Category: Breaking News

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COVID-19 vaccine rollout relies heavily on pharmacy giants CVS and Walgreens

Plans to begin administering COVID-19 vaccines this month to millions of vulnerable Americans will depend not on public health departments but largely on the nation’s two largest for-profit pharmacy chains. CVS Health and Walgreens Boots Alliance were tapped by the Trump administration to vaccinate more than 3 million residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, which are expected to get the first wave of vaccines perhaps as soon as next week.

The leading role highlights the power and reach of the two companies, which together have some 20,000 pharmacy locations nationwide. It also underscores how, after years of underinvestment in public health, the U.S. is highly dependent on for-profit companies for critical public services such as immunizations.

“We’re in a situation where we don’t have a public sector that’s able to do something like this,” said Jeffrey Levi, former director of the nonprofit Trust for America’s Health. “We have to work with the system we have.” Federal officials say the partnership with the pharmacy companies is a model that will rapidly get vaccines to needy patients. “I’m incredibly confident that these public-private partnerships are ready to execute,” U.S. Army Gen. Gus Perna told reporters this week. Perna is chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, the federal initiative set up by the Trump administration to support development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and medicines. Some public health leaders nevertheless remain leery of the heavy reliance on multibillion-dollar corporations whose primary duty is to their shareholders, especially as the full scope of the companies’ vaccine distribution work remains secret. Neither CVS and Walgreens nor the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services would provide copies of the agreements signed between the companies and the federal government. “At the end of the day, these are businesses,” said Lori Tremmel Freeman, who directs the National Assn. of County and City Health Officials. “They are not the same as a health department, whose business is keeping people safe. Health departments have no other motive. They don’t care about the bottom line.” Other healthcare experts warned that while CVS and Walgreens may have the logistical capability to get vaccine to thousands of nursing homes and assisted living facilities across the country, they may not be the best option to help other vulnerable populations, including the low-income and minority communities hit hardest by the pandemic. “We’ve learned over the years that the private sector, in general, does a really poor job of reaching out to at-risk populations,” said Christopher Koller, the former state insurance commissioner in Rhode Island who heads the Milbank Memorial Fund, a nonprofit supporting research on the healthcare system.

Walgreens, though it bills itself as a “health and wellness enterprise,” continues to sell cigarettes and other tobacco products, despite repeated pleas from public health officials to end the practice. (CVS stopped selling tobacco products in 2014.)Senior CVS and Walgreens officials insist they’re dedicated to the public health effort.

Rick Gates, Walgreens’ senior vice president for pharmacy, noted that vaccination clinics “are pretty core to what we do.” The initiative has been welcomed by the long-term care industry, which complained for months that the federal government failed to get vital protective equipment to its facilities. There is little dispute about the importance of the immunization effort. The pandemic has devastated long-term care facilities since the first major outbreak at a nursing home was recorded in February in Kirkland, Wash. More than 100,000 long-term care residents and staff have died, accounting for some 40% of the nation’s COVID-19 fatalities, according to a tally by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation. The vulnerability of these institutions prompted the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to advise states to give first priority to residents of nursing homes and healthcare workers when vaccines become available. Federal health officials said they selected CVS and Walgreens to lead the effort for nursing homes because of the companies’ vast network and experience serving long-term care facilities, many of which already work with them to get annual flu vaccines for residents. “We solicited input and had discussions with many different potential partners, the vast majority of whom told us they simply could not deliver on these capabilities,” said Paul Mango, deputy chief of staff at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Under the CDC’s Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care Program, nursing homes and other long-term care facilities were invited in October to select one of the pharmacy chains to deliver and administer vaccine to their residents and staff. More than 25,000 facilities selected CVS, according to the company. About 23,000 chose Walgreens, said Gates. The vaccines, which the federal government has purchased, will be administered at no cost to patients or to long-term care facilities. But CVS and Walgreens can bill for administering the shots. The Medicare payment rate is $16.94 for the first shot and $28.39 for the second, according to the fee schedule from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Both Pfizer and Moderna, whose COVID-19 vaccines are expected to win approval first, require two shots. Importantly, the companies will have to report vaccination data to local, state and federal public health officials, a key component of any vaccination initiative. With Pfizer’s vaccine scheduled to be reviewed by an FDA panel next Thursday, the first shipments of vaccine could be headed out by next weekend, according to federal health officials. Moderna’s vaccine is scheduled for review the following week. Dr. Moncef Slaoui, the chief science advisor to Operation Warp Speed, told reporters this week that means there should be ample vaccine to reach all 3 million residents of long-term care facilities by the end of the year.

