The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending February 16, 2024, closed at 3,582.66 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was up 0.64% (or 22.87 basis points). Fourteen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.22% (Pfizer) to 5.66% (Eli Lilly & Co.) Eleven RDWI members lost value the previous week from -0.09% (Roche Holdings AG) to -5.69% (Alphabet/Google).

RDW Index member Google, Mountain View, California, announced last week that it will open an AI research hub in Paris and host more than 300 researchers. Amazon, a major player in the AI research field, has research teams based in several locations in Germany and the U.K. Meta Platforms (Facebook), Menlo Park, California, also has had an AI research team based in Paris since 2015.

Safer Human Medicine Inc., Boston, announced last week that it plans to build a monkey-breeding facility in Bainbridge, Georgia. The 200-acre complex will house up to 30,000 long-tailed macaques in vast barn-like structures. The animals will then be sent to universities and pharmaceutical companies for medical research. The $396-million facility will house the macaques in highly secure conditions, not spread disease in the local area, and will be fed fresh local produce. The construction and development of the facility faces strong opposition from animal rights and local groups. About 70,000 primates a year are used across the U.S. in tests for treatments of infectious diseases, aging, and neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s.

Semiconductor chip maker Renesas Electronics, Tokyo, announced last week that it will purchase software developer and printed circuit board specialist Altium, Sydney, Australia, for $5.91 billion. Renesas said that integrating Altium would help simplify complex electronics-system design processes for engineers.

A report in the Wall Street Journal last week noted that fast-evolving AI is now threatening white-collar jobs. Generative AI could soon upend a much larger share of white-collar jobs, including middle- and high-level managers, according to company consultants and executives interviewed by the newspaper. According to the report, Generative AI has the power to create content and synthesize ideas — the work scores of workers now do behind computers, including managerial roles, according to the report. This technology will revamp and replace work now done up and down most all corporate ladders, says the report. AI will also augment and elevate some white-collar roles, giving employees and managers the means to do more meaningful work.

Biopharmaceutical Gilead Sciences, Foster City, California, announced last week its purchase of CymaBay Therapeutics, Newark, California, for $4.3 billion. CymaBay is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company whose lead product candidate focuses on chronic and progressive liver diseases, a specialized target area for Gilead. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently granted a priority review to CymaBay’s application for its liver treatments. The FDA only grants priority reviews to medicines that have the potential to provide significant improvements in the treatments of serious diseases.

Diamondback Energy and Endeavor Energy, both large oil and gas companies in Midland, Texas, were noted last week as finalizing a merger to make them a $50 billion conglomerate. According to analysts, striking a deal for Endeavor, Diamondback fended off competition from ConocoPhillips and other big companies. Each of the companies is valued around $25 to $27 billion. Combining the companies would grant the combined company top-tier status in the Permian Basin oil field, which straddles the border between West Texas and New Mexico. Endeavor’s inventory is the largest of top-tier oil acreage of any private Permian company and one of the most active producers in the region.

China’s largest electric vehicle (EV) maker, BYD, Shenzhen, China, was reportedly considering Mexico in its quest to expand EV production toward North America. BYD is looking to avoid the 27.5% tariff for Chinese EVs imported directly into the U.S. by assembling them in Mexico. BYD has a cost advantage over U.S. EV makers due to lower labor and materials costs. BYD could also use a Mexican plant as a base to ship its products to South America or send batteries to U.S. car makers. BYD sells electric buses and trucks in North America made at its manufacturing site in Lancaster, California.

RDW Index member VW, Wolfsburg, Germany, was noted in reports last week as considering pulling out of its joint venture in the Xinjiang region of China due to geopolitical tensions linking the German carmaker with China’s alleged persecution of the Uyghur minorities in Xinjiang. VW said it had entered talks with its joint venture partner there regarding the business’s future.

U.S.-based aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney (PW), East Hartford, Connecticut, announced last week that it has established an R&D center in Bengaluru, India, to accelerate innovation and drive digital and business transformation for its global operations. The company is currently recruiting the first batch of researchers. By 2027, the company expects the center to have more than 300 researchers. The India Digital Capability Center will be co-located with PW’s engineering and supply chain operations center. The new center will facilitate close collaboration with other India-based organizations with PW’s parent company RTX — Raytheon and Collins Aerospace. PW says it has sourced more than $500 million from aerospace suppliers in India over the past 20 years.

 

R&D World’s R&D Index is a weekly stock market summary of the top international companies involved in R&D. The top 25 industrial R&D spenders in 2020 were selected based on the latest listings from Schonfeld & Associates’ June 2020 R&D Ratios & Budgets. These 25 companies include pharmaceutical (10 companies), automotive (6 companies), and ICT (9 companies), which invested a cumulative total of nearly 260 billion dollars in R&D in 2019, or approximately 10% of all the R&D spent in the world by government, industries and academia combined, according to R&D World’s 2021 Global R&D Funding Forecast. The stock prices used in the R&D World Index are tabulated from NASDAQ, NYSE, and OTC stock prices for the companies selected at the close of stock trading business on the Friday preceding the online publication of the R&D World Index.