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One of the most vital drugs with a high price tag will get dramatically more affordable next year if you live in California. California will start selling insulin next year after striking out on its own in a bold deal to lower the cost of prescription drugs, making it the first state in the nation to do so. The state will offer low-cost insulin through CalRx, a state program designed to provide affordable life-saving drugs in California. California didnt wait for the pharmaceutical industry to do the right thing we took matters into our own hands, California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a press release. … No Californian should ever have to ration insulin or go into debt to stay alive and I wont stop until health care costs are crushed for everyone. Through the California program, insulin will be available starting in 2026 to state pharmacies for $45 for a five pack of insulin pens, with a suggested retail price of $55. The drug will be available to everyone at the set price, regardless of their insurance plan. Production of the drug will be handled by nonprofit pharmaceutical company Civica Rx through a $50 million deal the state struck in 2023. The partnership will eventually produce three forms of insulin, equivalent to namebrands Lantus, Humalog, and Novolog. The program is starting with glargine, a generic version of the drug Lantus, which will be available in January. The CalRx insulin will be produced at Civicas manufacturing plant in Virginia. CalRx was first announced in 2019 as an executive order and later signed into law as the California Affordable Drug Manufacturing Act of 2020. Prior to the insulin news, CalRx successfully drove down the cost of Naloxone, which can reverse opioid overdoses, selling twin packs of the drug for $22.50 over the counter. Cost of insulin as a political issue The price of insulin comes frequently in politics, whether as a political bargaining chip or a campaign promise. Thats because in the U.S., the life-saving drug is astronomically expensive compared to how much it costs diabetes patients in other countries around the world. While insulin is cheap to manufacture, costing only around $4 per vial, it can wind up costing consumers hundreds of dollars every time they fill their prescription. That high cost can lead people with diabetes to skip and ration their doses, putting their health at serious risk in the process. After hitting historic highs, the price of insulin in the U.S. is finally coming down. Legislation and executive action over the past five years have put a cap on the cost of insulin for Medicare enrollees. The big three manufacturers have also made their own price cuts, extracting less profit from the life-saving drugs as national frustration and regulation targeting high insulin costs became impossible to ignore. States band together on health policy Blue states are going their own way more during the second Trump administration, pooling their economic power and shared vision to set policies. Californias good news on insulin pricing comes one day after the state announced that it would join a first-of-its-kind coalition bringing together blue states on public health policy. The initiative, known as the Governors Public Health Alliance, aims to provide science-backed alternative public health policies to those set by the federal government under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. California will join Washington, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York, Oregon, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Colorado, Illinois, North Carolina and Guam. California is proud to help launch this new alliance because the American people deserve a public health system that puts science before politics, Newsom said in the announcement. As extremists try to weaponize the CDC and spread misinformation, were stepping up to coordinate across states, protect communities, and ensure decisions are driven by data, facts, and the health of the American people.
