It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Conclusion
The biggest players in the fund industry are often vilified as having too much power and failing to act in the best interests of their shareholders. But as the results above show, the largest funds and fund families have created significant value where it counts: by increasing dollar value for shareholders.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/07/health/aduhelm-medicare-alzheimers.htmlThe decision [was] extremely unusual for Medicare, which almost always automatically pays for drugs that the F.D.A. has approved, at least for the medical conditions designated on labels.
To quote a old time radio broadcaster, "now, the rest of the story ..." Aside from serious questions about the drug's efficacy,Here and Now broadcast a worthwhile report on Biogen and Aduhelm, the Alzheimer’s drug.
https://www.wbur.org/news/2021/12/10/biogen-aduhelm-reckoning-alzheimers-drug
It’s not surprising that the whole biotech sector is under pressure when one its guiding lights really screws up. The report talks of 1000 layoffs at Biogen and great disruption. There’s a link in the report to an in depth published article on the debacle in STAT.
The Times reported on Sunday that a large chunk of the contemplated increase in Medicare Part B premiums is due to the projected cost of this new drug, which according to many, does not work.
Biogen had licensed Aduhelm from Neurimmune (Swiss). With recent revenues from the drug so small that Biogen isn't even reporting them, and with Medicare paying for the drug only in clinical trials, Biogen is about to let its license lapse.One F.D.A. adviser called the approval of the drug perhaps “the worst approval decision that the F.D.A. has made that I can remember.” A congressional inquiry later found that the F.D.A.’s process for approving Aduhelm had been “rife with irregularities” and involved “lapses in protocol,” including unusually close collaboration with Biogen.
Conclusion
The biggest value destroyers in the fund industry illustrate that there’s no guarantee of success, even during a generally favorable market environment. Many of them also provide a valuable case study in how not to invest. (As Charlie Munger was fond of saying: “Invert, always invert.”) Investors have been far better served by the plain-vanilla fund categories that dominated the winners list, such as large-cap blend, allocation—50% to 70% equity, and foreign large blend. They’ve also generally fared well by sticking with the industry’s biggest and most established fund families. Volatile and speculative categories—as well as unproven fund shops that attract a lot of short-term hype—on the other hand, are best avoided.
Hmm, I would be very surprised! The FED was very late on addressing interest rates to curb inflation. But now it would be an even bigger mistake keeping them high for an extended period.Hunch: I'm expecting nothing in the way of cuts until 2025.
That would not surprise me.Hunch: I'm expecting nothing in the way of cuts until 2025.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved.
© 2015 Mutual Fund Observer. All rights reserved. Powered by Vanilla