of capacity to treat patients at scale has been slow. In the first year since two gene therapies for sickle cell were approved by the FDA, just over 100 patients have undergone treatment.
Vertex executives said on the company’s fourth quarter earnings call that 50 patients globally had received their first cell collections by the end of last year 2024. Meanwhile, executives at competitor Bluebird Bio said last fall that nearly five dozen patients had undergone treatment with its drug Lyfgenia, which is priced at more than $3 million per patient. Another 37 patients are slated to begin treatment with Bluebird’s therapy by early 2025.
For the first treatment centers to offer the new sickle gene therapies, coordinating with insurers on obtaining coverage has required a bit of learning curve.
“It is much smoother today than it was when we first started getting patients in,” said Jennifer Cameron, executive director of patient access at Children’s National Hospital, in Washington, D.C. “Many times, we’ll send them the billing and coding guides that are developed by the … manufacturer and we share that with the payer, if they don’t know about it.”
City of Hope’s Dr. Leo Wang, the pediatric hematologist-oncologist who works with Chow, also said the process has gotten smoother, but he worries that the price of these treatments still poses hurdles for coverage.
“The challenges for the health care system are immense. This is a very expensive therapy,” he said, “For employer-based insurance plans it may be a little bit difficult to accommodate those costs.”
So far, the slow ramp up of patients in treatment has made coverage of early cases manageable, said David Joyner, CEO of CVS Health, the parent company of health insurer Aetna. But with demand expected to ramp up, he said many in the industry are looking at developing new payment models for the sickle cell treatments and other gene therapies on the horizon.  
“There are emerging risk pools being developed … sometimes at the state Medicaid levels, and sometimes collectively across larger payers,” Joyner explained, so that the financial burden of the treatments is spread beyond just one state or one company.
“You have to think about a different payment model, because today’s payment model is not constructed to spread the cost,” he said. “But that takes time.”

A challenge for Medicaid

For state Medicaid programs, the challenge of affordability for the new sickle cell treatments may be even greater. More than half of sickle cell patients are covered under the federal-state government health plan for low-income Americans.
Southern states like Georgia, Florida and Mississippi have some the largest concentrations of sickle cell patients, according to a study by researchers at the University of Chicago.
The Biden administration developed a Cell and Gene Therapy payment model under the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, which will provide states with an outcomes-based discounted price and provide some funding for the new drugs. The deadline for states to apply for the program is Feb. 28, with the first federal grants to help pay for the drugs on track to begin in June, according to CMS officials.   
Under the new payment model, states could receive up to $9.5 million in federal funding, but even with discounted prices that may not begin to cover the costs of treating Medicaid patients in some cases.
Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University calculated that the 10 states with the largest sickle cell populations could see a mean budget impact of $30 million, based on an estimate of treatments priced at just under $1.9 million. 
Those increased costs would come at a time when the Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress are looking for ways to cut federal spending. The administration has already begun to cut staffing at health agencies, and federal funding for state Medicaid programs is expected to be on the table in upcoming budget proposals.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during his confirmation hearings last month that he is committed to maintaining staffing to provide coordination of sickle cell coverage across the department and other agencies, without specifically discussing funding for the new gene therapies or Medicaid overall.
“I have many friends who have sickle cell. I’ve seen the suffering they endure,” Kennedy said. “There are now promising gene therapies. They are very, very expensive, but it’s something that [National Institutes of Health] should be enthusiastically supporting — that kind of research.”
Sean Chow said he is grateful to the researchers who developed the gene therapy, which he hopes will allow his son to have a more normal future, without debilitating episodes of pain. He wants other families to have the same opportunity to access the high-priced gene therapies for their loved ones.  
“Having a child with sickle cell has been heartbreaking,” he said. “I’m hoping as more and more patients get the therapy, the cost can be driven down.” More

Coca-Cola is launching its own prebiotic soda brand to compete with Olipop and Poppi.
While soda consumption has fallen over the last two decades, the popularity of prebiotic sodas has skyrocketed, as consumers look for a healthier option.
Simply Pop’s first product lineup leans fruity, in a nod to Coke’s Simply juice brand.

