Feb 1, 2017

This Swiss drug company isn't worried about Trump

Alexandra Wey / AP

Roche Holding AG, the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical company, came away with an 8% higher profit than last year, the equivalent to $9.7 billion, according to WSJ. And even though there will be cheaper alternatives to their cancer drugs available next year, the company plans to release a new line to keep their profits high.

Trump's putting pressure on drug companies to lower their prices, but Roche isn't worried for these reasons:

They already offer cheaper versions of their drugs, which has saved them from suffering as much as other pharmaceutical companies.
CEO Severin Schwan sees the company's drugs as "true innovation," because they are difficult to replicate or replace with other companies' drugs.
He says he already invests "over-proportionally" in the U.S., employing more than 25,000 people, and the U.S. benefits a lot from the industry. (Roche also makes almost half of its revenue in from the U.S.)

Why it matters: This is a good early indication of how the biggest international drug makers are reacting to Trump's latest comments on drug prices.

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Bernie's juggernaut

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks in San Antonio last night with his wife, Jane. Photo: Eric Gay/AP

Sen. Bernie Sanders won so big in the Nevada caucuses that Democrats are hard-pressed to sketch a way he's not their nominee.

Driving the news: With 60% of precincts counted (slow, but better than Iowa!), Sanders is running away with 46% of delegates — crushing Joe Biden's 20%, Pete Buttigieg's 15%, Sen. Elizabeth Warren's 10% and Sen. Amy Klobuchar's 5%.

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Buttigieg campaign claims Nevada caucuses were "plagued with errors"

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Pete Buttigieg's campaign wrote a letter on Sunday asking the Nevada State Democratic Party to release early vote and in-person vote totals by precinct and address certain caucus errors identified by campaigns, The Nevada Independent reports.

The big picture: The campaign alleges that the process of integrating early votes on caucus day was “plagued with errors and inconsistencies,” and says it received more than 200 incident reports from precincts around the state.

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Coronavirus threat grows, threatening some drug supplies

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's Health Ministry. Note: China numbers are for the mainland only and U.S. numbers include repatriated citizens.

As the novel coronavirus continues spreading globally and China grapples with a limited production capability, there's a growing risk to about 150 prescription drugs in the U.S., sources tell Axios.

The big picture: The coronavirus has spread to more countries, with both South Korea and Italy stepping up emergency measures amid rising case numbers on Sunday. COVID-19 has killed at least 2,467 people and infected almost 79,000 others, mostly in mainland China.

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