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    Disney+ will stream Caitlin Clark’s WNBA debut in the platform’s first live sports event

    The WNBA regular season opens Tuesday night with breakout star Caitlin Clark making her debut as point guard for the Indiana Fever.
    The game will be streamed on Disney+, the service’s first live sports event.
    Disney nearly turned a profit in its streaming unit for the first time during its fiscal second quarter, and has been increasingly leaning on sports streaming to drive viewership.

    Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark, #22, drives to the basket against Atlanta Dream guard Destanni Henderson, #33, during a WNBA preseason game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9, 2024.
    Brian Spurlock | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

    The Women’s National Basketball Association regular season opens Tuesday night with breakout star Caitlin Clark making her debut as point guard for the Indiana Fever. The game will be streamed on Disney+, the service’s first live sports event.
    As the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer for both men’s and women’s basketball, Clark helped draw a record 18.9 million viewers to the Women’s March Madness National Championship game last month. The former Iowa star was drafted as the No. 1 pick on April 15, which alone led 2.45 million viewers to tune in, surpassing the league’s previous high for a draft by 307%.

    Following Clark’s debut at 7:30 p.m. ET against the Connecticut Sun, Disney+ will stream the Phoenix Mercury vs. Las Vegas Aces matchup. Disney+ has previously streamed animated simulcasts of sporting events using cartoon characters in place of the athletes, but Tuesday’s doubleheader is the first instance of a live sports game streamed on the platform.
    Disney nearly turned a profit in its streaming unit for the first time during its fiscal second quarter, the company reported last week. The entertainment giant has been increasingly leaning on sports streaming to drive viewership.
    Disney’s ESPN is planning to launch a full direct-to-consumer streaming product in fall 2025 that will allow consumers to subscribe to ESPN without cable.
    It is also partnering with Warner Bros. Discovery and Fox Corp. to offer a sports streaming service that they expect to launch this fall, the companies announced in February.
    Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery’s exclusive TV rights for NBA games is currently under negotiation.

    The WNBA’s existing media rights deal expires in 2025. The deal is reported to be worth roughly $60 million, and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she expects that to double when the rights are renegotiated.
    Patrick Rishe, director of the Sports Business Program at Washington University’s Olin Business School, said the WNBA debut on Tuesday could be a “watershed moment for the league,” and the choice to have the game on Disney+ will be critical for the league’s “key demographic” of families and younger people.
    “They covet younger fans, and this is how younger fans view their sports these days — it is through streaming,” Rishe told CNBC’s “Worldwide Exchange” on Tuesday.
    “I certainly see some parallels between the potential of Caitlin Clark and her power in terms of increasing the reach of the WNBA and Lionel Messi, of all people, and what is going on with Apple TV,” Rishe added, in reference to the soccer superstar’s 10-year deal with Major League Soccer, and the league’s streaming deal with Apple TV.

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    Walmart is laying off, relocating hundreds of corporate workers across the country. Read the memo

    Walmart is laying off and transferring hundreds of its corporate employees.
    The company is relocating remote workers and those at its Dallas, Toronto and Atlanta offices.
    The discounter is currently building a new headquarters in its hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas.

    People walk near the entrance to a Walmart Supercenter in Hallandale Beach, Florida, on Feb. 20, 2024.
    Joe Raedle | Getty Images

    Walmart is laying off hundreds of corporate workers across the country as it relocates many employees to its Arkansas headquarters.
    The big-box retailer confirmed the layoffs and relocations in a memo sent to employees Tuesday.

    In the memo, Chief People Officer Donna Morris said the move is meant to bring more of its employees back to the office after the Covid-19 pandemic. The company brought corporate employees back to its Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters in February 2022.
    Now, she said, Walmart is taking that a step further. The majority of employees working remotely and in offices in Dallas, Atlanta and Toronto have been asked to relocate. Most will be moved to the company’s Arkansas headquarters, but some will also relocate to offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken, New Jersey, she said.
    “In addition, some parts of our business have made changes that will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles,” she said in the memo. “While the overall numbers are small in percentage, we are focused on supporting each of our associates affected by these changes.”
    Walmart did not say how many people were affected by the cuts.
    The news comes days before Walmart’s much-anticipated earnings report on Thursday.

