Obesity patients at Juan Manuel Esparza Luna’s clinic in Chihuahua, Mexico, have options to slim down, with access to Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co.’s blockbuster shots. But many leave his office with prescriptions for older, less effective therapies for one reason: cost. Luna tries to make treatment more affordable. Sometimes he combines low doses of Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound with ...
Obesity patients at Juan Manuel Esparza Luna’s clinic in Chihuahua, Mexico, have options to slim down, with access to Novo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co.’s blockbuster shots. But many leave his office with prescriptions for older, less effective therapies for one reason: cost. Luna tries to make treatment more affordable. Sometimes he combines low doses of Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound with older stimulants like phentermine, or stretches out the time patients stay on the cheapest doses. “You have to think of the economic situation of your patients,” he said. “It’s very expensive.” Change is coming, however. After facing off in the US in a rivalry that made powerful GLP-1 drugs ubiquitous and more affordable, Novo and Lilly are now looking elsewhere for growth. The shift will make the newest obesity medicines more accessible to Luna’s patients and millions of others. Lilly’s global bet hinges on a new pill called Foundayo. The US company has sought approval for the medicine in 40 countries and plans to flood the market, Ken Custer, the company’s chief of cardiometabolic health, said recently at the biggest international conference for obesity medicine. “Obviously the US is an important market, and we will compete there,” Custer said. “But it’s also time to expand our thinking, and think about global population health. That’s what a medicine like this can do.” Novo has a pill too — an oral version of Wegovy that goes by the same name. The drugmaker introduced the product in the United Arab Emirates this week after winning its first clearance outside the US. It’s also on track for approval in Europe. The Danish company’s approach to international launches is more gradual than Lilly’s and less focused on oral medicine. Novo will move into new markets only when it’s certain it can meet demand there, according to Emil Kongshoj Larsen, the head of international operations. “There will be no half-measures,” Larsen said. “So we go all-in, in every single country that w...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Friday said robotics will be South Korea's next major sector, as he arrived for his second visit in seven months, underscoring deepening ties with local firms in not only chips but also robotics and AI factories. "Because Korea is a manufacturing centre of the world, we can apply the robotics technology, the physical AI technology that we invent here for the industry,"...
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on Friday said robotics will be South Korea's next major sector, as he arrived for his second visit in seven months, underscoring deepening ties with local firms in not only chips but also robotics and AI factories. "Because Korea is a manufacturing centre of the world, we can apply the robotics technology, the physical AI technology that we invent here for the industry," he told reporters after landing at Gimpo International Airport on a flight from Taiwan. South Korea is a key Asian manufacturing powerhouse - home to major manufacturers of chips, electronics, cars and ships.
Hi, this is Allen Wan from Hangzhou. It’s put up or shut up time for China’s robotics industry. With humanoid robot maker Unitree poised to kick off a wave of robotics-related companies listing on stock exchanges, investors will no longer be content with androids running marathons or duking it out in a boxing ring. They’ll want proof of concept. That means these companies will need to show that au...
Hi, this is Allen Wan from Hangzhou. It’s put up or shut up time for China’s robotics industry. With humanoid robot maker Unitree poised to kick off a wave of robotics-related companies listing on stock exchanges, investors will no longer be content with androids running marathons or duking it out in a boxing ring. They’ll want proof of concept. That means these companies will need to show that automatons can do more than entertain and get to work on tasks like cooking and cleaning or turning a screw without human help. Providing care for, say, the elderly in China’s rapidly aging society would be one of the ultimate prizes. I recently toured Hangzhou, the start-up hub just a short train ride from Shanghai to check out two of its “Six Dragons.” That’s the nickname for the mostly AI and robotics-related firms that have gotten much attention for their ground-breaking tech. Along with other reporters on a government-sponsored trip, I visited humanoid robot maker Unitree and brain-computer interface pioneer BrainCo. A visit to the other dragons — DeepSeek, Deep Robotics, Game Science and Manycore Tech — will hopefully happen another day. Unitree, which recently won approval for a listing in Shanghai, seems to have gotten the message on the viability of its wares. In addition to showcasing kung fu fighting robots like the ones that made a splash a while back on a big New Year’s show, its massive showroom featured a worker teaching a humanoid how to pick up and neatly fold clothes. Now, that is a mundane task many of us would happily hand a robot. Nearby was a kitchen display in which a robot was picking up fruit with its fingers by mirroring the moves of a trainer. These demonstrations seem to show that Chinese robotics firms are making some strides in solving what some people like Elon Musk have called “the hands problem”: the inability of machines to do what humans do so dexterously with their fingers. And the holy grail would be to develop a brain that, to a degree, l...
The new head of Indonesia’s free meals agency will refocus the mission of President Prabowo Subianto ’s flagship $15 billion program engulfed in a corruption scandal with an eye on budget efficiency and scaled-down plans. The National Nutrition Agency aims to spend less than the 268 trillion rupiah ($14.9 billion) budgeted for this year by focusing on remote regions, the program’s newly appointed ...
The new head of Indonesia’s free meals agency will refocus the mission of President Prabowo Subianto ’s flagship $15 billion program engulfed in a corruption scandal with an eye on budget efficiency and scaled-down plans. The National Nutrition Agency aims to spend less than the 268 trillion rupiah ($14.9 billion) budgeted for this year by focusing on remote regions, the program’s newly appointed leader Nanik S. Deyang said at an introductory briefing alongside two new deputies in Jakarta on Thursday. She replaced Dadan Hindayana, named this week as a key suspect in a corruption investigation a day after Prabowo fired him and two deputies. The two deputies were also named as corruption suspects. Read More: Prabowo Warns Over Graft as $15 Billion Food Program Probed “We will improve the quality so we might not chase the target of reaching 82.9 million recipients, but instead focus on how can these kitchens provide healthy, nutritious food,” Deyang said. Prabowo abruptly dismissed the three officials Tuesday night, citing performance issues such as food poisoning and operational challenges. By Wednesday morning, prosecutors had conducted a search of the agency’s office. Hindayana and the two others are suspected of corruption related to alleged irregularities in the management of the free nutritious meals program in 2025-2026, Syarief Sulaeman Nahdi, director of Investigations at the Special Crimes Unit of Indonesia’s Attorney General’s Office, said at a briefing Wednesday. Deyang’s directions signal a departure from Hindayana’s expansive roll-out of the program that included the possibility of providing free meals to the children of Indonesian migrant workers in Saudi Arabia. Deyang announced a “moratorium” on new free meal kitchens as the agency tightens the screening process of applicants. The program will promote the use of existing facilities such as school canteens instead of building new kitchens, she said. The agency will also explore alternative funding sourc...
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"Bloomberg: The Asia Trade" brings you everything you need to know to get ahead as the trading day begins in Asia. Bloomberg TV is live from Tokyo and Sydney with Shery Ahn and Haidi Stroud-Watts, getting insight and analysis from newsmakers and industry leaders on the biggest stories shaping global markets. (Source: Bloomberg)