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Employment growth slows sharply in November amid coronavirus surge

  • Nonfarm payrolls increased by 245,000 in November, down from 610,000 in October.
  • The total was below the Wall Street estimate of 440,000.
  • Unemployment decreased to 6.7%, meeting expectations.
  • Job gains were concentrated in warehousing as well as professional and business services. Retail jobs fell ahead of the holiday shopping season.

Nonfarm payrolls increased by just 245,000 in November, well below Wall Street estimates as rising coronavirus cases coincided with a considerable slowdown in hiring.

Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 440,000 and the jobless rate to decrease to 6.7% from 6.9% in October. The unemployment rate met expectations, though it fell along with a drop in the labor force participation rate to 61.5%. A more encompassing measure of joblessness edged lower to 12% while the number of Americans outside the labor force remains just above 100 million.

The November gain represented a pronounced slowdown from the 610,000 positions added in November. In all, the economy has brought back 12.3 million of the 22 million jobs lost in the first two months of the crisis. There are still 10.7 million Americans considered unemployed, compared to 5.8 million in February. The total of permanent job losers remained at 3.7 million in November, but is up 2.5 million from February. At the pace added in November, the economy would not be back to pre-pandemic employment levels until 2024, according to Daniel Zhao, senior economist at job placement site Glassdoor. “Today’s report is a firm reminder that we’re not out of the woods yet,” Zhao said. “Even with a vaccine on the horizon, many are bracing for a long winter ahead.” The November job gains would be considered strong under normal circumstances, but the pandemic has left millions of Americans out of work from jobs lost in the early stages of the crisis. The total represents the slowest job growth since the employment recovery began in May as the number of workers unemployed for at least 25 weeks surged 11% to nearly 4 million.

“Overall, it is a disappointing report,” economists at Jefferies said in a note. “With COVID cases surging again and policies being put in place to try and slow the spread, hiring has slowed down. Also, worker availability is a significant limiting factor as well, with many unable to go to work due to COVID concerns or family care obligations.” Despite the disappointing number, markets showed little reaction, with Wall Street expecting a higher open Job gains came from transportation and warehousing, which rose by 145,000 thanks to a jump in couriers and messengers as well as warehousing and storage. Professional and business services added 60,000 and health care was up 46,000. The battered hospitality industry, which has taken the worst of the job losses during the pandemic, increased just 31,000, while retail lost 35,000 jobs, a potentially troubling sign heading into the holiday shopping season. General merchandising stores dropped 21,000, while sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores declined by 12,000. Electronics and appliance stores were down by 11,000 while health and personal care stores cut 8,000. Overall, retail is down 550,000 employees from February, the month before the pandemic restrictions went into place. Construction and manufacturing each added 27,000 jobs for the month, while financial activities rose 15,000. Government hiring fell for the third straight month, down 99,000 primarily due to the loss of Census workers hired for the 2020 count.

The numbers come amid a new wave of coronavirus cases that threatens to push the U.S. healthcare system to the brink. More than 100,000 people are hospitalized across the U.S. due to the accelerated outbreak, which saw 210,161 new cases Thursday, according to the Covid Tracking Project overseen by journalists at The Atlantic.

Though the U.S. is coming off its fastest growth quarter ever, economists worry that the next quarter or two could see flat or even negative growth before rebounding strongly in the latter part of 2021.

