FT : Sandoz targets 70% price cut for weight-loss drugs in Canada

Sandoz targets 70% price cut for weight-loss drugs in Canada
Generic drugmaker is preparing cheaper alternatives for when patents expire in the country next year

Drugmaker Sandoz could offer unbranded weight-loss drugs at an up to 70 per cent discount to the branded versions in Canada when patents start to expire there next year.

Richard Saynor, chief executive of one of the world’s largest generic drugmakers, said Sandoz had not finalised the price for its generic weight- loss and diabetes drug semaglutide but that a reduction of “60 or 70 per cent of the list price” was possible.

The Canadian list price for the branded drugs — Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide blockbusters Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound, which have tirzepatide as their active ingredient — ranges from $200 to $400 for a month’s supply.

Semaglutide goes off-patent in Canada in January next year. The generic Sandoz drugs have not yet been approved but the process has started.

“As more [generic versions] come in, potentially the market would go down further,” Sandoz told the Financial Times. “If you were selling this at $40 or $50 a month, the market could be three or two or three times bigger in terms of the number of patients.”

Much cheaper generic drugs in Canada could also create huge demand from the US. The US list price for branded weight-loss and diabetes drugs is about $1,000 a month, though patients can buy directly from the drug companies for half that price.

Despite rules designed to discourage the practice, Americans already buy some prescription drugs from Canada because they tend to be much cheaper. Separately, the US Food and Drug Administration allows Florida to import some medicines from Canada and other US states have applied for permission to do this. 

Kevin Duane, owner of an independent pharmacy in Jacksonville, Florida, said if imports of weight-loss drugs from Canada were allowed, it could add “tens of millions of patients”.

“If Canada goes generic like we are expecting . . . then I think Florida would have to apply to the FDA” to expand the Canadian import programme, he said, “just because the cost savings would be massive”. 

Florida is the third-most populous American state.

The Canadian Pharmacists Association said that as demand for Ozempic surged in 2023, the province British Columbia discovered up to 15 per cent of prescriptions were being dispensed to Americans. 

“While we’re hopeful that generics will help improve affordability and access for Canadians managing diabetes and obesity, we also need to be prepared — with the right monitoring and safeguards in place — to prevent pressure and potential access issues within our drug supply,” said Joelle Walker, vice-president for public and professional affairs at the association.

Canada’s health department said there were regulations that prevented companies from exporting drugs intended for the domestic market, if it would cause or worsen a shortage. It added that it would monitor the availability of weight-loss and diabetes drugs and take action if necessary. 

Novo said it was “well equipped” to navigate the market as its patents expire in Canada. It added that US regulations meant importing generic semaglutide would not be permitted until it was approved in the US. The US patent for semaglutide does not expire until 2032.

“We work in close collaboration with all levels of government to ensure access and availability of our medicines for Canadians and to limit the sale of our medicines to non-Canadian residents,” it said.

FT : Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ triggers boom for defence tech start-ups

Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’ triggers boom for defence tech start-ups
Peter Thiel-backed groups such as Anduril and Palantir are set for paydays worth billions of dollars

Buried in Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” was a provision that will give technology group Anduril an almost-guaranteed slice of the roughly $300bn earmarked to modernise the US’s military, defence infrastructure and homeland security.

The legislation provides for a $6bn expansion of border security technology, a chunk of which will be spent on autonomous surveillance towers — for which the Californian company is currently the only approved supplier.

Anduril — co-founded by Palmer Luckey and backed by Peter Thiel, two billionaires who have strongly supported the president — is among the most prominent tech firms set to profit from Trump’s flagship tax and spending legislation.

Another winner is likely to be Palantir, the data intelligence group co-founded by Thiel. Riding on their coattails is a pack of smaller, often Thiel-backed insurgents, competing with traditional defence contractors in a race to capture this influx of cash.

