Tag: Endorse

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Health

Purdue Pharma’s Collectors Overwhelmingly Endorse Chapter Plan

Purdue Pharma’s Creditors Overwhelmingly Endorse Bankruptcy Plan

A large majority of Purdue Pharma’s more than 120,000 creditors have voted to approve the company’s bankruptcy plan, a major step toward the eventual release of more than $ 4.5 billion to help cover the cost of the opioid epidemic and its settlement Thousands of lawsuits to be paid against the company and its owners, members of the billionaire Sackler family.

A preliminary poll by cities, states, tribes, insurers, families and caregivers of babies born with withdrawal symptoms after exposure to opioids in utero showed 95 percent are in favor of the plan, the company said.

According to the plan, the Sacklers would give up control of Purdue. The restructured company was to be resurrected under a new name and run by an independently appointed board of directors. Profits the sale of its signature prescription pain reliever, OxyContin, and addiction quenching drugs would go to creditor trusts that would fund addiction prevention and treatment programs.

The Sacklers, who did not file for personal bankruptcy, would pay at least $ 4.5 billion of their personal wealth over nine years (in addition to $ 225 million from a separate civil settlement with the Justice Department).

Neither the company nor the Sacklers would admit any wrongdoing in connection with these lawsuits.

In the past two decades, more than 500,000 people have died from prescription and illegal opioid overdoses in the United States, including a record number in 2020. Purdue, which is widely believed to have helped ignite the problem by causing it Has downplayed OxyContin’s addictive potential and aggressively marketed the drug with misleading campaigns pleaded guilty to two separate Justice Department inquiries.

For the complex plan to take effect, Judge Robert Drain must be signed by the US Bankruptcy Court for the southern borough of New York, a move long awaited and now made even more likely by the wholehearted result of the creditors’ vote. Purdue said it would release the final voting results on August 2nd, a week before a court hearing at which final objections will be raised, but the company does not expect those results to change materially. The judge is expected to rule shortly thereafter.

Although a handful of states, including the Justice Department, have objected to the plan, these efforts do not appear to cause the process to fail. Earlier this month, attorneys general of 15 states, including Massachusetts and New York, were among the most vocal objection, said they had negotiated new terms that made the plan more palatable and now supportive of the plan.

Among the new elements that reached the states and Purdue during the mediation was an agreement by the company to release more than 30 million documents to a public repository, including private communications with attorneys. These documents are expected to reveal the full history of the Company and Sacklers involvement in the sale of OxyContin.

Long known for their philanthropy in the arts, the Sacklers would give up future naming rights to any institutions they donate to until their contributions to the opioid agreement are paid in full.

For almost two years, the opposition states argued that they should be able to reach straight into the pockets of individual sacklers because they were not filing for bankruptcy protection themselves. However, under the terms of the Purdue Plan, the Sacklers and their company are exempt from any civil liability.

Some congressmen have passed legislation to fill a loophole in bankruptcy law. It would allow states, and possibly individuals, to sue for bankruptcy third-party business owners who, like the Sacklers themselves, have not filed for bankruptcy. But by the time the bill is passed, the Purdue plan and the status of the Sacklers will almost certainly be cleared up.

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Politics

Biden and G-7 leaders will endorse a world minimal company tax

Biden and G-7 leaders will endorse a global minimum corporate tax

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks about his government’s pledge to deliver 500 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine (PFE.N) to the world’s poorest countries during a visit to St. Ives, Cornwall, UK on June 10, 2021 donate.

Kevin Lemarque | Reuters

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden and G7 Group leaders will publicly advocate a minimum global corporate tax of at least 15% on Friday, part of a broader agreement to update international tax laws for a globalized, digital economy.

The leaders will also announce a plan to replace digital services taxes that targeted America’s largest tech companies with a new tax plan targeting the places where multinational corporations actually do business, rather than their headquarters.

For the Biden government, the Global Minimum Tax Plan is a concrete step towards its goal of creating a “foreign policy for the middle class”.

This strategy aims to ensure that globalization and trade are used for the benefit of working Americans, not just billionaires and multinational corporations.

For the rest of the world, GMT aims to end the arms race for tax cuts that has resulted in some countries cutting their corporate taxes much lower than others to attract multinational corporations.