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With Virus Spreading in Homes, U.S. Governors Run Out of Weapons

(Bloomberg) — Governors and mayors have cracked down on schools, restaurants, gyms, nursing homes, places of worship and much more. But enforcement is proving almost useless in Americans’ homes, where some leaders insist that hang-out culture is a major source of pandemic risk. California Governor Gavin Newsom is the latest to try: On Thursday, he declared regional stay-home orders whenever intensive-care unit availability drops below 15%. Earlier this week, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti ordered 4 million residents to stay indoors without visitors or face fines and imprisonment. And New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is running ads warning of “living-room spread” — infection via small gatherings in homes and other private spaces that he says account for 70% of new cases. That’s hard to confirm, though, in part because contact tracing, an effective public-health tool early in the pandemic, is no longer fully illuminating the path of the disease. Even before Wednesday, when Kentucky reached record cases and deaths, the 1,600-person tracing team was so overwhelmed that officials started asking residents to do the job themselves for lower-risk contacts. In Pennsylvania, only about 25% of people with the virus are cooperating with tracers; New Jersey is only slightly better, with about 30%. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government’s top infectious-disease doctor, told ABC News last week that small groups aren’t as prominent a danger as, say, crowded bars. And even proponents of the most extreme distancing — locking down with one’s housemates — acknowledge that strong encouragement or even legal orders carry only so much weight against constitutional rights. “There’s no amount of law enforcement in New Jersey or in any state in America that can effectively get inside everybody’s living room and ensure 100% compliance,” Governor Phil Murphy said Wednesday at a Trenton news conference. a man and a woman looking at the camera: A Latino Task Force Covid-19 Testing Site As California Reaches Record © Bloomberg A Latino Task Force Covid-19 T

\ In an era when many Americans consider even mask mandates an affront to liberty, opponents of Covid-19 restrictions have a powerful ally in the U.S. Supreme Court.. On Nov. 25, the justices ruled against Cuomo’s order to restrict the number of worshipers at religious ceremonies. Among the majority was Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whose confirmation in October gave conservatives a 6-to-3 majority on the court. And on Thursday, the court told a federal judge to re-examine assertions that California is infringing on religious rights by banning indoor worship services in most of the state. “Elected officials are in a very difficult situation, because they know that if they push too hard, it could lead to not just resistance, but possibly unrest,” said Dan Schnur, who teaches political communications at the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Southern California. “Their concern about that backlash ends up leading to further outbreaks.” And restriction backers look foolish when they don’t heed their own guidance. The French Laundry, the Michelin Guide-rated three-star Napa Valley restaurant, proved irresistible to Newsom and San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Democrats who attended group dinners there a day apart last month. Austin Mayor Steve Adler, another Democrat, warned residents to stay home — from a vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Democratic Mayor Sam Liccardo of San Jose was chastened when he gathered with relatives even though California officials had begged residents to skip Thanksgivings. “I understand my obligation as a public official to provide exemplary compliance with public health orders, and certainly not to ignore them,” Liccardo said in a press release. “I commit to do better.” And there are less initimate gatherings. In New Orleans, a swingers convention became a super-spreader event. In New York, officials have broken up several illicit parties where hundreds of revelers have gathered. In Chicago, authorities in Chicago’s Wicker Park neighborhood broke up a 300-person party on Nov. 29 whose attendees had failed to distance and wear face coverings. The city business affairs and consumer protection department also performed more than 90 investigations over that weekend amid a ban on indoor dining and large gatherings. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, is considering stay-at-home rules because people who aren’t taking precautions in public “have an outsize effect” on spread, he told reporters Tuesday, a day before Illinois reported a record 238 deaths. “We need people to comply.” In Colorado, Democratic Governor Jared Polis on April 27 replaced an early set of restrictions with what he called “Safer at Home” guidance on reopening for retail and personal services, offices and elective surgeries. Still, infection surged: On Oct. 25, two days after the state capped “personal gatherings” at 10 people from two households, Colorado reported more than 2,100 cases, a single-day record. The most recent seven-day average is 4,179 cases. On Saturday, Polis disclosed on Twitter that he and his partner, Marlon Reis, had tested positive, were isolating at home and “feeling well.” Keith Baker, a county commissioner in Colorado’s Chaffee County, said policy can do only so much to arrest the rise. “It really comes down to the public — like people in a lifeboat, working together, each doing his or her part, keeping each other’s morale and spirits up,” Baker said. In Pennsylvania, Health Secretary Rachel Levine on Thursday said several counties are approaching intensive-care unit capacity while daily deaths and cases have hit record highs. Modeling projects 22,000 new cases a day this month. Democratic Governor Tom Wolf has issued an advisory against household gatherings with outsiders. Rachel Kostelac, a spokeswoman for the health department, said law enforcement officers are authorized to issue warnings or citations to anyone who fails to comply with an updated masking order. In the end, authorities have little choice but to rely on residents. “In Pennsylvania and nationwide,” Kostelac said, “our biggest tool is for individuals to stay home unless absolutely necessary.”
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Pfizer Slashed Its Original Covid-19 Vaccine Rollout Target After Supply-Chain Obstacles