“With the leadership in the Pentagon now, [there is] a real willingness to support industry, to support the defence sector, and to work with non-traditional . . . companies,” said Christian Garrett, a partner at 137 Ventures, which has invested in Anduril, Palantir and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

The legislation includes $150bn for the Department for Defense, to produce innovative drone systems, naval technology and for the modernisation of the American nuclear deterrence system, as well as another $165bn for the Department for Homeland Security, putting tens of billions of dollars up for grabs.

In a further expected boon to defence and space start-ups, Trump’s Golden Dome project last month began the process of spending at least $150bn to build a new missile defence system for the US, which will involve purchasing sensors, satellites and artificial intelligence. 

A report by venture capital firm Seraphim Space found $3.1bn had been invested into space tech start-ups in the three months to the end of June — up from $2bn in the previous quarter.

“Companies like ours are really leaning forward,” said the founder of a multibillion-dollar Silicon Valley space company. “We’re putting plans in place to make sure when the contracts hit the field . . . we are getting ready to execute.”

Palantir secured a $30mn contract in April to help Immigration and Customs Enforcement build an “ImmigrationOS” platform that will better track migrants and deportations as Trump seeks to increase removals. The US Army last week consolidated dozens of Palantir contracts into a single deal that could be worth $10bn over the next decade. Palantir reported on Monday a nearly 50 per cent surge in quarterly revenues, driven in part by rising sales to the government.

Anduril, co-founded by Luckey after he sold the Oculus virtual reality headset maker to Meta, has long been a big supplier of AI-powered surveillance towers for US Customs and Border Protection across both the Mexico and Canadian borders. 

Trump’s legislation laid out more than $6bn of spending on border security technologies and included a provision that the money is only used to buy towers that have been “tested and accepted by US CBP to deliver autonomous capabilities”. 

Anduril was the only company contracted by CBP to provide autonomous sensor towers along the US borders, according to a person close to the group.

The CBP had encouraged rival manufacturers to produce autonomous towers for years, but so far no others had had their products tested and accepted, the person said. Anduril’s de facto monopoly was first reported by The Intercept.

A White House official defended the provision, saying Anduril’s technology would help the president fulfil his promise to secure the US border.

The US Army in July also gave Anduril, Palantir and others almost $100mn to build a new command-and-control prototype in less than a year.

“The Trump administration has a high standard when spending American’s hard-earned tax dollars — which is why agencies have partnered with top-tier, American companies renowned for their long-standing history of innovation and results,” said White House assistant press secretary Taylor Rogers. “The real winners . . . are the everyday Americans who will pay lower taxes and have a secure border.”

Alumni from Anduril and Palantir have also joined Trump’s government. Soon after returning to office in January, Trump appointed former Palantir head of intelligence Gregory Barbaccia as the government’s chief information officer. The White House has also nominated Anduril director Michael Obadal to serve as the Army’s second most senior civilian official.

Palantir chief technology officer Shyam Sankar recently joined the US Army as a reservist with a tailor-made commission to help further develop a new AI-powered military industrial complex, along with executives from Meta and OpenAI.

Members of the administration and of Trump’s family are in turn invested in market-leading defence tech companies. 1789 Capital, which Donald Trump Jr joined last year, was an early backer of Anduril and Thiel-backed defence manufacturing start-up Hadrian.

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, who has overseen much of Trump’s immigration policy, owns at least $100,000 in Palantir stock via his child’s brokerage account, according to public disclosures, while other White House officials own smaller stakes in the company. 

Palantir is the best-performing company in the S&P 500 this year, in large part because of a sharp increase in revenue from the US government. Its market capitalisation has eclipsed that of more established defence contractors such as Lockheed Martin.

A White House official said Miller had committed to recusing himself from participating in official matters that could affect the stocks he holds. The official added that previous administrations had also signed large contracts with Palantir.

Other tech companies have also benefited from the administration’s embrace of innovative tech. In just the past month Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI signed $800mn worth of contracts to accelerate the Pentagon’s adoption of AI technologies. 

Enthusiasm over the Trump administration’s willingness to spend billions on untested defence tech attracted hundreds of small companies to the Reindustrialize conference in Detroit last month, where founders mingled with Silicon Valley investors, representatives from major banks and high-ranking officials from the CIA and the US army and navy.

