Economics

April 1, 2022

Wall Street Journal Walgreens Sales Powered by Covid Vaccine, Test Demand

Walgreens, like rival CVS Health Corp., has been pushing further into healthcare as it looks to sustain a bump in business through the pandemic. The company last fall paid $5.2 billion for a controlling stake in primary-care network VillageMD and spent $330 million to take a majority stake in home-health benefits manager CareCentrix Inc.

Feb.15, 2022

3M Cuts Outlook as Variant Eases

Feb.4, 2022

Wall Street Journal: Covid-19 Treatments Power Merck, Eli Lilly Sales Gains

Sales of Covid-19 drugs fueled year-over-year revenue growth for Merck & Co. Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. in the last three months of 2021, under- scoring the pandemic response’s continued importance for pharmaceutical companies as the public-health crisis enters its third year.

Merck’s newly authorized molnupiravir treatment logged sales of $952 million in the fourth quarter, the first period when the drug contributed revenue. Meanwhile, sales of Covid-19 antibodies for Lilly grew by 22% year over year to $1.06 billion, although the company is now facing new restrictions on how they are used against the Omicron variant.

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Nov.15, 2021

Wall Street Journal: Child-Care Chains Aim To Fill Void

Large child-care companies are telling investors that they will use their scale and access to capital to weather the pandemic’s impact.

KinderCare, which plans an initial public offering this coming Thursday that could value the company at $3 billion, says that its size helps it offer more flexible options for parents and employers. For instance, the company said, it has a team devoted to helping families access public child-care funding.

KinderCare reported revenue of $1.4 billion in 2020, down 26% from the year before, which the company attributed to Covid-related closures. read more

Nov.4, 2021

Wall Street Journal: CVS Seeks Primary-Care Doctors
Owner of drugstores and Aetna says adding physicians key to broad health strategy

CVS acquired insurance giant Aetna in 2018, having laid out a plan in which the combined company would be a major healthcare player. It was a first: no major healthcare company had tried to build a vertical system that relied on a combination of drugstores, insurance and pharmacy-benefit management, the main businesses of CVS and Aetna. Ms. Lynch, who took over as CEO in February, said it has become apparent that CVS needs primary-care physicians to complete that vision. “We really believe that we need to kind of push into primary care, so we can influence the overall cost of care,” she said....In moving to tie up with primary-care doctors, CVS will be following several of its rivals. United Health Group Inc.’s Optum arm has been buying physician groups, clinics and surgery centers for years, and has said it is adding another 10,000 employed or affiliated doctors and other healthcare providers this year. Humana Inc. also has been getting deeply into primary care, and said Tuesday it planned to expand its footprint further next year.

August 16, 2021

Fabio Vighi, “A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Systemic Collapse and Pandemic Simulation”

"...the unprecedented acceleration in technological automation since the 1980s causes more labour-power to be ejected from production than (re)absorbed. The contraction of the volume of wages means that the purchasing power of a growing part of the world population is falling, with debt and immiseration as inevitable consequences.....The pandemic agenda was dictated, ultimately, by systemic implosion: the profitability downturn of a mode of production which rampant automation is making obsolete. For this immanent reason, capitalism is increasingly dependent on public debt, low wages, centralisation of wealth and power, a permanent state of emergency, and financial acrobatics."

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