Month: October 2023

 700 Israelis Killed, 2,300 Wounded in Gaza War – Israel News – Haaretz.com

Selected Articles – The News And Times

Contract drug manufacturers seeking to tap into the booming market for weight-loss drugs are investing billions of dollars to expand or build factories that fill the injection pens used to administer treatments like Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO) Wegovy.

Interviews with a dozen company executives, analysts and investors showed pharmaceutical services companies jostling to secure more of the specialist work of filling the syringes used in the pens, a process known as fill-finish.

“Every contract manufacturer that has sterile fill-finish capacity wants to add more, to get ahead, because it’s not just about Wegovy anymore,” said Tejas Savant, senior healthcare equity analyst at Morgan Stanley. “You also have Lilly’s Mounjaro coming, and others.”

Sales of Wegovy, the first of a new generation of obesity treatments which mimic the body’s appetite-suppressing hormones, have soared since its launch in the United States in June 2021.

Eli Lilly’s (LLY.N) Mounjaro is expected to be approved for weight-loss in the United States this year.

The weekly weight-loss injections belong to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 agonists, which analysts estimate could be worth as much as $100 billion within a decade, including oral treatments now being developed by Pfizer (PFE.N) and others.

WuXi Biologics (2269.HK) CEO Chris Chen told Reuters his company is talking to clients about using pre-filled syringe capacity it is installing at a German factory it bought in 2020.

Describing interest as “pretty high”, he said he wants to buy more factories in Europe to serve GLP-1 customers, but did not give details.

Catalent is building “significant” pre-filled syringe capacity at factories in Anagni, Italy and Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States, said Cornell Stamoran, its vice president of corporate strategy and government affairs. They will come online in 2024.

The U.S. company already does Wegovy fill-finish work.

The race for business among contract development and manufacturing organisations (CDMOs) began last year. Since then, about half a dozen projects worth at least $3 billion have been announced by companies including Lonza(LONN.S), Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, a subsidiary of Fujifilm Corp, and Germany’s Vetter.

And with Lilly preparing to launch Mounjaro and Novo struggling to meet demand even as it rolls Wegovy out in more markets, the pace is accelerating.

Another Novo partner, Thermo Fisher (TMO.N) is converting facilities used to fill COVID-19 vaccine syringes to handle pens for obesity and diabetes medicines, CEO Marc Casper told a Morgan Stanley health conference last month.

He said there was a huge shortage of capacity. A company spokesperson declined to comment.

All the companies interviewed by Reuters declined to disclose terms of potential contracts or customers.

Big drugmakers hire CDMOs when they lack in-house expertise or scale. Filling syringes is done in sterile conditions to avoid contamination before pens are assembled and packaged, and then shipped by wholesalers to pharmacies and clinics.

Novo is spending billions to increase its own Wegovy output and plans to add more contract manufacturing sites in addition to three run by Catalent and Thermo.

Even so, shortages will last into next year.

Lilly is also increasing internal capacity, but for now is using an “extensive portfolio” of CDMOs, a spokesperson said, without naming them. Trials of its drug Mounjaro showed higher efficacy than Wegovy.

Research firm The Insight Partners predicts the fill-finish market will more than double between 2019 and 2027, to $12.5 billion. That is about twice the pace for tablets or capsules, an industry expert said.

New GLP-1 business could more than offset the loss of COVID-19 vaccine contracts, executives said.

The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act is also boosting development of biologic drugs, some of which are injected. Injectables are increasingly used in elderly care settings, and some new Alzheimer’s and generic arthritis drugs are administered by injection.

But GLP-1s are the leading reason for investments, companies said.

Many projects will only complete next year or in some cases in 2026, meaning supply constraints are likely to persist. One healthcare investor said CDMOs’ ability to boost capacity will determine how fast the obesity drug market grows.

In the meantime, Catalent and Thermo are “in the catbird seat” leading the market due to their existing capabilities, said Barclays analyst Luke Sergott.

Catalent shares currently trade at around 42 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, according to LSEG data – more than 28 for Lonza and 21 for Thermo, reflecting its current dominance in the obesity race despite some quality issues. Reuters reported in July that quality lapses at Catalent’s Brussels factory had caused Wegovy shortages.

Executives said the scramble for capacity would not create a surplus.

“CDMOs don’t follow a ‘build it and they will come’ model, based on my 30 years in the industry. That’s not how you build a CDMO business to last,” Catalent’s Stamoran said.