Source: Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is launching a prebiotic soda brand called Simply Pop, taking on upstarts Olipop and Poppi.
Starting in late February, consumers on the West Coast and in the Southeast will be able to try Coke’s iteration of the trendy drink.

Soda consumption has broadly fallen in the U.S. over the last two decades, hurt by health concerns and an increase in alternatives on the market, from cold brew to energy drinks to water. But in the last five years, sodas containing prebiotics have taken off, thanks to industry newcomers Olipop and Poppi.
Olipop recently raised $50 million at a valuation of $1.85 billion, the company announced Wednesday. And Poppi made its second straight Super Bowl appearance in this year’s game, shelling out up to $8 million to reach the game’s record audience.
Digestive health soft drinks have grown from a $197 million category in the U.S. in 2020 to one of roughly $440 million in 2024, according to Euromonitor International data. Still, it’s a fraction of the overall soda market, which is worth billions of dollars.
Simply Pop’s first product lineup leans fruity, in a nod to Coke’s Simply juice brand. Flavors include pineapple mango, lime, strawberry, fruit punch and citrus punch.
“We went out and really listened to consumers. They love this space, they’re really looking for stuff that tastes good, and that’s something we know how to deliver on at Simply and at Coke,” said Becca Kerr, CEO of Coke’s North American nutrition unit, which includes its Simply and Fairlife brands.

Simply Pop drinks have no added sugar and contain 25% to 30% real fruit juice, the company said. They also contain vitamin C and zinc, which can boost the immune system.
They also have six grams of prebiotic fiber — triple Poppi’s fiber content but less than Olipop’s nine grams.
Prebiotics have taken off thanks to claims that they can boost “gut health” by helping beneficial bacteria grow in the gut. Their health benefits haven’t been conclusively proven.
“We do see that there tends to be an appetite for these type of products with younger consumers, like millennial and Gen Z,” Kerr said. “We see an interest in these types of products from multicultural consumers.”
But health claims can prompt pushback. Poppi is in settlement talks over a lawsuit filed in late May that challenges the company’s marketing, arguing that Poppi’s products are not as healthy for the gut as advertised.
Coke has had the prebiotic soda category on its radar for several years, according to Kerr. Olipop CEO and co-founder Ben Goodwin told CNBC in 2023 that both Coke and PepsiCo had already approached the company about a potential sale. Pepsi is reported to be planning its own prebiotic soda launch in 2025.
While it’s a newcomer to the segment, Coke has some obvious advantages: more than 100 years dominating the soda category, marketing and distribution muscle, and $47 billion in revenue in 2024 — compared with the more than $400 million in sales that Olipop netted in 2024.
Still, Coke has failed before when trying to chase a drink trend. It pulled its Coke Spiced flavor off the shelves in 2024 just months after declaring it a permanent addition. And in 2023, it slashed distribution of its Aha sparkling water brand after the product failed to take off with consumers. More

A Delta Air Lines flight with 80 people on board crashed on landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport Monday afternoon, officials said.
At least 15 people were injured, local officials said.
The regional jet was traveling from Minneapolis to Toronto.

First responders work at the Delta Air Lines plane crash site at Toronto Pearson International Airport in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada February 17, 2025.
Arlyn Mcadorey | Reuters

At least 15 people were injured after a Delta Air Lines regional jet crashed upon landing at Toronto Pearson International Airport Monday afternoon, officials said.
All 80 people on board — 76 passengers and four crew members — were evacuated from the plane, a CRJ-900 regional jet, after the accident, which occurred at about 2:45 p.m. ET, the Federal Aviation Administration said. Two people were airlifted in critical condition, according to Peel Regional Paramedic Services.