“Our administration is focused on . . . removing red tape, and unleashing the full force of American ingenuity, from AI and advanced manufacturing to quantum and space,” Matt Whitaker, Trump’s ambassador to Nato, told the bullish crowd.

Others hailed the formation of a White House shipbuilding office and pledges to streamline defence procurement.

“There is certainly an acceleration [in adoption of new tech] . . . both from this administration, but also just the state of geopolitical affairs right now,” said Billy Thalheimer, chief executive of sea glider manufacturer Regent.

The company, which was initially backed by Thiel’s Founders Fund, as well as entrepreneur Mark Cuban, was one of several start-ups in Detroit announcing a move to “dual use” — or openly serving both commercial and defence customers worldwide.

The start-up unveiled its new defence arm at the Detroit conference, after the US Marine Corps expressed an interest in its next generation of vessels. Such moves may previously have “scared away” some commercial customers, said Thalheimer, adding: “I think the world understands how more geopolitically relevant it is.”

Tech investors are pouring large sums into defence and weapons groups, expecting a sector-wide boom.

Booz Allen Hamilton, a tech consultancy and government contractor, tripled the amount it would invest in these companies to $300mn in July and said it would make up to 25 new investments over the next five years. 

“We are in a massive technological race with China and the private sector and capital markets are bringing more resources to critical missions,” said Matt Calderone, chief financial officer of Booz Allen. “China has been integrating public and private [to this aim], and the US is starting to follow.”

FT : Deutsche Bank chief approved controversial trade he was later asked to prob

Deutsche Bank chief approved controversial trade he was later asked to probe
Christian Sewing oversaw audit into transactions restated following Monte dei Paschi controversy

Deutsche Bank’s chief executive Christian Sewing signed off a €1.5bn deal that was later scrutinised as part of a probe he oversaw that led to the conviction of former colleagues, according to documents seen by the Financial Times.

The transaction with Italian lender UniCredit was arranged in 2010 when Sewing was Deutsche’s chief credit officer, and was similar to a controversial €2.2bn deal from 2008 with Italian bank Monte dei Paschi di Siena. 

Both were so-called enhanced repo deals, which utilised bonds and derivative transactions to conceal the size of loans Deutsche was making to other banks by netting off different elements against each other.

Deutsche subsequently restated its accounts after changing the accounting treatment of the trades, from financing transactions to derivatives trades.

In the wake of that change, the bank in 2013 commissioned a probe into the accounting which was overseen by Sewing, who by then had become the head of the bank’s internal audit unit. 

The audit’s findings became a central part of an Italian criminal trial which resulted in six former Deutsche bankers being sentenced to jail terms of up to four years and eight months for abetting false accounting and market manipulation.

The managers were later acquitted by an appeals court and are now accusing Deutsche of mishandling the case. One of them is suing the lender for €152mn in Frankfurt, with others preparing similar lawsuits in London.

According to people familiar with the matter as well as documents seen by the FT, Deutsche did not disclose Sewing’s involvement in one of the deals that was included in the probe, either in the audit report itself or in a later presentation to the Italian central bank. 

According to people familiar with Deutsche’s thinking, disclosure of Sewing’s role had been unnecessary because no potential conflict of interest existed at any point in time.

Deutsche told the FT that Sewing, in his role as chief credit officer, was “involved in the credit risk assessment of transactions, including the 2010 UniCredit transaction in question”.

The bank said that Sewing’s audit did not address “the credit risk assessment of the transactions in question” but focused on aspects that Sewing “was not involved in” in his earlier role. 

“Any allegation of a conflict of interest involving Christian Sewing is completely unfounded,” the lender said.

Deutsche added that it stood by an earlier statement that the audit was conducted “thoroughly, properly and independently, and the executives involved discharged their responsibilities appropriately”.

Sewing’s audit was launched after Deutsche changed the accounting treatment of billions of euros of deals with counterparties including Italian lenders Monte dei Paschi and UniCredit.

