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December 11, 2024

Trump’s Anti-Trust Team Taking Shape

By Joe Lieber

President-elect Trump’s announcement last night that he intends to name current FTC commissioner Andrew Ferguson to chair the agency reinforces our long-held view that, in general, M&A / antitrust under Trump will be more market…

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December 11, 2024

[EW, ABT] Tricuspid Coverage Expectations

By John Leppard

With CMS due to publish its draft National Coverage Determinations (NCD) for EW’s Evoque transcatheter tricuspid valve replacement (TTVR) by Dec. 20, followed by ABT’s TriClip edge-to-edge repair (T-TEER) by Apr. 3, we view EW…

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December 10, 2024

DXCM vs ABT in Updated ADA Guidelines

By John Leppard

We view ABT as likely better positioned than DXCM following updated guidelines from the American Diabetes Association (ADA) that clinicians “consider” the use of continuous glucose monitors (CGM) in “adults with type 2 diabetes treated…

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December 9, 2024

[WBA, CVS] SCOTUS Sides with Arkansas Law; For Now, Contract Pharmacies Have Upper Hand vs. Pharma

By Beth Steindecker

This morning, the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) afforded a win to state laws protecting the use of contract retail, mail-order and specialty pharmacies (WBA, CVS, WMT, UNH, CI, RAD) that arehired by 340B hospitals and clinics…

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December 6, 2024

[HUM, ALHC, UNH, CVS, ELV, AGL] Expectations for CY26 Medicare Advantage Advance Notice

By Beth Steindecker

KEY TAKEAWAYS: We expect the proposed YoY change in the CY26 benchmarks for Medicare Advantage (MA) plans is likely to be relatively flat, with a range between -1% and +1% that excludes coding trend, but…

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December 5, 2024

DC Quick Takes: Slater at DOJ Antitrust, Reconciliation Two-Step, Defense Spending Headline Risk and the GOP House

By Joe Lieber

We give our quick takes below to: 1) Trump’s nomination of Gail Slater to head the Department of Justice (DOJ) antitrust division; 2) the prospects of passing two reconciliation bills and what that might mean…

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December 4, 2024

(FDX, UPS, AMZN, PDD) De Minimis Bill Likely to Pass Next Congress

By Joe Lieber

We believe there’s a 2-in-3 chance that de minimis legislation, which would limit China and other non-market economies from taking advantage of the $800 threshold for which goods come into the U.S. without paying duties,…

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December 3, 2024

[WBA, CVS, WMT] 340B Case on Deck at SCOTUS Conference; Regardless of Resolution, Target Remains on 340B

By Beth Steindecker

We could see some short-term positive news for retail, mail-order and specialty pharmacies (WBA, CVS, WMT, UNH, CI) if the Supreme Court decides not to hear the appeal of PhRMA v. McClain, a development that…

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December 3, 2024

Life Science Tools: NIH Cuts in Context

By John Leppard

With the life science tools (LST) space still trailing broader market moves following the Nov. 5 election, in part due to investor concerns over NIH funding, we continue to believe that significant budget cuts are…

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December 2, 2024

Lame Duck Session Update

By Joe Lieber

Roughly a month ago, we published our outlook for the lame duck session, which included a laundry list of issues ranging from healthcare, business tax provisions, tech items, trade issues (de minimis rule),  and cannabis. …

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