Emergency crews responded at the scene. Flights to the airport were temporarily halted but resumed as of 5 p.m. ET.
Delta said in a statement it was cancelling the remainder of its flights to and from Toronto Monday and issuing travel waivers to affected passengers.
“The hearts of the entire global Delta family are with those affected by today’s incident at Toronto-Pearson International Airport,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in the statement. “I want to express my thanks to the many Delta and Endeavor team members and the first responders on site.”
Delta Flight 4819, operated by the carrier’s regional subsidiary Endeavor, originated in Delta’s hub of Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport.
The Toronto airport said it had been expecting a busy day and a storm that dumped more than 8 inches of snow on the region, with an expected 130,000 travelers on board around 1,000 flights.

Weather reports showed wind of between 20 mph and 30 mph Monday, with gusts of up to 40 mph.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada will lead the crash investigation, the FAA said. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said in a post on social media X that FAA investigators were en route to Toronto and that he is working with his Canadian counterparts to assist in the investigation.
The accident comes weeks after a fatal midair collision in January at Washington D.C.’s Reagan International Airport, which killed all 64 people on an American Airlines regional jet and another three people on board an Army Black Hawk helicopter.
Separately, the FAA was recently hit by layoffs spearheaded by President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency, with several hundred air traffic controllers receiving firing notices over the weekend.
A U.S. Department of Transportation spokesperson told NBC News the FAA “continues to hire and onboard” air traffic controllers and that the agency has “retained employees” who perform critical safety functions. More

Southwest said it would cut about 15% of its corporate workforce, or 1,750 jobs.
The airline has been under pressure to cut costs.
CEO Bob Jordan said it was the company’s first large-scale layoff.

A Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 passenger plane taxis along the tarmac at the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Arlington, Virginia on December 13, 2024.
Daniel Slim | Afp | Getty Images

Southwest Airlines said Monday that it is cutting about 15% of corporate jobs, or about 1,750 people, a move its CEO called “unprecedented” as the company scrambles to cut costs.
The company said it expects savings from the cuts of $210 million this year and about $300 million in 2026. The layoffs will be mostly done by the end of the second quarter and include some senior leadership roles, CEO Bob Jordan said in a staff note, which was seen by CNBC.

“This decision is unprecedented in our 53-year history, and change requires that we make difficult decisions,” Jordan said in a news release. “We are at a pivotal moment as we transform Southwest Airlines into a leaner, faster, and more agile organization.”
Southwest’s decision to slash jobs comes several months after a settlement with activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which won five Southwest board seats, short of control. The firm had also pushed for Jordan to be replaced as CEO, though it was not successful.
Other recent cost-cutting measures at Southwest included a hiring freeze, a pause to the internship program and an end to team-building “rallies,” a company tradition that dated back to 1985, CNBC previously reported. It has also aggressively cut unprofitable routes.
Last year, Southwest outlined a plan to increase profits that included ditching its more than 50-year-old open seating model in favor of assigned seats and creating a section with extra legroom. It also recently launched overnight flights for the first time.
“We must ensure we fund the right work, reduce duplicative efforts, and have a lean organizational structure that drives clarity, pace, and urgency,” Jordan said in his memo on Monday.
The layoffs take effect in late April, Jordan said, adding that most affected employees will not work but will still receive salary, benefits and bonus until then. More

China’s Communist Party has a history of purging then welcoming back senior officials. Deng Xiaoping was purged three times before leading the country out of Maoism in the late 1970s. Some cadres are welcomed back years after their death. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, received the modern version of a purge in 2020. The initial public offering (ipo) of his fintech company, Ant Group, was cancelled. Alibaba was probed and handed a record fine. Mr Ma withdrew from public life. More

