Eli Lilly’s Zepbound Gets FDA OK for Multi-Dose Pen
Multi-dose pen will deliver four weekly injections from a single device
- Eli Lilly received Food and Drug Administration approval for a Zepbound label expansion, adding a monthly delivery option.
- The pharmaceutical company will offer Zepbound in a multi-dose pen at the same $299 monthly self-pay price via LillyDirect.
- Zepbound is approved for chronic weight management and obstructive sleep apnea; patients lost 20.9% body weight over 72 weeks.
Eli Lilly LLY 5.15%increase; green up pointing triangle received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for a label expansion of its weight-loss drug Zepbound, adding a new monthly delivery option for patients.
The pharmaceutical company said Monday that the expansion allows Zepbound to be offered in a multi-dose pen that delivers four weekly injections from a single device. The obesity treatment had previously been available in single-dose vials.
Eli Lilly said the drug will be available at the same self-pay price in either the multi-dose pen or single-dose vial format, starting at $299 a month for the 2.5-milligram starter dose through LillyDirect, the company’s direct-to-consumer platform.
Zepbound is approved for chronic weight management in adults with obesity, or adults who are overweight with at least one weight-related condition. The drug is also approved to help treat moderate-to-severe obstructive sleep apnea in adults with obesity.
Lilly said demand for Zepbound reflects its efficacy, citing clinical trial data showing patients taking the 15-milligram dose lost an average of 20.9% of body weight over 72 weeks, compared with 3.1% for patients receiving placebo.
Blue Owl is spoiling private credit’s sales pitch
US fund manager has become a warning of what happens when exotic products do not go to plan
There are asset managers working in droves to cultivate the image of private credit as an attractive product for retail investors. Then there is Blue Owl. Last week, the US fund manager became a warning of what happens when exotic products do not go to plan, that will — and should — make everyday investors think twice before diving in.
The group, which manages more than $307bn of other people’s money, has permanently restricted redemptions at its Blue Owl Capital Corp II (OBDC II) fund. Previously, investors had been able to pull out cash equivalent to 5 per cent of the fund every three months. Instead, Blue Owl will sell assets in the fund piecemeal and return cash quarter by quarter, handed out to everyone according to their share whether they want it or not.
The saga highlights the two big risks that face investors in private credit: valuation and liquidity. The first involves trusting managers over what assets in funds are worth, since there is no live market price. The second entails limits on how much of their money investors withdraw from the fund, and when. Illiquidity is a feature, not a bug: it allows private capital managers to park money, for extended periods of time, in deals not available on public markets.
Blue Owl’s problem was originally linked to valuation. Investors worried its loans were not worth what it said, partly because a big chunk of OBDC II’s lending is to software companies. A listed fund with near-identical assets, called OBDC, was trading at a big discount to its net asset value — as, in practice, most “business development companies” of this kind do.
The valuation problem turned into a liquidity one: in an effort to stop outflows of OBDC II, the group tried to merge it with its listed counterparty, forcing investors to take a de facto haircut in exchange for the ability to sell stock on the market. Some kind of “liquidity event” — a sale, merger or listing — had always been the plan for OBDC II and is a common feature of older business development companies. But the terms of the deal raised hackles: Blue Owl was forced to scrap its plan.
With valuation and liquidity concerns feeding off each other, Blue Owl is now trying to tackle both at once. It has sold a strip of loans to other asset managers at close to face value, hoping to reassure the market that its loans are worth what it says they are.
Yet the transaction, which includes Blue Owl’s own insurer as one of the four buyers, has not totally quelled fears. Activist investor Saba Capital Management is now offering to buy fund stakes from customers at an embarrassingly steep discount.
The latest gaffe triggered a minor sell-off in asset managers’ stocks, which presumably reflects that retail investors are spooked. Blue Owl and peers such as Apollo and Blackstone are keen to broaden out, targeting the modestly rich as well as the super-rich. The hope is that, if regulation changes, holders of US 401(k) pensions could partake too.
