Pomp and circumstance for the French

Transcript

NIALA: Good morning! Welcome to Axios Today!

It’s Thursday - and it’s the first of December!

I’m Niala Boodhoo.

Here’s what we’re covering today: promising results for a new Alzheimer’s drug. Plus, how Boomers are making inflation worse. But first, pomp and circumstance for the French… that’s today’s One Big Thing:

NIALA: President Biden is holding his first state dinner tonight at the White House to welcome French President Emmanuel Macron. The black tie event marks a return to some of the pomp and circumstance that was largely put off because of the pandemic. But more than a time to wine and dine – on Maine lobster and a Napa Chardonnay, if you were wondering – the visit will be an opportunity for the two presidents to discuss a number of critical issues. Axios’ Dave Lawler has been following the visit. Hey Dave.

DAVE LAWLER: Hi Niala.

NIALA: Dave, France is our oldest ally, which the White House took pains to point out in all of the press releases about this visit. This isn't the first time President Macron has visited. He was also the guest of former President Trump. What's different about this visit?

DAVE: Well, for one thing, it's the first state visit of Biden's tenure. So, the French have really been highlighting the fact that they were number one on the invite list. And this is obviously a much different visit for President Macron than it was when he came under Trump. There were lots of difficulties in the relationship, although he clearly wanted to maintain good ties with Trump. He and Biden, yes there are a couple of points of tension, but really it should be a much easier camaraderie, perhaps, between the two of them over the next couple days.

NIALA: To the point of tensions, our relationship with France did deteriorate last year after what President Biden called a “clumsy” handling of a submarine deal between France and Australia. Has that been patched up?

DAVE: More or less. So yeah, this was really a faux pas on more than one level. This AUKUS deal between the US, the UK and Australia involved a big contract for Australia to buy submarines. But guess what, they were going to buy submarines from France and nobody bothered to tell the French that they were pulling out of that deal in order to strike this new deal with the US and UK. They were very upset about that, both because it was a bit of a slap in the face, but also there were billions of dollars at stake with this deal. They've been kind of made whole on the economic side by now, and the US has spent some time patching up the diplomatic side as well. I don't expect AUKUS to be a major point of contention during Macron's visit this week.

NIALA: France also has some concerns about President Biden's climate and infrastructure bill and his policies on green technology. What specifically are they worried about?

DAVE: The US is going to be giving a lot of subsidies to companies to produce green technology, including electric cars, and there's a “Made in America” element to that, basically. So European Countries and France, in particular, are concerned that their companies are going to be disadvantaged because they can't compete with US companies that are getting these big subsidies in this space. And so they've actually talked about doing subsidies of their own, kind of a potential trade war scenario even over this. The US doesn't want it to escalate to that level. They're gonna definitely talk about that issue this week.

NIALA: Of course, the war in Ukraine will also be on the docket. What's top of the agenda there between France and the US?

DAVE: Actually it seemed like there were bigger gaps between the US and France on this issue of trying to get Ukraine to the negotiating table in the medium term. The US was much more on the side of we'll support Ukraine as long as it takes. It seemed like President Macron was conducting diplomacy with President Putin. But if you look at the statements from the two sides now, they really do seem to be, more or less on the same page at least. So a lot of what they'll talk about is how to get supplies in, how to help Ukraine restore its energy infrastructure that's been hit by the Russians, what kind of additional defense support can they get into Ukraine in what's gonna be a very difficult winter it looks like ahead.

NIALA: Dave Lawler is Axios’ world editor. Thanks Dave.

DAVE: Thanks, Niala.

How Boomers are making inflation worse

NIALA: As inflation woes continue, Axios’ Chief Economic Correspondent Neil Irwin, reports that the aging U.S. population is making things worse. So, I asked him to explain why.

NEIL IRWIN: The baby boomer generation, they grew up in the post World War II era. They're, they were born in the 1940s, ‘50s, ‘60s. They're now hitting retirement age. And what that means is there are big macroeconomic consequences to that fact. And one of them is that it's gonna depress inflation in the years ahead because the labor supply is going to drop if people are, you know, entering their 60s, 70s, they drop outta the labor force, they don't work anymore.