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Want more housing market stories from Lance Lamberts ResiClub in your inbox? Subscribe to the ResiClub newsletter. Speaking Tuesday at the National Association for Business Economics meeting in Philadelphia, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell offered his clearest reflection yet on the Feds pandemic-era mortgage bond buying. He acknowledged that the central bank may have kept purchasing mortgage-backed securities (MBS) for too longbut he also suggested that those purchases may have had a smaller effect on the housing markets trajectory than some assume. Regarding the composition of our purchases, some have questioned the inclusion of agency MBS purchases given the strong housing market during the pandemic recovery,” Powell said. “The extent to which these MBS purchases disproportionately affected housing market conditions during this period is challenging to determine. Many factors affect the mortgage market, and many factors beyond the mortgage market affect supply and demand in the broader housing market. With the clarity of hindsight, we could haveand perhaps should havestopped asset purchases sooner,” Powell continued. “Our real-time decisions [in 2020-2021] were intended to serve as insurance against downside [economic] risks [following the pandemic]. From 2020 through 2021, the Fed was purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Treasuries and MBS. Those actionspart of its quantitative easing (QE) programwere designed, in theory, to lower long-term borrowing costs and support financial stability at a time when the policy short-term rate was also pinned near 0%. When the Fed buys long-term bonds like Treasuries or MBS, it creates extra demand for those securities. When bond prices risesay for MBSthen the yieldsor mortgage rates for MBSfall. They move inversely. Critics have argued that those MBS purchases added unnecessary fuel to a housing market already running red-hot during the Pandemic Housing Boom. They contend that by continuing to buy MBS deep into 2021, the Fed artificially suppressed mortgage rateswith the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate hitting an all-time low of 2.65% in January 2021and helped intensify competition among buyers, worsening affordability. Powells comments on Tuesday acknowledged, to a small degree, an element of that critique, but also suggested that the actual impact may have been smaller than many assume. He appeared to imply that other powerful factorssuch as the pandemic-era surge in demand for more space, the unlocked WFH arbitrage (including the domestic migration wave it triggered), and pandemic-era savingswere also at play. Of course, Powell has repeatedly stated that he simply believes there arent enough homes in the country. While the Fed cant undo its 2021 asset purchases, Powell acknowledged that, going forward, the central bank could be more nimble in adjusting its balance sheethinting that future QE programs might be shorter or more targeted. Stopping [QE asset purchases, including MBS] sooner could have made some difference, but not likely enough to fundamentally alter the trajectory of the economy,” Powell said on Tuesday. “Nonetheless, our experience since 2020 does suggest that we can be more nimble in our use of the balance sheet, and more confident that our communications will foster appropriate expectations among market participants given their growing experience with these tools. No appetite for using MBS to address the current housing strain Some online observerslets be honest, mostly those tied to the mortgage and housing industrieshave floated the idea that the Fed could start buying MBS again to help bring down todays elevated mortgage rates. But when asked on Tuesday whether renewed MBS purchases might be used to improve housing affordability, Powell firmly rejected the notion. “We look at overall inflation, we don’t target housing prices. And we’d certainly not engage in mortgage-backed security purchases as a way of addressing mortgage rates or housing directly,” said Powell. “That’s not what we do.
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E-Commerce
Uber’s U.S. drivers and couriers have a new way to earn extra money. The ride-hail app announced on Thursday a new pilot program that will offer gig workers the opportunity to train artificial intelligence (AI) through so-called “digital tasks.” They include simple, quick tasks for workers such as uploading photos, recording themselves speaking in their native language, and submitting documents written in different languageswhich are then fed into AI models. Uber already offers this for gig workers in India. “A lot of these tasks are digital, meaning you can do them from your phone . . . from anywhere, and at the same time create earnings opportunities,” Sachin Kansal, Uber’s chief product officer, said at the company’s “Only on Uber” event in Washington, D.C. on Thursday. “Drivers have asked for more ways to earn, even when they’re not on the road,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said in a statement to Business Insider. “[We’re] giving drivers more ways to earn during downtime.” [Image: Uber] The pilot, which allows gig workers to complete quick digital tasks in the Driver app, is powered by Ubers AI Solutions Group. How Uber’s “digital tasks” work The digital tasks are only available to drivers and couriers whove opted in. Once they’ve signed up, they will occasionally see invitations to complete the tasks in the Opportunity Center. Once available, users can view the full list before they begin (each task is optional)including an estimate of how much time it will take and how much they will earn. After the tasks are completed, payment is added within 24 hours. Uber Financials Uber Technologies, Inc (UBER) was trading down nearly 3% in afternoon trading on Thursday. Uber’s reported second quarter earnings, for the period ending June 30, beat estimates with revenue of $12.65 billion (versus estimates of $12.46 billion). Earnings per share (EPS) came in at 63 cents. At the time, the company also announced the authorization of a $20 billion stock buyback.
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