The value of that future fee opportunity is now falling, as reflected by the 15 per cent slump in Blue Owl’s stock over the past week. The company is now skirting close to the $10 a share at which it went public in 2021, having halved from its peak a year ago. Private credit is certainly making some people richer; Blue Owl’s own shareholders are not among them.
How AI agents could destroy the economy
On Sunday, an analyst group called Citrini Research published a remarkable piece illustrating how agentic AI could bring on mass economic destruction over the next two years. The scenario imagines a report from two years in the future, in which unemployment has doubled, and the total value of the stock market has fallen by more than a third. As the report puts it:
AI capabilities improved, companies needed fewer workers, white collar layoffs increased, displaced workers spent less, margin pressure pushed firms to invest more in AI, AI capabilities improved…
It was a negative feedback loop with no natural brake…The system turned out to be one long daisy chain of correlated bets on white-collar productivity growth.
It’s a new kind of bear case, focused not on Skynet-style misalignment but on the gradual unspooling of the economy itself. In particular, the Citrini scenario looks at the implications of integrating AI agents into the economy at large, and what it would mean when outside contractors get replaced by cheaper in-house AI. It’s similar to the Death of SaaS scenario, but Citrini goes further, implicating any business model that involves optimizing transactions between companies.
As you might expect, the report is causing quite a stir online. Not everyone is buying it — even Citrini describes it as more of a scenario than a prediction — but it’s not so easy to name the specific point where you think the scenario goes wrong.
Personally, I’m not sure companies are ready to hand off purchasing decisions to AI agents, no matter how smart they are. But in Citrini’s scenario, most of the impacted decisions have already been handed off to third-party contractors, so it’s not quite as implausible as it seems.
EDF – Fontana's Internal PR Push Nine months into his tenure, EDF CEO Bernard Fontana is working to improve his internal image after unpopular cost-cutting measures (€1bn general expenses reduction, alcohol ban). The communications team arranged a flattering profile in Challenges and an internal corporate film. HR chief Élisabeth Terrail organized a seminar with unions on February 3. Notably, Fontana and executive Cédric Lewandowski reconciled over a disputed nuclear fleet modulation report — Lewandowski acknowledged Fontana was right to delay publication — and an expanded version was released on February 16 alongside the PPE3 energy plan.
European Parliament – EPP vs. Urban Wastewater Directive EPP MEPs Tomislav Sokol and Peter Liese are pushing back on the urban wastewater treatment directive (UWWTD), which would cost pharma and cosmetics industries €1.8bn/year for 20 years under the polluter-pays principle. They plan a resolution to pause implementation, but face opposition from the S&D group and Greens. The CJEU ruled the industry lobbies' legal challenge inadmissible on February 18. The EPP also sees the environmental omnibus initiative as leverage to reshape green regulations.
Paris Municipal Elections – Dati's Blackout Rachida Dati is maintaining total opacity on her Paris mayoral candidate list, causing anxiety among LR allies. Two former Szpiner associates joined rival Pierre-Yves Bournazel's Renaissance-backed list. The PLM law reform gives Dati full control over the central list, sidelining LR's influence. Her polling has softened to 24-28% from a previous 32-38%.
Defense – Celeste Spy Satellite France's electromagnetic intelligence satellite project Celeste (successor to the three Ceres satellites deployed since 2021) is back on track. The DGA has engaged Airbus Group, Thales, and startup Unseenlabs, with a target launch by end of 2026 after years of delays and restarts.
Media – CNews/AIMV Controversy News agency AIMV (previously subcontracting for BFM TV) will supply coverage to Bolloré's CNews for municipal elections. Sud Ouest journalists are alarmed at a potential lasting partnership. The SNJ journalists' union has filed complaints with prosecutors and media regulator Arcom, alleging illegal labor practices.
SpaceX IPO – Key Takeaways from Starlink's Evolution
Revenue vs. Growth Trade-off: Starlink hit 10M subscribers (ahead of projections) but 2025 revenue came in at ~$16B vs. Morgan Stanley's $19B forecast. The gap reflects aggressive price cuts — a $50/month lite tier in the US, free terminals in some areas, and early price reductions in Europe after weaker-than-expected demand.