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Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY.N) on Sunday said it will acquire cancer drugmaker Mirati Therapeutics (MRTX.O) for up to $5.8 billion, diversifying its oncology business and adding drugs it hopes can help offset expected lost revenue from patent expirations later this decade.

Bristol will pick up Mirati’s portfolio drugs that target the genetic drivers of specific cancers including its lung cancer drug, Krazati, which was approved in December.

A second compound – MRTX1719 – which could be used in some types of lung cancer was also attractive to the company, Bristol executives said in an interview.

“We think this really helps strategically complement our oncology portfolio but also, from a financial standpoint, it helps out commercially in the back half of the decade,” said Adam Lenkowsky, Bristol’s Chief Commercialization Officer.

The company said that it will buy Mirati for $58 per share in cash, or around $4.8 billion. Mirati has around $1.1 billion in cash on hand, so “we’re paying essentially $3.7 billion enterprise value…we think with that we’ve gotten a very attractive deal,” Lenkowsky said.

Mirati stockholders will also receive one non-tradeable contingent value right for each Mirati share held, potentially worth $12.00 per share in cash, representing an additional $1 billion of value opportunity, the company said

Bristol will finance the transaction with a combination of cash and debt, the company said in a statement.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in December approved the drug to treat adults with advanced lung cancer.

“With multiple targeted oncology assets including Krazati, Mirati is another important step forward in our efforts to grow our diversified oncology portfolio and further strengthen Bristol Myers Squibb’s pipeline for the latter half of the decade and beyond,” said Chris Boerner, Bristol’s incoming CEO and current chief operating officer, in a statement.

The New York-based company has been pressured by declining demand for two of its top drugs, the blood cancer treatment Revlimid and blood thinner Eliquis, which face generic competition.

Bristol is buying Mirati at a time when the shares are considerably cheaper than they were. Mirati’s shares touched a 52-week high of $101.3 apiece on Nov. 28 and are now trading at $60.2.

The transaction is expected to be dilutive to Bristol’s non-GAAP earnings per share by approximately 35 cents per share in the first 12 months after the transaction closes, the statement added.

In April, Bristol said CEO Giovanni Caforio would step down in November and be succeeded by Boerner.

Last year, Bristol acquired drug developer Turning Point Therapeutics for $4.1 billion in cash to help bolster its arsenal of cancer drugs.

WASHINGTON — To Rep. Mike Collins, China is a bigger threat to the United States than Russia. So the Georgia Republican has voted against providing military aid to Ukraine as he advocates for doing more to arm Taiwan, the self-governed island that’s at risk of military aggression from Beijing.

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For Collins and other Republican lawmakers, Taiwan and Ukraine are effectively rivals for a limited pool of U.S. military assistance. But that’s not necessarily how Taiwan and many of its supporters see it. They view Taiwan’s fate as closely linked to that of Ukraine as it struggles to push back a Russian invasion.

They say China is watching closely to see if the United States has the political stamina to support an ally in a prolonged, costly war. The U.S. aid to Ukraine also has led to weapons manufacturers stepping up production — something that could benefit Taiwan in a clash with China.

Read More: Taiwan’s Civilian Soldiers, Watching Ukraine, Worry They Aren’t Prepared to Defend Their Island

“Ukraine’s survival is Taiwan’s survival. Ukraine’s success is Taiwan’s success,” Taiwan’s diplomat in the U.S., Hsiao Bi-Khim, said in May at the Sedona Forum hosted by the McCain Institute.

Still, Taiwan has been careful not to weigh in on the U.S. debate about continued funding for Ukraine, which has become a divisive political issue after initially having strong bipartisan support.

Asked about Congress removing Ukraine funding from a temporary spending measure that prevented a U.S. government shutdown on Oct. 1, Taiwan’s diplomatic office responded with discretion.

“Taiwan is grateful to have strong bipartisan support from the U.S. We will continue to work with the U.S. to maintain the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait,” the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office said in a statement emailed to The Associated Press.

But Congress’ refusal to include the aid raises “alarm bells” in Taiwan. said Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund. She noted that the Taiwanese government “has argued that Ukraine’s victory is existential for Taiwan.,”

“These worries exist even though most Republicans who seek to end U.S. support for Ukraine are still very pro-Taiwan and willing to do more to help defend Taiwan,” she said.