    The layoffs are the latest cost cut for the discounter. In late April, Walmart announced it would shutter 51 health clinics across Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Texas. The new clinics, which offered doctor, dentist and therapy appointments, were part of Walmart Health, a broad effort by the discounter to bring lower prices to the health-care industry. It had opened the health clinics next to its big-box stores, but said in an announcement on its website that the business was not financially sustainable.
    Walmart is the nation’s largest private employer with about 1.6 million employees, most of whom work at its stores across the country.
    Walmart has another reason to bring more employees to Bentonville: It is building a nearly 350-acre campus there. The major development, which is well underway, includes 12 office buildings, along with parking lots, a hotel and other amenities. The campus’ first few buildings have already opened, including a fitness center and a day care.
    The Wall Street Journal first reported the layoffs and relocations.
    Read the full memo from Morris to Walmart employees:

    It has been a little over four years since we faced the global pandemic that reshaped our lives in many ways, including our ways of working. In February 2022, we made the decision to bring Home Office associates back into our campus offices. We believe that being together, in person, makes us better and helps us to collaborate, innovate and move even faster. We also believe it helps strengthen our culture as well as grow and develop our associates.
    With the goal of bringing more of us together more often, we are asking the majority of associates working remotely, and the majority of associates within our offices in Dallas, Atlanta, and our Toronto Global Tech office, to relocate. Most relocations will be to our Home Office in Bentonville, but some will be to our offices in the San Francisco Bay Area or Hoboken/New York.
    In addition, some parts of our business have made changes that will result in a reduction of several hundred campus roles. While the overall numbers are small in percentage, we are focused on supporting each of our associates affected by these changes.
    We have had discussions with associates who were directly impacted by these decisions. We will work closely with them in the coming days and months to navigate the best path forward.

    This is developing story. Please check back for updates.

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    Fat Brands confidentially files to IPO its Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones restaurant chains

    Fat Brands has confidentially filed to spin off its Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones chains through an initial public offering.
    The announcement comes days after the restaurant company and its chair Andy Wiederhorn were criminally indicted.
    Fat Brands bought Twin Peaks in 2021 and Smokey Bones in 2023.

    Smokey Bones at Broadcasting Square. 
    Tim Leedy | Medianews Group | Getty Images

    Fat Brands said Tuesday it has confidentially filed to take its Twin Peaks and Smokey Bones restaurant chains public through an initial public offering, less than a week after federal authorities charged the restaurant company and its chair Andy Wiederhorn for an alleged $47 million bogus loan scheme.
    Fat Brands announced its intention to spin off Twin Peaks through an IPO last year. At that time, the company had already disclosed a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into Wiederhorn.

    On Thursday, Fat Brands, Wiederhorn and a few other people were criminally indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles for wire fraud, tax evasion and other counts related to the alleged scheme. In a separate civil complaint filed on Friday, the SEC accused the company and Wiederhorn of violations related to the same conduct.
    Both Fat Brands and Wiederhorn, through an attorney, have denied the charges.
    Since its founding in 2005, Twin Peaks has grown to nearly 115 restaurant locations in the U.S. and Mexico. Fat Brands bought the company in 2021. The sports bar chain is known for its female staff’s revealing uniforms, similar to Hooters.
    Smokey Bones is a newer addition to Fat Brands’ portfolio, which currently includes 18 chains. Olive Garden owner Darden Restaurants created the barbecue chain in 1999 but later sold the brand. Fat Brands acquired it in September 2023, with the goal of converting more than half its 61 corporate-owned restaurants into Twin Peaks locations.
    “Our priority is to use the proceeds from any transaction to deleverage the balance sheet,” Wiederhorn said about the potential IPO on the company’s first-quarter conference call on May 1.

    Wiederhorn owns 45% of Fat Brands’ common shares through Fog Cutter Holdings, according to FactSet.
    Shares of the company have fallen 9% this year, dragging its market value down to about $90 million.

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    People on Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy maintain weight loss for up to four years, study says

    Patients taking Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Wegovy maintained an average of 10% weight loss for up to four years, according to a new analysis from the longest clinical trial to date on the treatment.
    The highly popular drug also reduced the risk of heart disease regardless of a patient’s weight, a second analysis on the same trial found.
    The findings shed light on the long-term effects of Wegovy, and could boost Novo Nordisk’s case to insurers and governments to cover the costly but effective drug.