Margin Pressure: Hardware costs up to $600/unit are being subsidized or given away. Average revenue per user is trending well below the $170+/month Morgan Stanley assumed. Add rising spend on marketing (Super Bowl ad), retail distribution (Best Buy, physical stores), and customer support buildout — all weighing on the path to high free cash flow margins analysts had modeled.
Amazon's Leo Threat: Amazon is preparing to launch its competing satellite service later this year, leveraging Prime's massive customer base for consumer sales and AWS relationships for enterprise/government contracts. SpaceX appears to be racing to lock in market share before this happens, which explains the pricing aggression.
Regulatory Headwinds: India (no launch despite preorders since 2021), major African markets (Egypt, Ethiopia, South Africa) remain blocked. These were supposed to be high-growth regions where satellite capacity could be monetized.
xAI Cash Burn Complicates the Picture: The merger with xAI, burning ~$1B/month, plus Musk's talk of space data centers and lunar factories, raises questions about capital allocation discipline heading into an IPO.
Bottom Line for an IPO investor: The subscriber growth story is strong, but the unit economics are deteriorating. The bull case assumed premium pricing and expanding margins — what's materializing looks more like a mass-market telecom land grab with rising costs, a well-capitalized competitor arriving, and key international markets still locked out. Valuation scrutiny on actual cash flow generation, not just subscriber counts, will be critical.
SpaceX’s Starlink Makes Land Grab as Amazon Threat Looms
The Takeaway
- SpaceX has recently slashed Starlink prices in the U.S.
- Starlink faces roadblocks in big potential markets in India, Africa
- SpaceX is spending more on customer service, bricks-and-mortar stores
Since launching in 2020, SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet service has quickly eclipsed its rocket launch business to become its biggest source of revenue, and, investors hope, a significant cash generator in coming years.
But recent efforts to maintain user growth have increasingly turned Starlink into a competitor to mass-market telecom firms selling internet access, rather than the premium service SpaceX CEO Elon Musk initially envisioned. Starlink has cut hardware and subscription costs aggressively, juicing user growth while potentially weighing on margins.
The firm introduced a $50 a month low-cost tier in the U.S. last year and in some cases gives away internet-access terminals that cost up to $600 each to manufacture, according to two former SpaceX employees with direct knowledge of the figure. In Europe, Starlink cut prices even earlier after running into weaker than expected demand, according to two additional former SpaceX employees.
The latest price cuts come as the first serious potential rival to Starlink, Amazon’s Leo service, is gearing up to launch service in the U.S. and some other countries later this year. At the same time, Starlink has also been spending on improving its bare-bones customer service and opening its first bricks-and-mortar stores.
“Although Starlink is growing very fast in subscribers, they’re cutting the price like crazy to keep growth up,” said space consultant Tim Farrar of TMF Associates. “They’ve got all the people who live in the middle of nowhere, but now they have to start competing with AT&T and Comcast. That requires going a lot cheaper.”
Starlink’s cash-generating potential should be a big focus for investors ahead of a potential SpaceX initial public offering this summer. That’s particularly true now that the company has merged with xAI, which has been burning cash to the tune of $1 billion per month. And Musk is talking up costly endeavors such as putting data centers in space and building satellite factories on the moon.
Analysts have expected Starlink to become an increasingly important driver of the company’s overall free cash flow in the coming years, and for Starlink’s margins to eventually far exceed those of SpaceX’s launch business. But some of the assumptions underpinning initial expectations are looking increasingly questionable.
In a 2024 report that circulated widely among SpaceX investors, Morgan Stanley analysts made their projections assuming that SpaceX would bring in over $2,000 each year—or more than $170 a month—per individual Starlink user in 2024 and 2025, not including hardware or activation charges. (Morgan Stanley, historically Musk’s investment bank of choice, is among the banks that have started offering research coverage of private market companies in recent years.)