The probe focused on the Monte dei Paschi transaction, which had additional features that enabled the Italian bank to conceal losses and were particularly controversial.

But it also examined 87 other enhanced repos with 22 counterparties, including the one with UniCredit, with more than 30 of those restated.

The audit blamed the bankers who structured the enhanced repos for the restatement, which it attributed to a “failure of front office to inform finance” about core details of the structure, backing up the rationale Deutsche had given for the retrospective accounting change to its external auditor and regulators.

An Italian appeals court later rejected that view, arguing that the structure had been standard and well known in the bank. The appeals court also argued that Deutsche’s justification for the restatement had been a red herring, concluding the bank had changed its accounting to sidestep costly regulatory requirements.

Deutsche has disputed the court’s conclusions. People familiar with the bank’s thinking said a separate investigation commissioned by German regulator BaFin into the matter in 2014 vindicated Sewing’s audit. 

Sewing, who rose to become chief executive in 2018, was not involved in setting up the most contentious deal that was at the heart of his probe — Deutsche’s 2008 transaction with MPS worth €2.2bn.

He did, however, have a role in the second biggest transaction that was subject to Deutsche’s accounting change: the 2010 trade with UniCredit. 

At that point, Sewing was the lender’s chief credit officer and part of a committee that approved the UniCredit deal in which Deutsche acquired bonds worth at least €1.5bn.

The Italian bank committed itself to repurchasing the securities at a later stage and a higher price — a standard feature of a repo deal, with the spread earned by Deutsche in effect equivalent to the interest payable to a lender.

The enhanced repo structure allowed clients to avoid using mark-to-market accounting, which would have otherwise forced them to immediately recognise changes in value.

Before the deal however, UniCredit acquired the bonds underpinning the trade from Deutsche in a structure similar to the MPS transaction — referred to as “bond sourcing” in its internal probe, and a point of contention because it meant the movement of the bonds was circular. This fact was key for the restatement.

Documents seen by the FT show that the €1.5bn UniCredit deal that Sewing approved was identified as a “similar transaction” to the MPS trade in the internal audit, and as one of three other comparable deals with “large notional balances”. 

The documents also show that Sewing was directly involved in the approval of the UniCredit deal, which in parts needed sign-off from the executive board. In an internal email from October 2010, Sewing told colleagues: “Unicredito was approved by the Board”. 

Sewing declined to comment for this article.

Asked by the FT if Sewing had been required by internal compliance rules to disclose his work on the UniCredit transaction internally and if he did so, the bank declined to comment. 

His audit found that “no reference to bond sourcing was made in the Board Credit & Approval Form”, underpinning Deutsche’s argument that its finance department was not aware of all necessary details at the time and hence erroneously booked the trade as a repo transaction rather than a derivatives deal. 

Deutsche said it was “unaware of any evidence suggesting that Mr Sewing knew that the UniCredit transaction involved bond sourcing”, stressing that this aspect of the transaction was “not a relevant factor in assessing the credit risk of a repo transaction”.

>>> US After Hours Summary: INSP -21.6%, NVTS -16.1%, KD -13.3%, HIMS -12.7%, OD

After Hours Summary: INSP -21.6%, NVTS -16.1%, KD -13.3%, HIMS -12.7%, ODD -12.3%, MELI -5.7% lower on earnings; PRIM +14.8%, ALGT +4.8% higher on earnings

After Hours Gainers:

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: CSTL +25%, AMRC +16.3%, VMEO +15.7%, PRIM +14.8%, PRAA +13.2%, HLIO +12% (also to sell Custom Fluidpower to Questas Group), ARDX +11.6% (also CFO/COO to step down, names new CMO), BWXT +11%, RAIL +10.9%, TCMD +10.7%, TDUP +10.5%, BMRN +7.7%, DORM +7.5%, HSII +6.9%, NGVT +6.8%, VVX +6.8%, TDW +6.2%, PAY +6%, NMFC +5%, RHP +5%, ALGT +4.8%, GTM +4.6% (also names new CFO), DENN +4.4%, STRL +4.2%, CRGY +4.2%, EHC +3.8%, AXON +3.7%, PLTR +3.3%, JBTM +3.1%, STR +3%, ACM +2.6%, AROC +2.3%, VAC +1.8%, VTS +1.6%, CVRX +1.6% (also names new COO), ADTN +1.5%, SNDX +1.3%, RIG +1.1%, LTC +1%, OKE +0.9%, CSR +0.9% (also authorizes new $100 mln share repurchase program), LSCC +0.8%, SKT +0.5%, BRBR +0.4%, GBDC +0.3%, UFPT +0.3%, PLOW +0.2%, EQR +0.1%

Companies trading higher in after hours in reaction to news: AIP +48% (AMD has licensed FlexGen), ARW +3.5% (CEO bought 8630 shares), WEAV +3.2% (names new CTO), MTZ +1.7% (in sympathy with PRIM earnings), IEP +1.7% (files for $1.2 bln mixed securities shelf offering), SATL +1.5% (expands agreement with HEO), KLTR +1.2% (VOD and KLTR) extend partnership), DOV +1.1% (acquires Site IQ), HE +0.6% (closes the sale of Pacific Current's solar and battery storage assets), VOD +0.4% (VOD and KLTR) extend partnership), FLR +0.4% (in sympathy with PRIM earnings), RKT +0.2% (ValueAct increases active stake to 9.9% (prior 8.9%)), NDAQ +0.1% (reports July volumes), AVGO +0.1% (now shipping the Jericho4 ethernet fabric router)

After Hours Losers:

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to earnings/guidance: AGL -29.5% (also CEO steps down), INSP -21.6%, ICHR -21.1% (also CEO to step down), NVTS -16.1%, SEMR -15.8%, SES -15.6%, VRTX -14.9% (also Phase 2 study results for VX-993), KD -13.3%, HIMS -12.7%, ODD -12.3%, EVER -10.3% (also authorizes new $50 mln share repurchase program), ANDE -5.9%, MELI -5.7%, CRSP -5.6%, AL -4.8%, NJR -4.8%, TREX -4.5%, IAC -4.3%, ALSN -2.9%, SBRA -2.8%, BGS -2.7%, AESI -2%, FANG -1.9%, BCC -1.8%, MSA -1.4%, NSA -1.3%, VNOM -0.8%, SPG -0.7%, CTRA -0.6%, VOYG -0.1%, WMB -0.1%

Companies trading lower in after hours in reaction to news: SCLX -5.1% (stock offering by selling shareholders), BGS -2.7% (files for $800 mln mixed securities shelf offering), AWK -2.5% ($1 bln offering with forward component), CBL -1.3% (increases dividend), AGIO -0.4% (PYRUKYND approved in Saudi Arabia), LEN -0.3% (COO to retire), BMY -0.1% (FDA accepts sBLA application for Breyanzi)

The Information : Behind the White House’s Mixed Messages on AI Copyright

Behind the White House’s Mixed Messages on AI Copyright
AI executives loved it when President Trump sided with them against copyright holders—but the White House dodged the topic in its AI Action Plan. Here’s why.

The Takeaway
• Administration considered including copyright in AI Action Plan but decided against it.
• Music, film, news media groups lobbied administration for months on issue.
• President Trump appeared to side with AI industry in speech.

Before the White House released its AI Action Plan in July, people involved with drafting the document weighed whether to include recommendations that could have impacted the contentious relationship between artificial intelligence companies and copyright holders.

Publishers, authors, film and music companies have filed more than 40 lawsuits in the past few years, arguing that AI firms have infringed on their copyrights by using their data without permission to train large language models. AI companies have argued they’re abiding by fair use, a legal doctrine that allows limited use of copyrighted material without permission from rights holders in certain situations.