So that decreases the supply side of the economy. But the demand side of the economy stays the same. They have retirement savings, they have pensions, social security, so they're still spending money, they're still consuming, but not producing anymore by working. So as that transition happens with this extra large baby boomer generation that's gonna create inflationary pressure, that's gonna make it harder to bring inflation down over the months ahead as the Federal Reserve tries to do that. And we all try to deal with this high inflation. So that's a weird dynamic going on in the US economy right now, and I think people don't quite understand that.

NIALA: Neil Irwin is Axios’ chief economic correspondent.

In a moment, hope and uncertainty in a new Alzheimer’s drug.

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Promising results for a new Alzheimer’s drug

NIALA: Welcome back to Axios Today! I’m Niala Boodhoo.

Alzheimer's disease affects an estimated 6.5 million Americans, age 65 or older. That's according to the Alzheimer's Association. A Japanese drug maker called Eisai has made a major breakthrough in the treatment of the illness with a new drug called lecanemab. But there have now been two reported deaths connected with the drug. Just this week, researchers released late stage clinical trial results at a conference in San Francisco. Axios’ Healthcare Reporter, Oriana González has the latest on this. Hi, Oriana.

ORIANA GONZÁLEZ: Hi Niala.

NIALA: Oriana researchers just presented these clinical trial results for lecanemab. What did they find?

ORIANA: So this drug, lecanemab, is the first Alzheimer's drug to show in a large clinical trial that it can slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease. And according to the trial results released by the companies that created it, it has the ability to do it by 27%, which researchers say is a pretty modest effect and a stepped in the right direction in Alzheimer's research.

Now, there were still some safety concerns. You know, a minority of the patients in the trial experience swelling of the brain and bleeding of the brain. But even so, researchers in the field are really seeing lecanemab as a breakthrough treatment. It's important to mention that the treatment hasn't been approved by the FDA quite yet. Eisai did submit an application for accelerated approval to the FDA and they expect to hear back by January 6th, and the company also plans to file for full approval by the end of March next.

NIALA: So Eisai is working with another company, Biogen, on this drug, lecanemab. What are they saying particularly about the safety concerns?

ORIANA: So the safety concerns, actually according to the result, deaths occurred in 0.7% of the patients taking the drug compared to 0.8% that took the placebo. But even then, none of the deaths were considered to be related to lecanemab. Now, there were two deaths that were highly reported about that involved brain hemorrhages because, and both patients in these cases had taken blood thinners and researchers had linked their deaths to lecanemab because both blood thinners and this drug are associated with a risk of hemorrhages. For both of these cases though, Eisai said that they were not related to lecanemab because they said that there were other factors that led to those deaths, not the drug itself.

NIALA: How does lecanemab work?

ORIANA: The drug is based on the so-called amyloid hypothesis. So amyloids are abnormal proteins that can be deposited in different parts of the body and can have negative effects. Now, when we look at this hypothesis in the context of Alzheimer's, there's this theory that amyloids actually contribute to Alzheimer's, and so getting rid of them could help treat the disease. So in this case, the purpose of lecanemab is to target amyloids that are in the brain and reduce the amount that are in someone's brain, in an effort to delay the decline of brain function.

NIALA: Oriana, where does lecanemab now rank then, as we are trying to combat this terrible disease? Does this offer hope for families?

ORIANA: It's definitely a step in the right direction. It's far from a cure though. I spoke to Howard Fillit, who's the Chief Science Officer for the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation, and one of the things that he told me when we're looking at Alzheimer's research, it's not just about amyloids. You know, we're going to need new drugs in general that focus on different targets that will ultimately lead to a combination therapy that will be able to treat Alzheimer's more effectively. So it's not the end all be all, but it's a great start when it comes to treating Alzheimer's disease.

NIALA: Oriana González is a healthcare reporter for Axios. Thanks, Oriana.

ORIANA: Thanks, Niala.

NIALA: That’s it for us today! We love feedback from you, so you can alway do that via email at podcasts at axios dot com. Or you can also text me at (202) 918-4893.

I’m Niala Boodhoo - thanks for listening - stay safe and we’ll see you back here tomorrow morning.

Hey, its Niala. I want to tell you about a podcast called “The Times,” essential news from the LA Times. Join host Gustavo Arellano along with the reporter from the LA Times award winning newsroom. They cover issues like politics and climate change but balance it out with fun stuff like food and pop culture. Listen and subscribe at LATimes.com/thetimes. Or on your favorite podcast platform. That’s LATimes.com/thetimes.