In that report, Morgan Stanley also projected that SpaceX’s overall revenue would reach $19 billion in 2025, driven primarily by growth in the number of Starlink subscribers, which the bank predicted would hit 6 million. While Starlink ended last year with 9.2 million subscribers, higher than the projections, SpaceX’s revenue fell short, coming in at around $16 billion. Starlink said it hit 10 million subscribers this month.
Inside Amazon, leaders have been closely watching the Starlink price cuts for consumers over the past few months, according to a person close to Amazon. They’ve interpreted the moves as a play to grab market share before Amazon’s launch of Leo.
Amazon plans to tap its large base of Prime members and other customers to sell consumer subscriptions, the person said, while leaning on existing Amazon Web Services relationships with companies and governments to boost enterprise sales and smooth local licensing approvals globally.
SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.
Pricing Evolution
SpaceX initially envisioned Starlink as a premium service—Musk told staff it had to be fast enough for serious online gaming—that could command a significantly higher price than traditional wired internet. When the company launched Starlink in 2020 in the U.S., it charged a flat monthly rate of $99 for service, plus hundreds of dollars to buy hardware up-front.
But getting pricing right to drive adoption while using Starlink’s infrastructure as efficiently as possible is a complicated, worldwide undertaking.
Starlink works by surrounding the globe with thousands of orbiting satellites that beam down internet service to customers. That means when one of its satellites is traveling above a part of the world where it doesn’t sell subscriptions, SpaceX is leaving money on the table.
Expanding in as many countries as possible has always been a priority for SpaceX leadership. That requires wooing local regulators and sometimes navigating resistance from powerful telecom companies in order to launch. The company has grown to offer Starlink in more than 150 countries.
But SpaceX has had a tougher time winning over regulators than it initially expected in several large potential markets, according to three former staffers with knowledge of the effort.
That includes India, where SpaceX started taking Starlink preorders in 2021. The government quickly ordered SpaceX to stop taking preorders until it had received license to operate and to issue refunds for any already accepted. Starlink still hasn’t launched there. SpaceX also still hasn’t launched in some major African countries, including Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa.
And in some regions outside the U.S. where Starlink has launched, initial demand was weaker than expected. SpaceX leadership initially believed the service needed to keep pricing consistent as it entered new markets like Europe, according to one of the former staffers. Otherwise, the thinking went, customers in certain markets would see others paying different rates elsewhere and would feel ripped off.
But Starlink saw lackluster growth in Europe, where it started to launch in 2021, according to two of the former staffers, in part because consumers are generally used to lower internet services prices than in the U.S. In 2022, the company began to slash prices in European countries, starting with cutting subscription prices to 50 euros (around $50 at the time) in France.
That same year, SpaceX hiked Starlink prices in the U.S., to $110 in 2022 and $120 in 2023. But more recently it has reversed course, introducing “lite” U.S. plans with slower speeds at rates as cheap as $50 per month, and offering even deeper discounts for plans in some parts of the country where it has excess capacity.
On the hardware side, SpaceX now sells its standard residential terminal for $349 in the U.S., down from $599 at its introduction in 2023, and frequently offers even deeper discounts or free terminals in certain areas where subscribers are particularly sparse.
Meanwhile, Amazon has not yet announced how much it will charge for hardware or subscriptions. But the company has not been afraid of subsidizing hardware such as its Alexa devices in the past, and it has described its satellite internet ambitions as a way to bring connectivity to more places around the world, which would boost its e-commerce and entertainment businesses.
“Starlink is accelerating their market penetration in advance of Amazon,” said Chris Quilty of research and investment firm Quilty Space. “But I don’t think the market sufficiently appreciates how the dynamics are going to change when Amazon comes online. Amazon is going to be a disruptive force.”
Support Issues
Besides cutting prices, there have been other shifts in SpaceX’s strategy to grow Starlink and hold onto customers. For most of Starlink’s existence, it has sold directly to consumers, mostly through its own website and with little marketing, an approach with relatively low costs. More recently, though, the company has been ramping up spending on marketing and distribution.