Pharma giant expects to ship half the doses it had originally planned after finding raw materials in early production didn’t meet its standards

 

Pfizer Inc. expects to ship half of the COVID-19 vaccines it originally planned for this year because of supply-chain problems, but still expects to roll out more than a billion doses in 2021. “Scaling up the raw material supply chain took longer than expected,” a company spokeswoman said. “And it’s important to highlight that the outcome of the clinical trial was somewhat later than the initial projection.” Pfizer and Germany-based partner BioNTech SE had hoped to roll out 100 million vaccines worldwide by the end of this year, a plan that has now been reduced to 50 million. The U.K. on Wednesday granted emergency-use authorization for the vaccine, becoming the first Western country to start administering doses. The two-shot vaccine also is being reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration in the U.S., where a similar authorization could come later this month and a rollout before the end of the year. The U.S. regulator also is considering a vaccine developed by Cambridge, Mass.-based Moderna Inc. that could begin shipping before Christmas.

The doses are among an array of vaccines that have been developed this year as the coronavirus pandemic has raged across much of the world. Authorities estimate nearly 1.5 million people worldwide have died from the virus, including 273,836 in the U.S. as of Dec. 2.

“We were late,” said a person directly involved in the development of the Pfizer vaccine. “Some early batches of the raw materials failed to meet the standards. We fixed it, but ran out of time to meet this year’s projected shipments.” Pfizer sources its raw materials from providers in the U.S. and Europe. Scaling up production of these components proved challenging last month as the company awaited the results of its trials, which came in to be 95% effective and well-tolerated in a 44,000-subject trial. Pfizer wouldn’t say where shortfalls over ingredients arose as it ramped up production. Vaccines typically contain materials from suppliers that can include antivirus agents, antiseptic liquids, sterile water and elements of the DNA of the virus itself that won’t cause serious symptoms but trigger the immune system to make antibodies. In a typical vaccination campaign, pharmaceutical companies would wait until their product is approved before buying raw materials, establishing manufacturing lines and setting up supply chains to ship a vaccine. Pfizer has never manufactured a vaccine with technology that uses mRNA, the molecular couriers that carry genetic instructions to cells in the human body, so it has had to scale up production capacity even as research was still under way. “For this one, everything happened simultaneously,” the person familiar with the Pfizer development said. “We started setting up the supply chain in March, while the vaccine was still being developed. That’s totally unprecedented.” Pfizer and BioNtech are now on track to roll out 1.3 billion vaccines in 2021 and the 50 million dose shortfall this year will be covered as production ramps up. The company is setting up what it has described as its biggest ever vaccination campaign through two final assembly and distribution centres in Kalamazoo, Mich., and Puurs, Belgium, which will handle the European supply. The U.K. authorization marks a milestone in the effort to develop a promising new vaccine technology into a widely available shot in record time.

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Compromise on stimulus within reach – McConnell

  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he sees “hopeful signs” for striking a coronavirus stimulus deal before the end of the year.
  • Democrats and Republicans in Congress have been scrambling to strike a pandemic relief deal before the end of the year.
  • After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer backed a bipartisan $908 billion stimulus package, while McConnell released his own roughly $500 billion plan.

  • Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday he has seen “hopeful signs” for striking a coronavirus stimulus deal before the end of the year.

    “Compromise is within reach. We know where we agree. We can do this,” the Kentucky Republican said on the Senate floor.

