The R&D World Index (RDWI) for the week ending March 29, 2024, closed at 3,681.55 for the 25 companies in the RDWI. The Index was down -0.13% (or -4.67 basis points).
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Eighteen RDWI members gained value last week from 0.06% (IBM) to 6.54% (Merck & Co.). Seven RDWI members lost value last week from -0.46% (Apple) to -4.71% (Meta Platforms – formerly Facebook).
RDW Index member Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, New Jersey, announced last week that it was in talks to acquire Shockwave Medical, Santa Clara, California. Shockwave makes medical devices that treat cardiovascular diseases, having a market value of about $12 billion. Shockwave noted that it has a projected 2024 revenue of about $920 million, roughly 27% more than it had in 2023.
SK Hynix, Icheon, South Korea, announced last week that it plans to invest about $4 billion to build an advanced semiconductor chip-packaging facility in West Lafayette, Indiana. This location is close to Purdue University, which has one of the U.S.’s largest semiconductor and microelectronics engineering programs. The SK plant is expected to create up to 1,000 new jobs. A mix of state and federal tax incentives and other support are expected to be made available to help finance the project. SK Hynix is one of the world’s largest chip makers by revenue for its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) device products. SK Hynix is also the exclusive partner of Nvidia’s most advanced graphic processor units. These two chips get bundled together, enabling faster data processing speeds critical to generative AI tools, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT. SK Hynix has about 73% of the HBM market by memory gigabytes.
Baidu, Beijing, China, announced last week it was set to be Apple’s local generative AI model provider for the iPhone 16, the Mac computer operating system, and the upcoming mobile operating system iOS 18. China’s regulators must approve generative AI models before they are launched to the public. Chinese regulators have already approved 40 models, including Baidu’s ErnieBot. Competitors in this area, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, and Google’s Gemini are not available in China, giving Baidu a market uptick, especially when combined with its relationship with Apple.
China filed a complaint last week at the World Trade Organization (WTO), Geneva, Switzerland, over the U.S.’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), stating that it was discriminatory and distorted fair competition. China’s Ministry of Commerce will use the WTO’s dispute-settlement mechanism to challenge U.S. electric vehicle (EV) subsidies. Under the IRA, consumers in the U.S. won’t be able to claim a $7,500 clean vehicle tax credit if they buy EVs containing battery components from a foreign entity of concern starting in 2024.
The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) — part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), distributing more than $40 billion in research funds — is looking to change the process of research misconduct investigations. ORI oversees research on the biology and treatment of disease, funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health. At the National Science Foundation and NASA, research misconduct is overseen by the agencies’ inspector general. Several major universities, including MIT, Harvard Medical School, and the University of Illinois — Urbana-Champaign and others, are objecting to any oversight changes by the ORI, stating that their internal processes for misconduct are adequate and changes would stifle academic inquiry and sow distrust among researchers.
Novo Nordisk, Bagsvaerd, Denmark, announced last week that it is buying Cardior Pharmaceuticals, Hanover, Germany, for $1.1 billion. The Danish pharma plans to expand its portfolio to include cardiovascular and emerging therapy areas. Cardior focuses on developing RNA-targeting therapies that prevent, repair, and reverse heart diseases. Novo Nordisk has had substantial success with its Wegovy and Ozempic obesity and diabetes treatments, yielding benefits such as cutting the risk of stroke and heart attacks.
Blackstone Life Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, announced last week that it’s investing up to $750 million in influenza vaccine R&D by Moderna, Cambridge, in a deal that gives the private equity firm rights to future payments and royalties. Moderna has advanced an mRNA-based flu shot into late-stage clinical testing and is also studying a combination flu and COVID-19 vaccine, which is part of a broad R&D strategy to follow the success of its standalone COVID shot. Moderna expects to submit the flu shot for regulatory approval later this year.
Sonoma Biotherapeutics, South San Francisco, California, opened its new R&D center and office space on Seattle, Washington’s waterfront last week. The company also has a second location with more than 80,000 ft2 in South San Francisco. Sonoma is focused on treating autoimmune and inflammatory diseases in which a person’s immune system over-responds and attacks the wrong cells. It’s pursuing treatments that use regulatory T cells to protect the cells under attack. The new R&D lab is designed for flexibility and is ready to accommodate new devices.
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) that invested a cumulative total of nearly 260 billion dollars in R&D in 2019, or approximately 10% of all the R&D spending 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 common 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.