In 2023 it started selling hardware through retailers such as Best Buy and even listing terminals on the retail site of soon-to-be-rival Amazon last year, which requires giving up a portion of revenue to retailers. And late last year, SpaceX said it was opening four Starlink stores in the Midwest.
Notably, it aired a Starlink television ad during this year’s Super Bowl. That was the first spot during the game for any company led by Musk, who has previously said he hates advertising.
And for several years after SpaceX launched Starlink in 2020, customers could only reach support through an email address. As the service grew, the support team was understaffed compared to the number of complaints the company received, leading to wait times days or even weeks long for responses, according to a person who worked on the issue.
Since Starlink users tend to live in remote areas, the reliance on email support could be especially frustrating, the person said. In one instance, a customer whose Starlink hardware stopped working had to drive an hour each way to a coffee shop to check their email for several days in a row, the person said.
SpaceX added a customer support number that offers callbacks for urgent Starlink connection issues in late 2024, but still describes the service as in a “trial phase” and encourages customers to use email and a new support chatbot powered by xAI’s Grok model.
Starlink also launched a separate sales phone number powered by Grok earlier this month. The company featured the number in its Super Bowl ad.
Gilead Sciences to Buy Arcellx in Deal Valued at $7.8 Billion
Gilead and Arcellx in 2022 struck a deal to co-develop and co-commercialize anito-cel
- Gilead Sciences agreed to acquire the remaining 88.5% of Arcellx for $7.8 billion, a 79% premium.
- Arcellx investors will receive $115 a share in cash and contingent value rights for an additional $5 a share.
- The acquisition gives Gilead full control of anito-cel, an investigational CAR T-cell therapy for multiple myeloma.
Gilead Sciences GILD 0.19%increase; green up pointing triangle has agreed to buy the rest of development partner Arcellx ACLX -3.64%decrease; red down pointing triangle in a deal that values the biotechnology company at about $7.8 billion at closing.
Gilead on Monday said it will pay an initial $115 a share in cash for the 88.5% of Arcellx it doesn’t already own, a 79% premium to Friday’s closing price of $64.11 for the Redwood City, Calif., company.
Shares of Arcellx were recently up nearly 78% at $113.85 in premarket trading.
Arcellx investors will also receive non-transferable contingent value rights worth an additional $5 a share based on future sales of Arcellx’s lead pipeline candidate anitocabtagene autoleucel, or anito-cel, an investigational CAR T-cell therapy for patients with the blood cancer multiple myeloma.
Foster City, Calif., biopharmaceutical company Gilead and Arcellx in 2022 struck a deal to co-develop and co-commercialize anito-cel.
As part of the agreement, Gilead made an upfront payment and invested $100 million in Arcellx, which was also eligible to receive up to $1.5 billion in development and milestone payments, along with royalties on sales of the anito-cel.
Gilead said the acquisition of Arcellx gives it full control of anito-cel, allowing for accelerated development and commercialization of the drug while eliminating the future payouts to Arcellx.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is reviewing Arcellx’s application seeking approval of anito-cel as a fourth-line treatment for patients with relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma, with a decision expected by the end of the year.
Gilead said it expects to complete the acquisition during the second quarter.
Merck Creates Separate Cancer Business as Sales Pressure Looms
The company is splitting its pharmaceuticals unit to bolster product launches before its cancer drug Keytruda loses patent protection
- Merck is reorganizing its main pharmaceutical unit into two divisions to prepare for Keytruda’s U.S. patent expiration in 2028.
- A new specialty, pharma and infectious diseases unit will aim for sales growth to offset expected Keytruda declines.
- Brian Foard will lead the specialty, pharma and infectious diseases unit, and Jannie Oosthuizen will run the cancer business.
Merck MRK 0.33%increase; green up pointing triangle is shaking up the leadership of its main pharmaceutical unit as the U.S. drugmaker braces for sales pressure later this decade.