    Boxes of Wegovy made by Novo Nordisk are seen at a pharmacy in London, Britain March 8, 2024. 
    Hollie Adams | Reuters

    Patients taking Novo Nordisk’s obesity drug Wegovy maintained an average of 10% weight loss for up to four years, according to a new analysis published Tuesday from the longest clinical trial to date on the treatment.
    The highly popular drug also reduced the risk of heart disease regardless of a patient’s weight, a second analysis on the same trial found. Both analyses were presented at the European Congress on Obesity in Venice, Italy, this week.

    The findings shed light on the long-term effects of Wegovy and add to growing evidence of the weekly injection’s broad health benefits. That could boost Novo Nordisk’s case for insurers and governments to cover the costly but effective drug.
    Insurance coverage is limited for Wegovy, part of a class of medications called GLP-1s. Those obesity and diabetes treatments have soared in popularity over the last year and work by mimicking a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite. Neither Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly, which has its own weight loss drug, have been able to produce enough supply to meet the insatiable demand for their treatments.
    The two analyses build on data published in November from Novo Nordisk’s SELECT trial. The findings from that trial showed that Wegovy slashed the risk of heart attacks, stroke and other serious cardiovascular complications by 20% in people who have obesity or are overweight and also have cardiovascular disease.
    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Wegovy for that purpose in March.
    The SELECT trial, which included more than 17,000 patients from over 40 countries, tested Wegovy for its cardiovascular benefits.

    Participants were not required to track diet and exercise because it was not an obesity study. Patients in the trial lost around 10% of their total body weight on average after 65 weeks on Wegovy, according to the first analysis published in the journal Nature.
    Patients continued to take the weekly drug over a period of three years and four months and sustained their weight loss for up to four years. Other research has shown that many people regain weight after stopping the drugs.
    The second analysis showed that patients in the trial reaped the heart benefits of Wegovy regardless of their weight when they started on the drug and regardless of how much weight they lost on it.
    For example, the reduced risk of serious cardiovascular events for those on Wegovy, compared with a placebo, was similar among people who lost 5% or more of their body weight, those who lost less than that or even those who gained weight.

    More CNBC health coverage

    The finding suggests Wegovy helps improve a patient’s heart health through methods beyond weight loss, the study authors concluded.
    Notably, the weight loss in the trial was less than the average 15% weight loss observed in an earlier study on Wegovy’s effect on obesity.
    But the researchers in the first analysis noted that the previous study was designed specifically for weight loss and included structured lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise. The population that study followed was also different from the SELECT trial.
    Safety results from the two analyses were consistent with the previous data from the SELECT trial. More people on Wegovy than people who got a placebo decided to stop participating in the trial because of side effects.
    Patients also experienced side effects consistent with other GLP-1 medications, such as nausea, diarrhea, vomiting and constipation.

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    Comcast offers subscribers Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ bundle

    Comcast said Tuesday it will introduce a streaming bundle for its cable, broadband and mobile subscribers, tying together Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ at a discounted rate.
    The announcement comes as major media players increasingly join forces to drive value for users and subscriptions for streaming services.
    Comcast did not disclose the price of the bundle.

    Omar Marques | Lightrocket | Getty Images

    Comcast said Tuesday it will introduce a streaming bundle for its cable, broadband and mobile subscribers, tying together Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ at a discounted rate.
    The announcement, made Tuesday at the MoffettNathanson media conference in New York, comes as major media players increasingly join forces to drive value for users and subscriptions for streaming services.

    On May 8, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery announced a bundle of its streaming services — Disney+, Hulu and Max.
    Comcast’s offer follows a model similar to several bundles from Verizon: Its streaming bundle will be offered to existing Comcast subscribers, which could help prop up its pay-TV subscribers.
    The company lost 487,000 cable TV customers during the first quarter, Comcast reported during earnings on April 25. The company’s wireless business, however, saw a 21% jump in customers to 6.9 million total lines.
    Comcast did not disclose the price of the upcoming bundle. Peacock subscription plans start at $5.99 per month, though that’s increasing to $7.99 per month this summer. Comcast broadband customers typically receive a discount on the company’s streaming service.
    Netflix plans start at $6.99 per month, and Apple TV+ costs $9.99 per month.