China’s Communist Party has a history of purging then welcoming back senior officials. Deng Xiaoping was purged three times before leading the country out of Maoism in the late 1970s. Some cadres are welcomed back years after their death. Jack Ma, Alibaba’s founder, received the modern version of a purge in 2020. The initial public offering (ipo) of his fintech company, Ant Group, was cancelled. Alibaba was probed and handed a record fine. Mr Ma withdrew from public life. More

Keytruda, a cancer-immunotherapy medicine, ranks among the most lucrative drugs ever sold. Since its launch in 2014 it has raked in over $130bn in sales for Merck, its American maker, including $29.5bn last year. In September last year an experimental drug did what none had done before. In late-stage trials for non-small-cell lung cancer, it nearly doubled the time patients lived without the disease worsening—to 11.1 months, compared with 5.8 months for Keytruda. More

Movie theaters have embraced commemorative popcorn buckets, using these specialty items to drive concession purchases, create a sense of urgency to see big movies on opening weekend and add value to the theatrical experience.
Cinemas started adopting specialty popcorn buckets in 2019, but the “Dune: Part Two” popcorn bucket fueled a new age.
Exhibitors have found that popcorn buckets not only help the bottom line, but add value to the overall moviegoing experience.

Popcorn buckets are pictured during the “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” concert movie world premiere at AMC The Grove in Los Angeles on Oct. 11, 2023.
Valerie Macon | AFP | Getty Images

For decades, popcorn has been a staple of the movie theater experience and exhibitors’ bottom lines. Now, the receptacle it comes in is becoming just as important.
As recently as three years ago, AMC Entertainment didn’t sell any merchandise. Last year it hawked novelty popcorn buckets, drink sippers and T-shirts to the tune of about $65 million in revenue.

“It started with us in a big way with our own movie, ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour,’ that we released in October of 2023 and we sold just an incredible number of popcorn buckets,” said AMC CEO Adam Aron. “That sparked us to do it almost all the time … just literally every month.”
Other theater chains like Cinemark, Marcus, Regal and B&B Theatres have also embraced popcorn buckets, using these specialty items to drive concession purchases, create a sense of urgency to see big movies on opening weekend and add value to the theatrical experience.
“Post-Covid, we realized that the eventizing of cinema has never really been as important as it is now,” said Paul Farnsworth, executive director of communication and content at B&B Theatres. “We recognized during that time that the greatest casualty for our industry was people just fell out of the habit of going to movies.”
Hollywood production issues led to fewer theatrical releases and smaller ticket sales in 2024, with box office receipts down 3.4% from 2023 to $8.74 billion. Farnsworth noted that unique popcorn buckets can add value to a customer’s trip to the movies and creates a memory of the trip that can be taken home, propped up on a display shelf or repurposed for movie nights in.
“It is very good for the bottom line,” he said. “The big value for us is that people come in and there’s these fun things they get to take home and they’re taking pictures with them in the theater. There’s immense value in that.”

For Cinemark, the proof of concept came with the release of “Scream VI” in 2023.

Cinemark’s Ghostface popcorn bucket from 2023’s “Scream VI.”

“We made a ‘Scream’ popcorn bucket and it completely caught us by surprise,” said Sean Gamble, CEO of Cinemark. “This thing just had this huge uptake. We sold out of the thing immediately and we were basically selling them to people online afterwards.”