    Whether Democrats, who lead the House and can hold up any bill in the Senate, will accept McConnell’s vision of compromise remains to be seen. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., cut their aid demands Wednesday when they embraced a $908 billion bipartisan proposal as a starting point for talks with McConnell. Still, the GOP leader rejected the proposal when a bicameral group released it this week. He put forward his own roughly $500 billion plan. On Thursday, McConnell called for a deal similar to the one he unveiled. It includes Paycheck Protection Program loan funding and money for education and vaccine distribution. Democrats have backed those provisions.However, it includes one piece Democrats find toxic: Covid-19 liability protections for businesses and universities. Pelosi and Schumer have also repeatedly pushed for state and local government aid and supplemental federal unemployment payments, which McConnell’s plan does not include. Speaking on the Senate floor after his Republican counterpart, Schumer said McConnell “does not seem inclined to compromise.”

    A coronavirus infection surge and record hospitalizations have led to new economic restrictions and fears of a weakening job market. At the same time, protections for unemployed Americans, renters and federal student loan borrowers put in place earlier this year expire at the end of December.

    Congress has run short on time to send more help. Leaders have signaled they could attach relief measures to a government funding bill, which they need to approve by Dec. 11.

    Earlier Thursday, the No. 2 Senate Democrat called for a vote on the $908 billion package. “We don’t want to go home and face the reality of what’s going to happen at the end of this month,” Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois told MSNBC. “It’s inexcusable. We’ve got to move forward and we want our bill called,” he said. Durbin and President-elect Joe Biden have described the proposal as an imperfect down payment on stimulus as Democrats push for a sweeping aid package. Congressional leaders have acknowledged they will likely consider more relief after Biden takes office on Jan. 20. Some Republican senators have embraced little or no new stimulus spending, arguing that the economy has improved enough to sustain Americans until a large share of the population receives vaccines. Other GOP lawmakers say the federal government needs to offer more support at a time when more than 20 million Americans are receiving some form of unemployment benefits and food banks across the country see unprecedented demand. Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., who helped to craft the $908 billion plan on the House side, told CNBC earlier Thursday that the price tag “is right in the range of reason.”

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LA mayor announces city-wide lockdown

  • Los Angeles County confirmed 24 new deaths and 4,544 new cases on Friday
  • Officials banned most gatherings but stopped short of full shutdown on stores
  • Restrictions were brought on by average of 4,751 cases a day for last five days
  • Residents of nation’s most populous county are being urged to stay home
  • People are also not allowed to gather with those from outside their household
  • Exceptions are being made for church services and protests, officials said
  • Non-essential retail businesses could stay open, but at 20 per cent capacity
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CDC director warns the next few months could be ‘the most difficult in the public health history of this nation’

  • The next few months of the Covid-19 pandemic will be among “the most difficult in the public health history of this nation,” Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, said.
  • Redfield, speaking at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that about 90% of hospitals in the country are in “hot zones and the red zones.”
  • He added that 90% of long-term care facilities are in areas with high level of spread.

  • The next few months of the Covid-19 pandemic will be among “the most difficult in the public health history of this nation,” Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Wednesday. Redfield, speaking at an event hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said that about 90% of hospitals in the country are in “hot zones and the red zones.” He added that 90% of long-term care facilities are in areas with high level of spread. “So we are at a very critical time right now about being able to maintain the resilience of our health-care system,” Redfield said. “The reality is December and January and February are going to be rough times. I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that’s going to be put on our health-care system.”

    Redfield added that deaths caused by Covid-19 are already rising. He said the country is now in the range of reporting between 1,500 and 2,500 deaths everyday.