Taiwan is the thorniest issue in the frayed U.S.-China relationship. Beijing claims sovereignty over the island, which lies roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) off the mainland’s southeastern coast, and vows to seize it, by force if necessary, to achieve national reunification. The United States wants a peaceful resolution and has a security pact with the island, supplying it with military hardware and technologies to prevent any forced takeover by Beijing.

Read More: Both Wary of War, Taiwan’s Voters Eye China and China Eyes Taiwan’s Voters

China’s military actions near the island have fueled concerns over armed attacks. President Joe Biden has said he would send troops to defend Taiwan in case of war, while Chinese President Xi Jinping has demanded the U.S. respect his country’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

Collins traveled to Taiwan on his first overseas trip as a congressman. When he returned, he called for timely weapon deliveries to the island, especially since as much as $19 billion worth of weapons sold to Taiwan have been delayed.

“These delays are primarily a result of a U.S. manufacturing backlog and a distracted Biden administration with weapons deliveries to Ukraine taking preference over Taiwan,” Collin said. “We must get serious about offering support to our ally Taiwan because ultimately when it comes to countering China, our interests align.“

Bradley Bowman, senior director of the Center of Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, disagrees with that logic.

“It’s not a zero-sum game,” he said. “Taiwan supports the U.S. aid to Ukraine. They understand that the deterrence message works.”

And on a practical level, Bowman said, the aid for Ukraine is helping the U.S. expand its weapons production, which will both benefit Taiwan and enhance U.S. military readiness.

Read More: China Plays Long Game With Softer Response to Taiwan President Visiting U.S.

Rep. Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who in April led a congressional delegation to Taiwan as chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said support for the island has not diminished on the Hill.

“Throughout the conversations about aid to Ukraine, I have not heard a single person take a swipe at Taiwan,” McCaul said at a recent National Day celebration hosted by Taiwan’s representative office in Washington.

Glaser said the Chinese leadership is unlikely to discount the U.S. support for Taiwan, even when U.S. support for Ukraine is waning, but it is likely to exploit any failure to fund Ukraine in a disinformation campaign to sow doubts among the Taiwanese people about the U.S. commitment to their defense.

In a social media post, Hu Xijin, a retired chief editor of the Communist Party-run Global Times newspaper and now a political commentator, said this month that most U.S. overseas military interventions have “rotted” if the U.S. fails to cinch a rapid victory.

The death toll from flash floods unleashed by a glacial lake bursting its banks in India’s Himalayas climbed to 74 on Monday with 101 people still missing days after the calamity struck, according to provincial officials.

Following days of torrential rain in the northeastern state of Sikkim, torrents of water swept down narrow river valleys from Lohnak Lake, damaging a dam and wreaking destruction in villages and Rangpo town, about 50 km (30 miles) south of state capital Gangtok.

Sikkim’s chief secretary Vijay Bhushan Pathak, the most senior bureaucrat, told Reuters that rescuers had found 25 bodies in the state and bodies of eight army men washed away were found in the neighbouring downstream state of West Bengal.

He said 101 people were still missing in the latest of a series of natural disasters caused by extreme weather events in the Himalayas. Fourteen army personnel were among the missing, a defence ministry statement said.

The search for survivors was hampered by damaged roads, poor communications and bad weather, and residents were struggling to clear sludge and debris in the wake of one of the worst disasters in the remote region in more than 50 years.

Parveen Shama, the top district official of Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, said 41 bodies were found in the district.

Sikkim, a Buddhist state of 650,000 people wedged in the mountains between Nepal, Bhutan and China, received 101 mm (four inches) of rain in the first five days of October, more than double normal levels.

In October 1968, an estimated 1,000 people in Sikkim perished in floods.

Mukesh Kumar, a 43-year-old migrant worker in Rangpo, described how he and his neighbours had barely 10 minutes to escape before the flash flood hit.

“Had we not left for another two minutes, we might have drowned,” said Kumar, staring at the sludge and debris covering his lodgings.

Residents told Reuters that many people whose dwellings were on the ground floor could not have survived.

Baiju Sharma, 45, who ran a furniture business, surveyed the aftermath of the disaster.

“Where you are standing is 15 feet (4.5 metres) higher than earlier. You are standing on his house,” Sharma said, pointing towards his neighbour.

Government officials said about 2,000 tourists stuck in cut off areas of northern Sikkim were reported to be safe, and state authorities and the army had provided them with food and communication facilities to contact their families.