Any move by President Donald Trump’s administration to take a side in the dispute could undercut the efforts of publishers and Hollywood to protect their copyrights. In the months leading up to the AI Action Plan’s release, groups representing the music, film and media industries got wind that the document would address copyright in some way, according to a person in the music industry.

In meetings with different government agencies involved in developing the plan, as well as key figures including David Sacks, White House AI czar, and Michael Kratsios, White House science and tech adviser, representatives of publishers, music and film companies argued that the debate about copyright should be left to the courts, the person said.

When the plan came out on July 23, it made no mention of copyright. That was because the people who put the plan together couldn’t figure out what kind of policy recommendation they could actually make, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

So it was a surprise to audiences at the Winning the AI Race summit—an event in Washington hosted later that day by the “All-In” podcast—when President Donald Trump weighed in on the issue on the side of the AI firms. “You can’t be expected to have a successful AI program when every single article, book or anything else that you’ve read or studied, you’re supposed to pay for,” he said.

AI executives were elated by the comments. One of them said they hoped Trump’s words would influence court decisions or prompt government bodies to take a similar stance. A music industry official predicted the courts won’t care about those comments, however.

Legally, Trump’s words have little significance. A patchwork of state and federal laws protects intellectual property in the U.S., and many of those regulations, including the Copyright Act, have been around for decades. Any changes to federal law would need to go through Congress.

Tod Cohen, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips in San Francisco who previously worked at Twitter and eBay, said the administration would have the option of filing an amicus brief in an AI copyright lawsuit, outlining its position. Such briefs can be persuasive but are not legally binding.

Cohen said the challenge for the administration if it wanted to set a more general rule around fair-use disputes is that each situation has a specific set of facts and requires evaluation on a case-by-case basis. “If you wrote, ‘The position of the government in the AI Action Plan is training data is fair use,’ that doesn’t help a court at all to help determine what the law is, because you have to evaluate it by what the facts are that are presented in each case,” he said.

To Cohen, the companies’ stance in the broader debate boils down to money. “‘We can get away with not paying’ is the ultimate position of them all,” he said.

Much is at stake. The New York Times’ case against OpenAI is heading toward the deposition phase. Courts in two other copyright cases ruled partly in favor of Anthropic and Meta. But the judge in the Anthropic case also ruled in July that the book authors involved in the dispute could move forward with a class action suit against Anthropic, potentially exposing the company to billions of dollars in penalties.

Some AI firms have struck licensing deals with publishers. OpenAI has signed numerous deals with publishers such as Vox Media and News Corporation, allowing the ChatGPT creator to use their data for training its models, in exchange for payment of some kind. Damon Beres, a senior editor at The Atlantic—one of the publishers who reached a deal with OpenAI—wrote an essay calling it “a devil’s bargain.”

Others, such as Google, have not made such deals, preferring to rely on the fair use legal doctrine to protect their use of publishers’ data in the training of Google models.

The disconnect between the president’s public position and the plan itself shows how unpredictable Trump can be on issues of the day—and it illuminates inconsistencies in the government’s approach to AI. In the same speech in Washington, Trump criticized state AI regulation and advocated for a federal rule, just weeks after the Senate killed an industry-backed effort to ban states from regulating AI for a decade.

The White House and the Office of Science and Technology Policy did not respond to requests for comment.

The situation also illuminates the growing role of technology companies in pushing AI policy. The CEOs of Silicon Valley companies such as Meta Platforms, Nvidia and OpenAI have all been trying hard to earn Trump’s favor since he was elected, making frequent trips to his private Mar-a-Lago club. The same companies have also been pouring millions of dollars into federal lobbying efforts, seeking to capitalize on a business-friendly administration that is open to rolling back regulations for AI companies if it means beating China in the AI race.

Meanwhile, the key White House tech advisers behind the AI plan, including Sacks and Kratsios, have close ties to Silicon Valley.

TechCrunch : OpenMind wants to be the Android operating system of humanoid robot

OpenMind wants to be the Android operating system of humanoid robots

Many companies are focused on building robots, or the hardware components to help them move, grip objects, or interact with the world around them. OpenMind is focused under the hood.