If passed widely, GMT would effectively end the practice of global corporations looking for low-tax areas such as Ireland and the British Virgin Islands to relocate their headquarters even though their customers, operations and executives are located elsewhere.

The second major initiative that the Biden and G-7 leaders will announce on Friday is a plan they are “actively considering,” the International Monetary Fund’s offer of Special Drawing Rights, an internal IMF currency, the low-income countries are available to expand.

This plan aims to expand international development finance to poor countries and help them buy Covid vaccines and recover faster from the effects of the pandemic, according to a White House factsheet.

The White House also said G-7 leaders will agree to “provide political support to the global economy for as long as necessary to create a strong, balanced and inclusive economic recovery.”

But it is the GMT plan that has the greatest potential to affect business results and influence investor decisions.

The G-7 tax deal “will serve as a stepping stone to broader agreement in the G-20,” said a senior administration official, who spoke with reporters for background information to discuss the ongoing talks.

A joint statement by Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday offers an outlook on what to expect from the global tax deal between G-7 partner countries.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaks with US President Joe Biden during their pre-G7 meeting in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, UK, June 10, 2021.

Toby Melville | Reuters

“We are committed to finding an equitable solution to the allocation of taxation rights, with market countries being granted taxation rights on at least 20% of profits that exceed a 10% margin for the largest and most profitable multinational corporations,” the said Explanation.

“We are also committed to a minimum global tax of at least 15% on a country basis.”

As part of this agreement, “we will see to … the elimination of all taxes on digital services and other relevant similar measures for all businesses.”

The elimination of taxes on digital services, a patchwork of country-specific taxes specifically targeting America’s largest tech companies, is a real victory for the United States.

Analysts say that getting rid of these taxes – and ending the looming threat of new DSTs – would give the international tax system a level of security that would ultimately benefit big tech companies in the long term, even if a new global minimum tax were raised in the short term .

Once the G7 leaders adopt the GMT proposal, the next step will be to gain support among the G20, a diverse group of economies that includes China, India, Brazil and Russia.

In July, the G-20 finance ministers and central bank governors meet in Venice, Italy. Both the IMF funding proposal and the international tax plan are expected to be high on the agenda.

It is currently unclear whether the GMT plan will win the support of the 19 member states and the European Union.

Details of the plan are yet to be worked out, and some of the G-20 are keeping corporate tax rates relatively low to attract businesses.

Much of the groundwork for the introduction of a GMT has already been laid by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which published a blueprint last fall outlining the two-pillar approach to international taxation.

The OECD Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting, known as BEPS, is the result of negotiations with 137 member countries and legal systems.

One pillar is the plan for countries to levy taxes on multinational corporations based on that company’s share of the profits that comes from a given country’s consumers.

The second pillar is the global minimum corporate income tax, a rate of at least 15% that would apply even if the tax rates in a particular country were lower.

Categories
Health

C.D.C. Advisers Endorse Pfizer Vaccine for Youngsters Ages 12 to 15

C.D.C. Advisers Endorse Pfizer Vaccine for Children Ages 12 to 15

The federal government took one final step on Wednesday to bring Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to teenagers in the United States, remove an obstacle to school reopening, and cheer millions of families tired of pandemic restrictions are.

An advisory committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted The CDC director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky is expected to review the recommendations and approve them later on Wednesday.

“Getting Covid-19 vaccines approved for children ages 12-15 is an important step in removing barriers to vaccinating children of all ages,” said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, who represents the American Academy of Pediatrics on the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Many parents eagerly await the availability of vaccines for children, at least in part to expedite their return to school. About a third of eighth graders, usually 13 or 14 years old, still study completely remotely.

In some states, such as Maine, vaccination of teenagers has already started. Others plan to offer the vaccine as early as Thursday. There are nearly 17 million 12 to 15 year olds in the United States, which is 5.3 percent of the population.

Almost every state now has a flood of vaccine doses that could be quickly distributed to teenagers. The dose used to immunize adults is safe and effective for these adolescents too, as clinical studies have shown.

“Sometimes we lose the importance of children and adolescents in the midst of a pandemic – especially older adults are so much in focus,” said Dr. Grace Lee, Committee member and Professor of Pediatrics at Stanford University.