Hamas’ assault on Israel drove oil prices higher on Monday as markets priced in fears of a wider conflict in the Middle East, a day after Israel pounded the Palestinian enclave of Gaza in retaliation for one of the bloodiest attacks in its history.

Fighters from Islamist group Hamas killed 700 Israelis and abducted dozens more as they attacked Israeli towns on Saturday, the deadliest incursion into Is+raeli territory since Egypt and Syria’s attacks in the Yom Kippur war 50 years ago.

In response, Israeli air strikes hit housing blocks, tunnels, a mosque and homes of Hamas officials in Gaza on Sunday, killing more than 400 people, including 20 children, in keeping with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s vow of “mighty vengeance”.

“The price the Gaza Strip will pay will be a very heavy one that will change reality for generations,” said Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in the town of Ofakim, which suffered casualties and had hostages taken.

The violence fuelled volatility on global markets on Monday, with concerns about possible disruptions to supplies from Iran, helping to drive Brent crude up $4.18, or 4.94%, to $88.76 a barrel by 0120 GMT in Asian trade.

Iran is an allay of Hamas and while it congratulated Hamas on the attack, its mission to the United Nations said Tehran was not involved in the attacks. read more

Any sustained rally in oil prices would act as a tax on consumers and add to global inflationary pressures, which weighed on equities as S&P 500 futures shed 0.7% and Nasdaq futures lost 0.6%.

Beyond blockaded Gaza, Israeli forces and Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militia exchanged artillery and rocket fire, while in Egypt, two Israeli tourists were shot dead along with a guide.

Appeals for restraint came from around the world, though Western nations largely stood by Israel, while Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi telephoned the Hamas chief to congratulate him for the “victory” and Hezbollah and protesters in various Middle Eastern nations lauded Hamas.

In southern Israel on Sunday, Hamas gunmen were still fighting Israeli security forces more than 24 hours after their surprise, multi-pronged assault of rocket barrages and bands of gunmen who overran army bases and invaded border towns.

“My two little girls, they’re only babies. They’re not even five years old and three years old,” said Yoni Asher who recounted seeing video of Palestinian gunmen seizing his wife and two small daughters after she took them to visit her mother.

Uri David told a news conference he spent 30 minutes on the phone with his two daughters, Tair and Odaya, during an attack until they no longer responded to him and that he did not know their fate.

“I heard shooting, shouting in Arabic, I told them to lie on the ground and hold hands,” he said, breaking down in tears.

Israel’s military, which faces awkward questions for not thwarting the attack, said it had regained control of most infiltration points along security barriers, killed hundreds of attackers and taken dozens more prisoner.

Israeli air strikes on Gaza destroyed Hamas’ offices and training camps, but also houses and other buildings. The Palestinian health ministry said 413 Palestinians, including 78 children, were killed and 2,300 people wounded since Saturday.

“As an occupying power, Israel has no right or justification to target the defenceless civilian population in Gaza or elsewhere in Palestine,” the Palestinian foreign ministry said, denouncing a “barbarous campaign of death and destruction”.

Hamas fired more rocket salvoes into Israel on Sunday.

The Israeli military said it had deployed tens of thousands of soldiers around Gaza, a narrow strip of land that is home to 2.3 million Palestinians, and was starting to evacuate Israelis around the frontier.

“This is my fifth war. The war should stop. I don’t want to keep feeling this,” said Qassab al-Attar, a Palestinian wheelchair user in Gaza whose brothers carried him to shelter.

Israel has not released an official toll but its media said at least 700 people were killed in Saturday’s attacks, children among them. Military spokesperson Daniel Hagari called it “the worst massacre of innocent civilians in Israel’s history.”

Several Americans were killed by Hamas attackers, a White House National Security Council spokesperson confirmed, saying the U.S. would continue to monitor the situation closely.

About 30 missing Israelis attending a dance party that was attacked by gunmen emerged from hiding on Sunday, Israeli media reported, putting the death toll at the outdoor gathering at 260.

Palestinian fighters took dozens of hostages to Gaza, including soldiers and civilians, children and the elderly. A second Palestinian militant group, Islamic Jihad, said it was holding more than 30 of the captives.

The capture of so many Israelis, some pulled through security checkpoints or driven bleeding into Gaza, is another conundrum for Netanyahu after past episodes when hostages were exchanged for many Palestinian prisoners.

