Tag Archives: Healthcare/Life Sciences

Health

Delta Covid-19 Variant Gains Ground Among the Unvaccinated

Leave a comment

At Cheyenne Regional Medical Center in Wyoming, health workers didn’t need genomic sequencing to tell them the highly contagious Delta variant had arrived.

Younger patients started coming in about two months ago with symptoms of Covid-19. Many progressed from mild illness to respiratory distress more quickly than patients treated earlier in the pandemic, said Sodienye Tetenta, a critical-care physician at the hospital. Nearly all were unvaccinated.

“We could see that this was not the Covid of last year,” Dr. Tetenta said.

The Delta variant is hardening a divide between people who are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 and those who aren’t, prompting hospitals to brace for new case surges and health authorities to redouble vaccination efforts. Now the most common strain in the U.S., Delta is spreading as public life resumes at restaurants, sporting events and other public settings across the country.

Infections from the Delta strain contributed to a 10% rise in daily Covid-19 cases to around 12,600 late last month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday. That is still a 95% drop from peak levels in the U.S. in January. And hospital admissions tied to Covid-19 dropped 1% from a week earlier, the CDC said. Vaccines available in the U.S. protect against the Delta variant, studies have shown, and cases of breakthrough infection in the fully vaccinated appear to rarely result in severe illness.

Read original article here

Health

Pfizer Vaccine Less Effective Against Delta Infections but Prevents Severe Illness, Israeli Data Show

Leave a comment

TEL AVIV—Data from Israel suggests Pfizer Inc.’s vaccine is less effective at protecting against infections caused by the Delta variant of Covid-19 but retains its potency to prevent severe illness from the highly contagious strain.

The vaccine protected 64% of inoculated people from infection during an outbreak of the Delta variant, down from 94% before, according to Israel’s Health Ministry. It was 94% effective at preventing severe illness in the same period, compared with 97% before, the ministry said.

An Israeli official said Tuesday the health ministry findings released a day earlier were preliminary and based on data collected from June 6 through early July. The ministry didn’t release its methodology or the data on which its findings were based.

A spokesman for Pfizer said he couldn’t comment on an unpublished survey, but pointed to a recent study that showed the vaccine continued to offer protection against new variants.

The findings came as new cases of Covid-19 in Israel rose to a seven-day average of 300 on Tuesday from around 10 a day for most of last month. To prevent another surge in infections, the government late last month reimposed an indoor mask requirement and other measures after finding that about 90% of the new infections were likely caused by the Delta variant. Israel’s total population is around 9.3 million.

Read original article here

Business

Krispy Kreme Stock Gains Nearly 24% in IPO

Leave a comment

Text size

Doughnuts on a production line inside a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts store in Times Square in Manhattan.


Angus Mordant/Bloomberg


Krispy Kreme

led a group of six companies to the public markets on Thursday.

Besides the doughnut chain,

Acumen Pharmaceuticals,


D-MARKET Electronic Services & Trading,


Evercommerce,


Torrid Holdings,

and the

Glimpse Group

made their stock-market debuts.

So far this week, 17 companies, including those six, have listed their shares. There are no initial public offerings on tap for Friday because of the holiday weekend. On Wednesday, 10 companies went public, with

Didi Global,

the Uber of China, trading flat and closing at $14.14, 14 cents above its offering price.

On Thursday, Acumen Pharmaceuticals (ticker: ABOS) was one of the first to begin trading. The stock opened at $25.07 and closed at $20.10, up nearly 26% from the offering price.

The solid performance came after Acumen increased the size of its deal by nearly 20%. The biotech company, which is developing therapies to treat Alzheimer’s disease, collected about $160 million. It sold roughly 10 million shares at $16, the top of its $14-to-$16 range.

The Glimpse Group (VRAR), which develops and commercializes virtual and augmented reality software products, also opened. Shares kicked off at $11.75 and ended at $17.66, up 152% from its offer price. Glimpse delivered Thursday’s smallest deal. The company collected $12.3 million, after selling 1.75 million shares at $7, the midpoint of its $6-to-$8 price range.

Torrid Holdings (CURV) shares rose 15% from the offer price to close at $24.15. The direct-to-consumer retailer of plus-sized women’s clothes increased the size of its deal twice. It filed to offer 8 million shares at $18 to $21, which it boosted Wednesday to 10 million. It ended up selling 11 million shares at $21, the top of its expected range, raising $231 million. Sycamore Partners, the retail-focused private-equity firm, will own nearly 76% of Torrid after the IPO. 