    “We’ve been bundling video successfully and creatively for 60 years,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Tuesday. “And so this is the latest iteration of that. And I think this will be a pretty compelling package.”
    — CNBC’s Kerry Caufield, Lillian Rizzo and Alex Sherman contributed to this report.
    Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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    Stellantis to rapidly grow exports of Chinese EVs to Europe, other countries

    Automaker Stellantis expects to quickly grow sales of China-made electric vehicles outside of the country through a new joint venture with Leapmotor, starting later this year.
    The announcement comes amid increasing geopolitical tensions surrounding China-made electric vehicles in the U.S., Europe and other regions.
    The expansion plans do not currently include distribution in the U.S., Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said, citing, among other reasons, new American tariffs on China-made EVs.

    Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares and Leapmotor founder and CEO Zhu Jiangming shake hands in relation to new partnerships between their companies.
    Stellantis

    Automaker Stellantis expects to quickly grow sales of China-made electric vehicles outside of the country through a new joint venture with Leapmotor, starting later this year, according to the two companies.
    The companies said Tuesday that beginning in September, sales of the China-built Leapmotor vehicles will begin through Stellantis’ distribution networks, including dealers in Europe — France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Greece and Romania.

    Those markets will be followed by the Middle East and Africa, India and Asia Pacific, and South America in late 2024, the companies said.
    The expansion plans do not currently include distribution in the U.S., Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares said Tuesday following a press conference in Hangzhou, China, where Leapmotor is based. That’s due, in part, to new American tariffs on China-made EVs, Tavares said, citing among other reasons as well.
    The Biden administration on Tuesday announced stiff new tariff rates on billions’ worth of Chinese imports, including quadrupling tariffs on imported Chinese electric vehicles, from 25% to 100%. 
    “There is very limited Chinese offering in the U.S. market, so it is not a priority for us,” Tavares said. “There is a lot in Europe because we see Europe has a very different approach for this problem. … It looks like the U.S. is going for a very strong protectionism. Whereas, for the time being, I see Europe is keeping the market reasonably open.”
    The joint venture’s expansion plans include at least six EVs by 2027, according to a presentation by Stellantis and Leapmotor. The cars, initially budget vehicles, are expected to be complementary to Stellantis’ current vehicle lineup, the companies said.

    The announcement comes amid increasing geopolitical tensions surrounding China-made electric vehicles in the U.S., Europe and other regions. Many in and around the automotive industry fear the less-expensive, China-made vehicles will flood the markets, undercutting domestic-produced EVs.

    “From a Stellantis perspective, our position is we compete. We compete with the Chinese carmakers and we compete as strongly as we can because it’s the best way to learn. It’s the best way to stay fit for the global race in which we are now part of,” Tavares said.
    Tavares said Tuesday that the Chinese carmakers, which he previously called Stellantis’ greatest competitors, are expected to rapidly grow internationally — with or without joint venture assistance.
    “Whether I like it or not, with me or without me, Leapmotor would have been in Europe anyway … perhaps not as fast, perhaps not as strongly but they would have gone to Europe,” Tavares said. “What I am doing is just trying to be opportunistic against a dynamic that has been created by the Chinese carmakers.”
    Chinese companies accounted for 8% of Europe’s all-electric vehicle sales as of September and could increase their share to 15% by 2025, the European Union said in October 2023. The EU believes Chinese EVs are undercutting the prices of local models by about 20% in the European market.

    Employees work on the assembly line of C11 electric SUV at a factory of Chinese EV startup Leapmotor on April 26, 2023 in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province of China.
    VCG | Visual China Group | Getty Images

    The influx of Chinese EVs has spurred the European Union to launch government support for the industry.
    “The partnership between Leapmotor and Stellantis demonstrates a high level of efficiency, opening a new chapter in the global integration of China’s intelligent electric vehicle industry,” Leapmotor founder, chairman and CEO Jiangming Zhu said in a release. “We believe that this cooperation can give Leapmotor a boost to become a respected world-class intelligent electric vehicle company.”
    The companies declined to disclose sales volume expectations for Leapmotor vehicles sold through Stellantis’ sales network, which is expected to grow from 200 locations to up to 500 by 2026. Leapmotor reported deliveries of 144,155 vehicles in 2023, a roughly 30% increase from the previous year.
    Stellantis owns 51% of the joint venture with Leapmotor, announced earlier this year and including an investment of 1.5 billion euros in Leapmotor for a roughly 21% stake in the company.
    As part of the deal, Stellantis has exclusive rights for export and sale, as well as for manufacturing Leapmotor products outside of Greater China.