The Rahway, N.J.-based company said Monday it will split its human-health business into two divisions. One will house its cancer drugs, including the blockbuster Keytruda. The immunotherapy accounts for nearly half of total Merck sales but is due to lose U.S. patent protection in 2028, exposing it to lower-cost copycat competition.
The second new division—the specialty, pharma and infectious-diseases business unit—will sell noncancer products, including the HPV vaccine Gardasil, diabetes drug Januvia and newer products such as lung-disease treatment Winrevair.
Merck is counting on this unit to generate big sales growth to offset the expected Keytruda sales decline.
The moves, which were earlier reported by The Wall Street Journal, are the latest by the drugmaker in preparation for a drop in Keytruda sales. To replace the revenue, Merck has been pursuing multibillion-dollar acquisitions of biotechnology companies that promise to furnish new drugs such as Winrevair.
Merck said the reorganization is aimed at ensuring strong product launches across various disease areas as it tries to diversify its product lineup.
The company is planning more than 20 launches of new drugs or new uses for existing drugs in the next several years. They include a new kind of cholesterol pill that Merck hopes will become a big seller.
“We are sharpening our focus on delivering innovative medicines for patients and creating long-term value for our stakeholders,” Chief Executive Robert Davis said.
The company named Brian Foard as president of the new specialty, pharma and infectious-diseases unit, effective March 2. Foard, 52 years old, has been with French drugmaker Sanofi since 2017 and most recently served as head of Sanofi’s specialty-care unit.
In-house executive Jannie Oosthuizen will run the new cancer business plus Merck’s non-U.S. unit, MSD. Oosthuizen, 58, most recently served as president of Merck’s U.S. human-health business.
Oosthuizen and Foard will both report to Davis.
Joseph Romanelli, who has been leading Merck’s international human-health business, plans to retire, a Merck spokesman said. Merck also is moving Chirfi Guindo, 60, who had been Merck’s chief marketing officer of human health, to a new role, executive vice president of strategic access, policy and communications.
EDF – Fontana’s Internal PR Push
Nine months into his tenure, EDF CEO Bernard Fontana is working to improve his internal image after unpopular cost-cutting measures (€1bn general expenses reduction, alcohol ban). The communications team arranged a flattering profile in Challenges and an internal corporate film. HR chief Élisabeth Terrail organized a seminar with unions on February 3. Notably, Fontana and executive Cédric Lewandowski reconciled over a disputed nuclear fleet modulation report — Lewandowski acknowledged Fontana was right to delay publication — and an expanded version was released on February 16 alongside the PPE3 energy plan.
European Parliament – EPP vs. Urban Wastewater Directive
EPP MEPs Tomislav Sokol and Peter Liese are pushing back on the urban wastewater treatment directive (UWWTD), which would cost pharma and cosmetics industries €1.8bn/year for 20 years under the polluter-pays principle. They plan a resolution to pause implementation, but face opposition from the S&D group and Greens. The CJEU ruled the industry lobbies’ legal challenge inadmissible on February 18. The EPP also sees the environmental omnibus initiative as leverage to reshape green regulations.
Paris Municipal Elections – Dati’s Blackout
Rachida Dati is maintaining total opacity on her Paris mayoral candidate list, causing anxiety among LR allies. Two former Szpiner associates joined rival Pierre-Yves Bournazel’s Renaissance-backed list. The PLM law reform gives Dati full control over the central list, sidelining LR’s influence. Her polling has softened to 24-28% from a previous 32-38%.
Defense – Celeste Spy Satellite
France’s electromagnetic intelligence satellite project Celeste (successor to the three Ceres satellites deployed since 2021) is back on track. The DGA has engaged Airbus Group, Thales, and startup Unseenlabs, with a target launch by end of 2026 after years of delays and restarts.
Media – CNews/AIMV Controversy
News agency AIMV (previously subcontracting for BFM TV) will supply coverage to Bolloré’s CNews for municipal elections. Sud Ouest journalists are alarmed at a potential lasting partnership. The SNJ journalists’ union has filed complaints with prosecutors and media regulator Arcom, alleging illegal labor practices.