    The U.S. reported more than 1,500 deaths on Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. And Covid-19 hospitalizations stand at an all-time high 98,600 across the country, according to data from the Covid Tracking Project, which is run by journalists at The Atlantic. Epidemiologists, emergency room physicians and public health specialists have warned for weeks that the latest surge of the virus could prove to be the deadliest yet. “The mortality concerns are real,” Redfield said. “And I do think unfortunately, before we see February, we could be close to 450,000 Americans [who] have died from this virus.” However, Redfield noted that the country has the tools it needs to reduce the severity of the outbreak. He advocated for the strategic closure of certain parts of society, such as indoor bars and restaurants. Redfield said he was “disappointed” when New York City briefly closed all of its public schools last month, adding that they do not appear to drive spread of the virus. He also pointed to university and college campuses, where he said outbreaks have been largely avoided through the strategic deployment of surveillance testing combined with infection prevention measures like mask wearing. “I used to think that the most difficult group that we were going to have to help contain this was basically college students,” Redfield said. “But what happened over the summer and the fall, is many of the colleges and universities really stepped up to developing comprehensive mitigation steps.” One factor that makes this virus so dangerous, Redfield said, is that it spreads largely through people who don’t have symptoms, or spreads before patients develop symptoms. That makes it difficult to control what he called “the silent epidemic” without testing broadly throughout the population, including people without symptoms but who might have been exposed to the virus. The CDC is working on guidance for institutions and workplaces that will help them strategically deploy testing, he said. Another bright spot, Redfield said, is that promising vaccines are on the way, but mitigation measures will still be necessary well into next year. He predicted that the country won’t be able to return to holding large gatherings until the fall of 2021. There are many lessons to be learned from the pandemic, Redfield said, adding that “I wasn’t prepared to understand how little investment had been made in the core capabilities of public health.” He said there has been inadequate investment in the public health labs around the country that process many diagnostic tests and in the digitization of public health records, which hindered the federal government’s response to the pandemic. “There’s a huge lack of investment, which I hope this pandemic will change,” he said. Redfield estimated the health crisis has cost the U.S. at least $8 trillion. “Probably one of our greatest casualties of the pandemic this year was the impact on the business community, and on just general health care, the impact on our children’s education.”

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S&P 500 Claws Back Losses to End at Record High on Stimulus Hopes

Investing.com – The S&P 500 closed at a record high Wednesday, as renewed optimism over a stimulus relief package and ongoing positive news on Pfizer ‘s Covid-19 vaccine lifted investor sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.20%, or 60 points. The S&P 500 was up 0.20% higher, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.05%.

In a boost to hopes that lawmakers may roll out a fiscal package to support the economy U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer backed the bipartisan $908 billion stimulus deal that includes support for small businesses and unemployed Americans. The deal should be used “as the basis for immediate negotiations,” Pelosi and Schumer said in a joint statement.

The positive update on stimulus arrived on the back of positive vaccine news after the U.K. approved temporary emergency use authorization for Pfizer (NYSE:PFE)’s and development partner BioNTech (NASDAQ:BNTX)’s vaccine. Approval from the U.S. is not far behind, with many expecting the Pfizer vaccine to get approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before year-end. Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA), meanwhile, is expected to begin trials of its Covid-19 vaccine in children aged 12 to 18, The New York Times reported. Renewed action on the value trade in the wake of positive vaccine news – bullish bets on stocks tied to the progress of the economy– also benefited cruise lines, casinos, and airlines. As well as vaccine optimism, positive comments on a stimulus for the aviation industry lifted sentiment on the sector. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday he supported another $20 billion in additional government payroll support for U.S. airlines. “I think that would be very meaningful in terms of employment and saving the industry,” Mnuchin said at a House hearing, according to Reuters. American Airlines Group (NASDAQ:AAL) and United Airlines (NASDAQ:UAL) were up more than 4% and 3%, respectively. On the economic front, a weaker-than-expected private sector jobs report for November was largely downplayed by analysts. “The ADP employment report showed a 307,00 increase in private employment below our forecast of 750,000… but it also showed that the “broad-based job gains across firm size continued,” Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) said in a note.

 

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Merck divests direct holding in Moderna

(Reuters) – U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co said on Wednesday it had sold its equity investment in vaccine developer Moderna Inc. Merck said it had achieved a substantial gain on its direct holding in Moderna, particularly this year, as the company moved closer to developing a coronavirus vaccine. Merck did not disclose the details of the sale proceeds, but said it expects to record a small gain from the sale in the fourth quarter of 2020. Moderna’s shares have risen more than seven-fold this year, valuing the company at $55.80 billion as of Tuesday’s closing price. Moderna is one of the front-runners in the race to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and on Monday filed for U.S. emergency use authorization of its vaccine. Merck, which had invested $50 million in Moderna in 2015, said it would retain exposure to the company indirectly through its investment in venture funds.