Not just a movie theater snack

Commemorative popcorn buckets have long been a part of theme park merchandising, driving revenue of the likes of Disney and Universal both domestically and internationally. However, U.S.-based movie theaters were late to adopt the trend.
Marketing and merchandise company Zinc has been designing and manufacturing branded popcorn buckets and drink sippers for over a decade internationally, but turned its attention stateside in 2016.
“Theaters were reticent because the cups didn’t fit in the holders,” said Rod Mason, vice president of business development at Zinc Group, one of the biggest players in the premium popcorn space.
A shift came in 2019 with an R2-D2 popcorn bucket created for “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Mason said.
“AMC took a punt on it,” he explained. “They took multiple tens of thousands of pieces. They sold through it in about three or four days at an incredibly high price. Nothing like that had ever been done before, and it was like ‘OK, well, this works.'”
A revamped version of the droid popcorn bucket was re-released for the 25th anniversary screenings of “Star Wars: Episode 1 — A Phantom Menace.”
The popcorn bucket and drink cup combo sold for $49.99.
However, the true watershed moment for the niche market came nearly five years later with a now-infamous popcorn bucket in honor of “Dune: Part Two,” released in last March. The bucket was modeled after the sandworms featured in the film but inspired crude comparisons to an adult product.
“The beauty of the ‘Dune’ bucket was it just wasn’t intended to be viral,” Mason said.
The $24.99 bucket sold out and found momentum on secondary markets. Receipts from eBay show these popcorn buckets sold for between $50 and $210 apiece on the reseller site.
“The popularity of the popcorn buckets on social media combined with the perception of limited supply of the popcorn buckets leads to a feeling of ‘fear of missing out’ among consumers who are driven to buy the buckets when [they] see them available,” said Lindsay Brookshier, content director at online Disney guide MickeyVist.com.
The “Dune” bucket inspired “Deadpool & Wolverine” actor and producer Ryan Reynolds to design a cheeky popcorn bucket for the release of his film.
“Years from now they will look back at 2024 as when the War of the Popcorn Buckets began,” Reynolds wrote on X to promote the concession container, which was shaped like Wolverine’s head with its mouth wide open to house the popcorn.

 The “Deadpool & Wolverine” popcorn bucket is seen during 2024 Comic-Con International on July 25, 2024 in San Diego, California.
Matt Winkelmeyer | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

The $29.99 bucket was exclusively available at AMC and was released the same weekend as San Diego Comic-Con and the “Deadpool & Wolverine” film release.

More unique popcorn buckets to come

Studios and theaters have been more proactive about working with companies like Zinc to create unique popcorn buckets for moviegoers.
“It’s a very competitive business,” said Mason. “Everyone is trying to outdo, and not just the companies like us, but also the companies that are buying it. They’re trying to make sure that they have the coolest item … that competition has been magnified over the last 12 months because there’s so many eyes on this segment of the business.”

Cinemark’s Colosseum shaped popcorn bucket for Paramount’s “Gladiator II.”

And the movie industry is about to have an influx of blockbuster titles now that production delays from the pandemic and dual Hollywood strikes are in the rearview mirror.
Following “Captain America: Brave New World,” which debuted Friday, the 2025 calendar has “Thunderbolts*,” ” Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning,” “How to Train Your Dragon,” “Jurassic World Rebirth,” “Superman,” “Fantastic Four: First Steps,” “Wicked: For Good,” “Zootopia 2,” and “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
And 2026 has equally promising tie-ins for popcorn buckets with a “Super Mario Bros.” sequel, “Avengers: Doomsday,” “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” “Toy Story 5,” “Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow,” “Minions 3,” “Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping,” “Ice Age 6” and “Shrek 5.”
“We’ve missed out on a couple,” B&B’s Farnsworth said. “We didn’t have that crazy ‘Dune’ one. But that was kind of one of the hinge points for us. It was like, ‘Alright, we really have to pay attention.'”
B&B, the fifth-largest cinema chain in America with 58 locations, still has to be very intentional about which products it offers and how many it purchases. Films like “Wicked,” with a massive built-in audience craving merchandise, are a safer bet. But theaters have a very short window to sell the specialty items.
“Unlike our normal popcorn bags, which are evergreen, if you don’t sell the [product], you’re probably not going to sell them a month after the movie,” Farnsworth said.
Meanwhile, AMC is investing more heavily.
“One of the big things that we’re doing in 2025 is we’re significantly increasing the quantities,” Aron said, noting that AMC was already placing orders for 100,000 units or more. “We’re buying, because there’s no need for us to sell out on opening day. There’s plenty of people coming to see that movie for weeks and weeks.”
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More