While the risk of serious illness in children is low compared to adults, the coronavirus has infected more than 1.5 million children and sent more than 13,000 to hospitals, according to the CDC, more than were hospitalized for flu in an average year

“It is currently one of the top ten causes of child death since the pandemic began,” noted Dr. Maldonado.

Young children are believed to be less likely to spread the virus than adults, but their ability to transmit it increases with age. Teenagers, especially in high school, can spread the virus just as easily as adults. Children aged 12-17 make up an increasing proportion of Covid cases in the country.

Vaccinating children should increase immunity levels in the US population and help reduce the number of cases.

“Any person with Covid-19 is giving the virus an opportunity to spread, further mutate and further expose our communities,” said Dr. Bill Gruber, Senior Vice President at Pfizer. “The decisions of the health authorities this week bring us one step closer to protecting young people and achieving herd protection.”

Pfizer announced in March that the vaccine appears to be at least as effective in 12-15 year olds as it is in older teenagers and adults. Apart from a slight increase in the frequency of fever, the shots also appeared to have comparable, mostly negligible side effects.

The company plans to monitor study participants for two years after the second dose to assess the long-term safety and effectiveness of the vaccine.

Updated

May 12, 2021, 4:58 p.m. ET

The Food and Drug Administration reviewed the clinical data and on Monday approved the Pfizer vaccine for use in these children. This allowed parents and children to wait weeks for a faster return to normal.

“While it is true that children are generally spared serious illnesses, the fact that they could not be vaccinated has created significant disruptions in their lives that have real developmental ramifications,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “By vaccinating this age cohort, these children can get back to their normal lives.”

In a speech at the White House on Wednesday, President Biden pointed out the benefits of the Covid vaccine for children 12 and older and said it was “safe, effective, easy, quick and free”.

“Starting tomorrow, more than 15,000 pharmacies will be ready to vaccinate this age group,” said Biden, adding that pharmacies would make it easier for teenagers to get the first shot in one location and a second shot in another location if needed.

Some experts have raised ethical concerns about vaccinating children who are at low risk for the virus, although healthcare workers and older adults remain at risk in many countries.

“If just thinking as a parent, if I had teenagers, I would probably love to vaccinate my children,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Class disturbed

Updated May 5, 2021

The latest on how the pandemic is changing education.

But she added, “I am very concerned about a situation where the few countries in the world that had enough vaccines to protect their adults continue to hoard those vaccines for use in low-risk children.”

School reopenings have spiked across the country as parents, teachers, unions and school authorities worried about outbreaks. Research shows that children are largely spared serious illnesses and are not significant drivers of the spread of the coronavirus, as is the case with influenza.

“This misperception of risk will clearly divert vaccination priorities from the optimal strategic use of vaccines worldwide,” said Drs Adaliah.

The committee also recommended giving the Covid-19 vaccine along with other major vaccines that teenagers may have missed during the year. The agency had recommended waiting two weeks before and after immunization against Covid-19 before receiving other vaccines.

Parents’ reluctance can be the main hurdle. According to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, more than 40 percent of parents of teenagers said that they would not vaccinate their children or would only vaccinate them if required by a school.

Some of these parents might change their minds as other children are safe to receive vaccines and resume personal schooling or return to team sports such as soccer and basketball that involve close contact, the researchers suggested.

Others can wait to meet school requirements. Public schools in all 50 states require certain vaccines, but officials may not be able to enforce compliance until the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine has received full FDA approval.

The vaccine now has an emergency approval. Pfizer has applied for full approval from the FDA, but this process is expected to take several months. Even after approval, students can opt out based on medical reasons or religious beliefs.

State and local leaders must make special efforts to reach children in low-income families or in color communities. Black and Hispanic adults have one of the lowest vaccination rates: by May 3, only 25 percent of blacks and 27 percent of Hispanics had been vaccinated, compared with 39 percent of whites.

In order to make the vaccine available to these communities, transport and storage of the cans must be facilitated. The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine can only be stored in standard refrigerators for five days. The companies plan to ship smaller packs for use in doctor’s offices and are developing a formulation that can be refrigerated for up to 10 weeks.

Pfizer and BioNTech plan to file applications for approval of the vaccine in children ages 2-11 in September.