Month: November 2024

Novo Nordisk sells hit weight-loss drug in China—at fraction of US price

As US struggles to afford GLP-1 drugs, the rest of the world sees much lower prices.

Patients in China will be able to purchase the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy for 1,400 yuan, or about $193, just a fraction of the US list price of $1,349, according to media reports.

The price in China is in line with pricing elsewhere outside of the US. As Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) noted in a September Senate hearing, Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, is sold for $265 in Canada, $186 in Denmark, $137 in Germany, and just $92 in the United Kingdom. In the hearing, Sanders and other senators grilled Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Jørgensen on the "outrageously high prices" in the US of Wegovy and the company's other popular GLP-1 drug, Ozempic, used for diabetes.

"What we are dealing with today is not just an issue of economics, it is not just an issue of corporate greed. It is a profound moral issue," Sanders said in opening remarks about the prices of the highly effective drugs.

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Report: DOJ wants to force Google Chrome sale, Android de-bundling

Cutting off Google’s control of the world’s most popular browser may be necessary.

Preferred by 61 percent of Internet users, Google's Chrome browser plays too big a role in maintaining the tech giant's search monopoly, the US Department of Justice has reportedly decided.

On Monday, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that top antitrust officials are planning to ask the court on Wednesday to order Google to sell off Chrome. In addition to banning Google's exclusive default deals, cutting off Google's control of the world's most popular browser may be necessary, sources suggested, to level the playing field for rivals.

Additionally, the DOJ intends to ask for a range of other remedies, Bloomberg reported, all of them discussed in a court filing last month. These include imposing data licensing requirements and requiring more transparency for advertisers on where their ads appear, as well as requiring "measures related to artificial intelligence and its Android smartphone operating system," sources said. Those measures will likely stop Google from hoarding user data for both search results and AI products, with the DOJ seemingly paving the way for more users to opt their content out of AI training.

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SpaceX will try some new tricks on Starship’s sixth test flight

“An additional objective for this flight will be attempting an in-space burn using a single Raptor engine.”

The sixth flight of SpaceX's giant Starship rocket, set for takeoff on Tuesday from South Texas, will test the vehicle's limits in new ways.

Most importantly, SpaceX will attempt to briefly reignite one of Starship's six Raptor engines in space. SpaceX tried this on Starship's third launch in March but aborted the engine restart after the rocket lost roll control during the flight's coast phase.

A successful engine relight demonstration would pave the way for future Starships to ascend into stable, sustainable orbits. It's essential to test the Raptor engine's ability to reignite in space for a deorbit burn to steer Starship out of orbit toward an atmospheric reentry.

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UP 710S is a credit card-sized computer with Alder Lake-N, an M.2 slot, and a slim design

Nearly a decade after launching the first UP Board single-board computer with a Raspberry Pi-like form factor and an Intel x86 processor, AAEON has expanded the UP Board lineup with a number of different boards in different sizes, shapes, and performan…

Nearly a decade after launching the first UP Board single-board computer with a Raspberry Pi-like form factor and an Intel x86 processor, AAEON has expanded the UP Board lineup with a number of different boards in different sizes, shapes, and performance capacities. The new UP 710S is a return to roots in some ways: like the original […]

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Emergent gravity may be a dead idea, but it’s not a bad one

Gravity may not emerge, but some interesting ideas did.

Emergent gravity is a bold idea.

It claims that the force of gravity is a mere illusion, more akin to friction or heat—a property that emerges from some deeper physical interaction. This emergent gravity idea might hold the key to rewriting one of the fundamental forces of nature—and it could explain the mysterious nature of dark matter.

But in the years since its original proposal, it has not held up well to either experiment or further theoretical inquiry. Emergent gravity may not be a right answer. But it is a clever one, and it's still worth considering, as it may hold the seeds of a greater understanding.

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The 2025 GMC Sierra EV Denali brings big power at a bigger cost

It’s a big, luxurious—but expensive—electric pickup truck with a huge battery.

Electric trucks aren't exactly blowing up the sales charts right now. A market that's increasingly skeptical of EVs in general isn't helping, but that age-old work-minded segment that looked set for a reinvention just a few years ago now seems increasingly reluctant to change.

Rivian's excellent R1T hasn't taken the market by storm, while Ford's F-150 Lightning isn't reinventing the work truck landscape the way many (including myself) had hoped. On the Chevrolet side of the equation, the Silverado EV likewise hasn't challenged the sales of its internally combusted siblings.

General Motors is bringing another contender to the fray, the 2025 GMC Sierra EV Denali, and if you thought the $94,500 initial price on the Silverado RST First Edition was a bit much, prepare for more sticker shock, as the Max Range Denali starts at $100,495. Is the solution to electric truck woes an even more expensive model? After a few days in the saddle, I'm not so sure.

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