The Silicon Valley-based startup is building a software layer, called OM1, for humanoid robots that acts as an operating system. The company compares itself to being the Android for robotics because its software is open and hardware agnostic.

Stanford professor Jan Liphardt, the founder of OpenMind, told TechCrunch that humanoids and other robots have been around and able to do repetitive tasks for decades. But now that humanoids are being developed for use cases that require more human-to-machine interactions, like having a humanoid in your home, they need a new operating system that thinks more like a human.

“All of a sudden, this world is opening where machines are able to interact with humans in ways I’ve certainly never before seen,” Liphardt said. “We’re very much believers here that it’s not just about the humans, but we really think of ourselves as a company that is a collaboration between machines and humans.”

OpenMind unveiled on Monday a new protocol called FABRIC that allows robots to verify identity and share context and information with other robots.

Unlike humans, machines can learn almost instantly, Liphardt said, which means giving them a better way to connect to other robots will allow them to more easily train and absorb new information.

Liphardt gave the example of languages and how robots could connect to each other and share data on how to speak different languages, which would help them better interact with more people without having to be taught each language by a human directly.

“Humans take it for granted that they can interact with any other human on Earth,” Liphardt said. “Humans have built a lot of infrastructure around us that allows us to trust other people, call them, text them and interact and coordinate and do things together. Machines, of course, are going to be no different.”

OpenMind was founded in 2024 and is gearing up to ship its first fleet of 10 OM1-powered robotic dogs by September. Liphardt said that he’s a big believer in getting the tech out there and iterating on it after the fact.

“We full well expect all the humans that will be hosting these quadrupeds, they’ll come back with a long list of things they didn’t like or they want, and then it’s up to us to very, very quickly iterate and improve the machines,” he said.

The company recently raised a $20 million funding round led by Pantera Capital with participation from Ribbit, Coinbase Ventures, and Pebblebed, among other strategic investors and angel investors.

Now, the company is focused on getting its tech into people’s homes and starting to iterate on the product.

“The most important thing for us is to get robots out there and to get feedback,” Liphardt said. “Our goal as a company is to do as many of these tests as we can, so that we can very rapidly identify the most interesting opportunities where the capabilities of the robots today are optimally matched against what humans are looking for.”

FT : UK aims to slash clinical trials set-up time from 9 months to 10 weeks

UK aims to slash clinical trials set-up time from 9 months to 10 weeks
New system would avoid ‘unnecessary contracts’ and ‘duplication on technical assurances’

The UK government is seeking to cut the time it takes to set up clinical trials by more than two-thirds, as it aims to lure more companies to Britain and boost the life sciences sector.

A pilot programme reduced set-up times for an mRNA norovirus vaccine trial from almost nine months to just 70 days, according to figures seen by the Financial Times. 

It currently takes an average of 250 days to launch a trial within the NHS, which ministers have said they want to reduce to “150 days or less” by March next year.

But the new process, if rolled out, could see that streamlined to just 10 weeks.

The Vaccine Innovation Pathway (VIP) trial was backed by public funding and is now being cited by ministers as a model for streamlining the process.

A new contracting system would allow researchers and pharmaceutical companies to avoid “unnecessary contracts” and “duplication on technical assurances,” allowing them to accelerate trial launches.

Officials said this new standardised commercial contracting process removed unnecessary negotiations and duplicative steps at sites.

Contract templates and agreements are looked at per study, and accepted by participating sites without any modification, rather than the current system that often requires new contracts for each stage or testing site.

This will “free up workforce capacity and drive efficiencies,” the officials said.

Ministers have targeted life sciences as one of the eight “growth” sectors in their industrial strategy, and hope the NHS can be a strong lure for pharmaceutical companies around the world to set up trials.

Health minister Karin Smyth said: “For too long, some of the country’s greatest scientists have been trapped in a tangled web of bureaucracy — tied up by endless contracts and pointless paperwork — with new treatments delayed and patients missing out.  