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    Home Depot misses on revenue, as high interest rates hurt sales

    Home Depot posted fiscal first-quarter earnings that beat expectations and revenue that missed estimates.
    The home improvement retailer is seeing customers defer major home projects due to high interest rates.
    Home Depot is focusing more on building its business with professionals, including through its acquisition of SRS Distribution.

    Home Depot on Tuesday posted quarterly revenue below Wall Street’s expectations, as shoppers postponed bigger discretionary projects like bath and kitchen remodels because of higher interest rates and made spring purchases late.
    Still, the home improvement retailer reaffirmed its full-year guidance, which includes an additional week from the prior year. It said it expects total sales to grow about 1% in fiscal 2024, including those extra days. However, the retailer said it anticipates comparable sales, which take out the impact of store openings and closures, to decline about 1%, excluding that additional week.

    In an interview with CNBC, Chief Financial Officer Richard McPhail said customers are in a waiting game that began in the second half of last year, as they responded to mortgage rates climbing. He said the company anticipated those trends would continue.
    “The home improvement customer is extremely healthy from a financial perspective,” he said. “And so it’s not the case of not having the ability to spend. What they tell us is they’re just simply deferring these projects as given higher rates, it just doesn’t seem the right moment to execute.”

    The logo of U.S. home improvement chain Home Depot is seen in Mexico City, Mexico, on Jan. 15, 2020.
    Luis Cortes | Reuters

    Here’s what the company reported for the three-month period that ended April 28 compared with what Wall Street expected, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

    Earnings per share: $3.63 vs. $3.60 expected

    Revenue: $36.42 billion vs. $36.66 billion expected

    Net income for the fiscal first quarter decreased to $3.6 billion, or $3.63 per share, from $3.87 billion, or $3.82 per share, in the year-ago period. Net sales fell 2.3% from $37.26 billion.
    Comparable sales dropped 2.8% in the fiscal first quarter across the business and declined 3.2% in the U.S.

    Shares of Home Depot were up modestly in premarket trading.
    Home Depot is contending with a tougher housing backdrop, which has dampened demand for do-it-yourself projects. About half of Home Depot’s sales come from DIY customers, and the other half come from pros like roofers and landscapers.
    As interest rates remain high, consumers have been reluctant to move out of their homes and into new ones — the kind of turnover that often inspires home projects. Higher interest rates have also dinged the desire for larger-scale projects that can require financing. For the past several quarters, Home Depot has seen customers buy fewer big-ticket items and take on more modest projects – a trend that persisted in the most recent quarter.
    In the fiscal first quarter, customers made fewer visits to Home Depot’s stores and website and tended to spend less when they did. Customer transactions declined 1% to 386.8 million and average ticket fell 1.3% to $90.68.
    Home Depot has seen sales moderate after more than two years of explosive demand during the Covid pandemic. The company posted its worst revenue miss in nearly two decades and cut its forecast in the year-ago first quarter. Home Depot’s sales totaled $152.7 billion in the fiscal year that ended in late January, a drop of 3% from the previous year.
    Inflation may also be playing a role in that pullback, as consumers spend more money on essentials and have to make trade-offs when spending discretionary income.
    However, McPhail said Home Depot is not seeing customers trade down to cheaper items, like less expensive power tools or appliances. He pinned the company’s softer sales in large part on consumers’ “deferral mindset” and a housing market that has slowed dramatically.
    “When we have seen mortgage rates decrease slightly, as we saw at the beginning of this quarter, the housing turnover seems to respond quickly and sharply in a positive direction,” he said. “And so we think that’s an indicator that there is a tremendous amount of pent-up demand for household formation and housing turnover and the larger projects that are associated with housing turnover.”
    Weather pressured sales, too, in the recent quarter, he said. Spring is the biggest sales season for home improvement retailers, including Home Depot. Yet customers delayed outdoor purchases because of colder and wetter weather in many parts of the country, he said.
    Those spring purchases have begun to pick up as the weather improves, he said.
    To overcome slower sales, the home improvement retailer has revved up its strategy to attract pros, since they tend to buy larger quantities and offer a steadier source of sales. Home Depot has a growing network of distribution centers across the country that can store and deliver roofing shingles, insulation and other supplies straight to job sites. It announced in late March that it would acquire SRS Distribution, a Texas-based specialty distributor of roofing, landscaping and pool supplies, for $18.25 billion in the largest acquisition in the company’s history.
    McPhail said the deal is still on track to close this fiscal year, which ends in early February.
    Along with wooing pros, Home Depot is trying to drive growth by opening about a dozen new stores this fiscal year and adding features to improve its online and in-store experience.
    Shares of Home Depot closed Monday at $340.96. So far this year, Home Depot’s shares have fallen about 2% compared with the roughly 9% gains of the S&P 500.