“The cruel reality is Hamas took hostages as an insurance policy against Israeli retaliatory action, particularly a massive ground attack and to trade for Palestinian prisoners,” said Aaron David Miller, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

U.S. President Joe Biden spoke to Netanyahu for the second straight day on Sunday, saying in a post on the social media platform X that he expressed “my full support for the people of Israel in the face of an unprecedented and appalling assault by Hamas terrorists.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he had ordered the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group to the eastern Mediterranean as a show of support to Israel and would also begin providing fresh munitions to Washington’s closest Middle Easy ally.

In Gaza, Hamas spokesperson Hazem Qassem condemned the U.S. announcement as “an actual participation in the aggression against our people” and said the group would not be intimidated.

The shocking flare-up may undermine U.S.-backed moves towards normalising relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia – a security realignment that could threaten Palestinian hopes of self determination and hem in Hamas’ main backer, Iran.

Tehran’s other main regional ally, Lebanon’s Hezbollah, fought a war with Israel in 2006 and said its “guns and rockets” stand with Hamas.

The escalation follows surging violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a Palestinian authority exercises limited self-rule, opposed by Hamas that wants Israel destroyed.

Conditions in the West Bank have worsened under Netanyahu’s hard-right government, with more Israeli raids and assaults by Jewish settlers on Palestinian villages, and the Palestinian Authority called for an emergency Arab League meeting.

Peacemaking has been stalled for years, with Israeli politics distracted this year by internal wrangling over Netanyahu’s plans to overhaul the judiciary.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the assault would spread to the West Bank and Jerusalem. Gazans have lived under an Israeli-led blockade for 16 years, since Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007.

“How many times have we warned you that the Palestinian people have been living in refugee camps for 75 years, and you refuse to recognise the rights of our people?” said Haniyeh.

The United States led Western denunciations of Hamas’ attack, with Biden issuing a blunt warning to Iran and others on : “This is not a moment for any party hostile to Israel to exploit these attacks.”

The U.N. appealed for the creation of humanitarian corridors to bring food into Gaza and said at least 70,000 Palestinians in Gaza are seeking shelter in schools it runs.

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This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.

Thousands of frantic Israelis called up for emergency military reserve duty while traveling abroad have been scrambling to find available seats on flights back to Tel Aviv.

With many international airlines cancelling their flights to Israel because of the security situation, Israel’s national airline, El Al, was in most cases their only option for getting back home.

El Al has not yet responded, however, to the unusual spike in demand by putting on extra flights.

Many of these reservists have therefore been mobilizing through WhatsApp groups to organize special charter flights to allow them join units that have been called up to fight in and around Gaza and provide reinforcements in other areas.

Others were hoping to find connections with El Al employees who might help them book seats on flights leaving within the next few hours.

Priority on El Al flights has been given to would-be passengers with the documentation known as a tzav shmoneh (literally meaning an Order 8), the term used for emergency call-up notices for reservists during wartime and special military operations.

By the beginning of this week, a WhatsApp created for reservists stranded in New York already numbered nearly 400 members. One young man begged members of the group to help him find a seat on a flight because his unit was already stationed on the Gaza border and he was desperate to join them.

Others exchanged tips on how to locate empty seats on flights that appeared to be full and what connections to avoid.

Members were discouraged from purchasing tickets on any airlines besides El Al, given the high probability of having their flights cancelled or ending up stranded in Europe.

The group also included Israeli expats stationed in the New York area for extended periods who wanted to volunteer for reserve duty despite not having been officially summoned for an emergency call-up.

Several group members complained that El Al was taking advantage of a captive audience by hiking up prices, with one noting that the cheapest one-way ticket he could find was $2,000.

The group administrator, a flight stewardess, notified members that she had been reaching out to possible donors who might be able to subsidize and pay for tickets and even charter a special flight back to Israel. She said she had received encouraging responses.

The New York WhatsApp group was one of many serving the Israeli reservists stationed abroad eager to fly back home immediately. Other WhatsApp groups have been organized for reservists stranded in France, Italy, Cyprus, Germany, Spain, Austria, Turkey, England and the Balkans.

An unusually large number of Israelis are vacationing abroad at this time of year, which coincides with the Jewish holidays and the summer break from Israeli universities.

The post Israeli army reservists stranded abroad scramble to find flights back to join their units appeared first on The Forward.