“We’re transforming the UK into a hotbed for innovation — ensuring the most innovative companies can get their products on the market and to the NHS frontline as quickly as possible.”

Under the government’s ten-year plan for the health service announced earlier this year, millions of patients will be granted direct access to clinical trials under the expansion of the NHS app. 

But the industry has previously criticised the UK for paying far less than many peer countries for products and warned that a recent rise in the UK’s medicine sales tax left the country uninvestable.

Professor Lucy Chappell, chief scientific adviser to the department, said: “We’re taking a series of steps to strengthen the sector — streamlining the set-up and delivery of clinical trials, unlocking the power of our impressive life sciences sector and harnessing our world leading science for patients across the country.”

She added: “Research is a core part of care, driving better patient outcomes, supporting our workforce, and ensuring that our health and care system innovates today and is fit for the future.”

>>> US Research Calls I

Research Calls I
  • Upgrades
    • Affiliated Managers (AMG) upgraded to Buy from Hold at TD Cowen, tgt $255
    • Aimco (AIV) upgraded to Outperform from Peer Perform at Wolfe Research, tgt $10
    • Air France-KLM (AFLYY) upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays
    • Alamo Group (ALG) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Robert W. Baird, tgt $260
    • Alnylam (ALNY) upgraded to Outperform from Perform at Oppenheimer, tgt $490
    • Alnylam (ALNY) upgraded to Peer Perform from Underperform at Wolfe Research, tgt $368
    • BJ's Restaurants (BJRI) upgraded to Buy from Hold at The Benchmark Company , tgt $44
    • Deutsche Lufthansa (DLAKY) upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays
    • Federated Hermes (FHI) upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan, tgt $54
    • Fortrea (FTRE) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Robert W. Baird, tgt $9
    • IAG (ICAGY) upgraded to Equal Weight from Underweight at Barclays
    • Kimberly-Clark (KMB) upgraded to Neutral from Underweight at JPMorgan, tgt $138
    • Lloyds Banking (LYG) upgraded to Outperform from Sector Perform at RBC Capital
    • MasTec (MTZ) upgraded to Outperform from Neutral at Robert W. Baird, tgt $210
    • Spotify (SPOT) upgraded to Neutral from Reduce at Phillip Securities, tgt $600
    • Zevia (ZVIA) upgraded to Outperform from Market Perform at Telsey Advisory Group, tgt $5
  • Downgrades
    • AvalonBay (AVB) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Sandler, tgt $200
    • Baxter (BAX) downgraded to Hold from Buy at Stifel, tgt $25
    • Coinbase (COIN) downgraded to Sell from Neutral at Compass Point, tgt $248
    • EPR Properties (EPR) downgraded to Sector Perform from Outperform at RBC Capital, tgt $58
    • Essex Property Trust (ESS) downgraded to Neutral from Overweight at Piper Sandler, tgt $275
    • Shell (SHEL) downgraded to Hold from Buy at HSBC
    • Tronox (TROX) downgraded to Neutral from Buy at UBS, tgt $3.60
    • Vera Therapeutics (VERA) downgraded to Peer Perform from Outperform at Wolfe Research
  • Others
    • AeroVironment (AVAV) initiated with an Outperform at Citizens JMP, tgt $325
    • Akero Therapeutics (AKRO) initiated with a Buy at TD Cowen, tgt $76
    • Chevron (CVX) resumed with an Overweight at Morgan Stanley, tgt $174
    • Kinross Gold (KGC) initiated with a Buy at UBS, tgt $20
    • Liberty Formula One (FWONK) initiated with a Neutral at BofA Securities, tgt $110
    • Mind Medicine (MNMD) resumed with an Outperform at Oppenheimer, tgt $25
    • Philip Morris (PM) initiated with an Outperform at KGI Securities, tgt $188
    • Pony AI (PONY) initiated with a Buy at UBS, tgt $20
    • Wave Life Sciences (WVE) initiated with a Buy at Canaccord, tgt $19
    • WeRide (WRD) initiated with a Buy at UBS, tgt $12