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    Novavax stock jumps 50% as Sanofi deal kicks off turning point for struggling vaccine maker

    Shares of Novavax jumped as much as 50% as Wall Street cheered a new multibillion-dollar deal with French drugmaker Sanofi that kicked off a dramatic turnaround for the struggling vaccine maker.
    Novavax said the licensing agreement allows the company to remove its “going concern” warning, which it first issued last year due to substantial doubts about its ability to stay afloat.
    Some analysts said the deal will provide significant capital to Novavax and “validates” the company’s protein-based vaccine platform. 

    A vial labeled “Novavax V Covid-19 Vaccine” is seen in this photo taken Jan. 16, 2022.
    Dado Ruvic | Reuters

    Shares of Novavax closed nearly 50% higher on Monday as Wall Street cheered the company’s new multibillion-dollar deal with French drugmaker Sanofi that sparked a dramatic turnaround for the struggling vaccine maker.
    Novavax’s stock almost doubled on Friday after it announced the licensing agreement with Sanofi. Novavax on Friday said the deal allows the company to remove its “going concern” warning, which it first issued in February 2023 due to major doubts about its ability to stay afloat.

    “It really does help our business. It keeps us well capitalized, it takes the going concern off, it gives us the chance to pivot our strategy more toward what we’re best at — to bring additional value to all of our stakeholders, including our shareholders,” Novavax CEO John Jacobs told CNBC in an interview. 
    Under the agreement, Sanofi will take a less than 5% stake in Novavax. The deal also entitles Novavax to an upfront cash payment of $500 million and future payments contingent on certain milestones, as well as royalties. 
    Sanofi, one of the world’s largest vaccine makers, will co-market Novavax’s Covid vaccine in most countries starting in 2025. The deal also allows Sanofi to use Novavax’s Covid shot and flagship vaccine technology, Matrix-M adjuvant, to develop new vaccine products. The shots include combination jabs targeting Covid and the flu. 

    A logo on the Sanofi exhibition space at the Viva Technology conference dedicated to innovation and startups at Porte de Versailles exhibition center in Paris, France, on June 15, 2022.
    Benoit Tessier | Reuters

    In a note Sunday, Jefferies analyst Roger Song said the deal will provide significant capital to Novavax and support the company’s growth. 
    “Economically, the deal is highly lucrative and impactful,” Song wrote. 

    He said the upfront payment helps remove investor worry about Novavax’s going concern warning, and that milestone payments are “significant and relatively near-term” for the company since they are not tied to sales. Meanwhile, royalties will provide a steady revenue stream each year, Song said. 
    He added that the deal “validates” the company’s protein-based vaccine platform. 
    Novavax’s shot is the first Covid vaccine to use protein technology, a decades-old method for fighting viruses used in routine shots against Hepatitis B and shingles. Health officials view the vaccine as a valuable alternative for people who do not want to take messenger RNA jabs from Pfizer and Moderna.
    In a note on Sunday, Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger said he is interested to see how effective Sanofi is at raising consumer awareness about how the side effects of Novavax’s Covid vaccine are easier for patients to tolerate compared to competing shots from Pfizer and Moderna.
    Risinger noted that consumer hesitancy around Covid boosters has come in part from fears about the fatigue and discomfort associated with Pfizer’s and Moderna’s shots. 
    The firm expects Sanofi “to drive greater commercial success of [Novavax’s] vaccine starting in 2025, due to its commercial scale and contracting abilities, but it is difficult to predict the magnitude of impact,” Risinger wrote. 
    He added that there could be “further upside” for Sanofi and Novavax if they develop a combination Covid and flu vaccine that has advantages over the mRNA combo shots being developed by Pfizer and Moderna. 

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