Closing post
Time to wrap up….
The Dow Jones Industrial Average passed 40,000 points for the first time on Thursday, powered by strong quarterly results from corporate America and rising bets of interest-rate cuts by the Federal Reserve.
The index has more than doubled since the spring of 2020 when the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be a global pandemic. The outbreak shuttered businesses worldwide as the death toll mounted. In its wake came supply chain issues that led to soaring inflation.
The US has staged a remarkable recovery despite widespread predictions of disaster in the face of runaway prices and the Federal Reserve’s aggressive series of interest rate hikes, aimed at tamping down inflation.
On Wednesday, government figures showed that the annual rate of inflation, which peaked at over 9% in June 2022, had slowed to 3.4% in April, down from 3.5% in the previous month.
More here.
And here are the rest of today’s business news stories:
Updated
Roche says obesity drug results ‘highly encouraging’
The weight loss market is heating up, with the Swiss drugmaker Roche reporting that its once-weekly obesity injection delivered almost 19% weight loss in early trials.
Like the popular weight loss treatments from Denmark’s Novo Nordisk and US firm Eli Lilly, Roche’s CD-388 drug is part of a new class of drugs that mimic the action of a gut hormone called glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and suppresses appetite. Over 24 weeks, it led to 18.8% weight loss.
This compares with 21% weight loss over 72 weeks for Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, and 15% weight loss over 68 weeks for Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy.
Roche’s share price rose more than 3% today.
Side effects were similar to those experienced by people taking Zepbound and Wegovy, such as nausea and vomiting, described as “mild to moderate gastrointestinal-related adverse events” by Roche.
It acquired the treatment via its $2.7bn acquisition of the Californian biotech Carmot Therapeutics in December.
The company is also trialling the drug in obese people with type 2 diabetes over 12 weeks, with results expected in the second half of this year.
Like Zepbound, the Roche drug works by mimicking GLP-1 and another gut hormone called GIP. This could lead to stronger weight loss and reduction in blood sugar with fewer side effects than drugs such as Wegovy, which is only based on GLP-1.
Levi Garraway, Roche’s chief medical officer and head of global product development, said:
“We are very pleased to see the significant and clinically meaningful weight loss in people treated with CT-388. The results are highly encouraging for further development of CT-388 for both obesity and type 2 diabetes and underscore its potential to become a best-in-class therapy with durable weight loss and glucose control.”
However, Roche did not say how high its weekly doses were and analysts said the company still has a long way to go.