Krispy Kreme (DNUT), the most well-known of Thursday’s group, kicked off at $16.30 and ended at $21, up nearly 24% from the offer price. The doughnut chain increased the size of its deal by 10% but priced it well below its expected range to raise $500 million. Krispy Kreme had planned to offer 26.7 million shares at $21 to $24 each, but ended up selling 29.4 million shares at $17 each. JAB Holding, the European investment firm, will own about 39% of Krispy Kreme after the IPO

D-Market Electronic Services & Trading, or Hepsiburada (HEPS), jumped nearly 12% from its offer price to close at $13.43. Hepsiburada, which means “you can find anything you want here” in Turkish, is a leading e-commerce platform from Istanbul. The company raised $680 million after selling 56,740,000 American depositary shares at $12 each, the midpoint of its $11-to-$13 price range. Each ADS represents one class B ordinary share.

Lastly, EverCommerce (EVCM) stock opened at $20, but slipped back to close nearly 4% above its offer price at $17.60. EverCommerce’s IPO came in at $325 million after the comp[any sold 19.1 million shares at $17, the middle of its $16-to-$18 range. The company provides software for small and midsize service businesses.

Write to luisa.beltran@barrons.com

Read original article here

Business

Krispy Kreme and 5 Other IPOs to Begin Trading

Leave a comment

Text size

Doughnuts on a production line inside a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts store in Times Square in Manhattan.


Angus Mordant/Bloomberg


Krispy Kreme

is leading a group of six companies to the public markets on Thursday.

Besides the doughnut chain,

Acumen Pharmaceuticals,


D-MARKET Electronic Services & Trading,


Evercommerce,


Torrid Holdings,

and the

Glimpse Group

opened for trading.

So far this week, 17 companies, including the current six, have listed their shares. There are no initial public offerings on tap for Friday because of the holiday weekend. On Wednesday, 10 companies went public, with

Didi Global,

the Uber of China, trading flat and closing at $14.14, 14 cents above its offering price.

On Thursday, Acumen Pharmaceuticals (ticker: ABOS) was one of the first to begin trading. The stock opened at $25.07, hit a high of $26.98, and recently changed hands in afternoon trading at $20.98, up 31% from the offering price.

The solid performance came after Acumen increased the size of its deal by nearly 20%. The biotech company, which is developing therapies to treat Alzheimer’s disease, collected about $160 million. It sold roughly 10 million shares at $16, the top of its $14-to-$16 range.

The Glimpse Group (VRAR), which develops and commercializes virtual and augmented reality software products, also opened. Shares kicked off at $11.75, peaked at $16.44, and recently traded at $12.95, up nearly 85%. Glimpse delivered Thursday’s smallest deal. The company collected $12.3 million, after selling 1.75 million shares at $7, the midpoint of its $6-to-$8 price range.

Torrid Holdings (CURV) began trading, with shares rising 15% from its offering price to $24.18 in afternoon trading. The plus-size, direct-to-consumer women’s retailer increased the size of its deal twice. It filed to offer 8 million shares at $18 to $21, which it boosted Wednesday to 10 million. It ended up selling 11 million shares at $21, the top of its expected range, raising $231 million. Sycamore Partners, the retail-focused private-equity firm, will own nearly 76% of Torrid after the IPO. 

Krispy Kreme (DNUT), the most well-known of Thursday’s group, kicked off at $16.30, peaked at $20.17 and recently changed hands at $19.57, up 15% from the offer price. The doughnut chain increased the size of its deal by 10% but priced well below its expected range to raise $500 million. Krispy Kreme had planned to offer 26.7 million shares at $21 to $24 each, but ended up selling 29.4 million shares at $17 each. JAB Holding, the European investment firm, will own about 39% of Krispy Kreme after the IPO

D-Market Electronic Services & Trading, or Hepsiburada (HEPS), jumped 8% from its offer price and is trading at $13. Hepsiburada, which means “you can find anything you want here” in Turkish, is a leading e-commerce platform from Istanbul. The company raised $680 million after selling 56,740,000 American depositary shares at $12 each, the midpoint of its $11-to-$13 price range. Each ADS represents one class B ordinary share.

Lastly, Evercommerce (EVCM) also began trading. The stock opened at $20, hit a high of $21 and recently changed hands at $17.46, up nearly 3% from the offer price. Evercommerce’s IPO came in at $325 million after selling 19.1 million shares at $17, the middle of its $16-to-$18 range. The company provides SaaS software for small and midsize service businesses.

Write to luisa.beltran@barrons.com

Read original article here