Separate Super Tuesday brief coming later this morning
1 Weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic transformative
2 AI secrets are easy for enemy nations to steal
3 Over-the-counter birth control available
4 Hong Kong researchers develop early test for Alzheimer’s
5 Prepare for the total solar eclipse April 8!
3/6/1899 Bayer patents aspirin
see ad astra on x @greg_loving
1 Weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic transformative
Weight-loss drugs called glp-1 agonists help users shed fat, and with it the negative health effects of obesity. This can have life-changing effects for the people who take them. It is also increasingly affecting the lives of corporate citizens. Since June 2021, when Wegovy, the first glp-1 slimming jab, was launched in America, the market value of ww (formerly Weight Watchers) has crashed by 90%. On February 28th Oprah Winfrey announced that she would leave the dieting firm’s board and sell all her shares in order to avoid conflict of interest around her use of glp-1s. Food giants such as Nestlé are already planning for a future where the drugs dampen demand for sugary snacks. Bosses of consumer-goods firms brought up weight-loss drugs twice as often in the last full set of quarterly earnings calls, in late 2023, as they had in the previous one
The drugs’ biggest impact so far, though, has been on their makers. Sales of Wegovy, developed by a Danish firm called Novo Nordisk, swelled from $876m in 2022 to $4.5bn in 2023. The company expects double that this year. Zepbound, introduced in America in November by Eli Lilly, an American pharma giant, is expected to generate $2.9bn in sales in its first full year. Bloomberg, a data provider, predicts that by 2030 yearly sales of weight-loss medications will reach a staggering $80bn, putting them among the biggest classes of drugs in history. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk are expected to corner more than 90% of the market
The Economist
https://www.economist.com/business/2024/03/04/the-battle-over-the-trillion-dollar-weight-loss-bonanza
2 AI secrets are easy for enemy nations to steal
Let's assume, for discussion, that AI in 2024 is like atomic technology in 1943, that AI should therefore be handled like the Manhattan Project, and that the specific risk is that the Chinese Communist Party gains access to American AI. And let's use OpenAI as an example of an American AI R&D facility.
What counterintelligence capabilities does OpenAI have to prevent China from stealing our AI?
What you'd expect to see is a rigorous security vetting and clearance process for everyone from the CEO to the cook, with monthly polygraphs and constant internal surveillance. Hardened physical facilities, what are called SCIFs (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities), US Marines or the equivalent as 24x7 armed guards, Faraday cages and electronic countermeasures. Alarms going off if someone carries so much as an Apple AirTag into the building. And someone very much like Boris Pash overseeing it all, interrogating and terrorizing people in all directions.
Remember, even WITH tight security, the Russians still got the atomic bomb from the US via their spies in the 1940s. The first Russian atomic bomb is said to have been "wire for wire compatible" with the American Nagasaki bomb, thanks to David Greenglass and the Rosenbergs. So to protect AI, you need even TIGHTER security. Remember, this is a civilizational threat!
Is this what we see at OpenAI or any other American AI lab? No. In fact, what we see is the opposite -- the security equivalent of swiss cheese. Chinese penetration of these labs would be trivially easy using any number of industrial espionage methods, such as simply bribing the cleaning crew to stick USB dongles into laptops. My own assumption is that all such American AI labs are fully penetrated and that China is getting nightly downloads of all American AI research and code RIGHT NOW.
The conclusion is obvious: OpenAI must be immediately nationalized.
@pmarca
https://x.com/pmarca/status/1764374999794909592?s=46&t=nVb-5uC_WM3Cp0R0dGiqHQ
Marc Andreessen bio
https://a16z.com/author/marc-andreessen/
3 Over-the-counter birth control available
The first over-the-counter birth control pill will be available in U.S. stores later this month, allowing American women and teens to purchase contraceptive medication as easily as they buy aspirin. Manufacturer Perrigo said Monday it has begun shipping the medication, Opill, to major retailers and pharmacies. A one-month supply will cost about $20 and a three-month supply will cost around $50, according to the company’s suggested retail price. It will also be sold online. The launch has been closely watched since last July, when the Food and Drug Administration said the once-a-day Opill could be sold without a prescription. Ireland-based Perrigo noted there will be no age restrictions on sales, similar to other over-the-counter medications. Opill is an older class of contraceptive, sometimes called minipills, that contain a single synthetic hormone, progestin, and generally carry fewer side effects than more popular combination estrogen and progestin pills. The launch gives U.S. women another birth control option amid the legal and political battles over reproductive health, including the reversal of Roe v. Wade, which has upended abortion access across the U.S. Opill’s approval is unrelated to the ongoing court battles over the abortion pill mifepristone. And anti-abortion groups have generally emphasized that they do not oppose contraceptives to prevent pregnancies. Birth control pills are available without a prescription across much of South America, Asia, and Africa.
Stat News
https://www.statnews.com/2024/03/04/over-the-counter-birth-control-pill-opill-shipping-stores/
4 Hong Kong researchers develop early test for Alzheimer’s
An international team led by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) has developed a blood test that can detect Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) at early stages, which the team said has an accuracy rate of more than 96% and 87%, respectively. The blood test is the HKUST’s latest advancement in identifying Alzheimer’s, allowing patients to get treated before symptoms appear. It’s somewhat better than the blood test the university developed in 2021, which it said can also be used to spot the early signs of the disease with an accuracy rate of over 96%.
Caixin
5 Prepare for the total solar eclipse April 8!
Where will you be watching the April 8 total solar eclipse? There are just a few weeks left to pick your spot to see the skies darken along a strip of North America, whether by land, sea or air. For those who live inside the 115-mile-wide (185-kilometer-wide) path of total darkness, it may be a matter of just stepping outside and donning special eclipse glasses to watch the spectacle unfold. For the millions outside the path, or those who just want to improve their chances of clear skies, it could mean hitting the road with a game plan. The eclipse reaches Mexico’s Pacific coast in the morning, cuts diagonally across the U.S. from Texas to Maine and exits in eastern Canada by late afternoon. Most of the rest of the continent will see a partial eclipse.
AP
https://apnews.com/article/14b52646d918184922d651bf8c8daab2
watching a solar eclipse involves staring directly at the sun. Let's not do this unwisely, please. You're going to need some special glasses — and what better place to pick those up than from the giant itself, Warby Parker. Warby Parker, known for its affordable yet trendy lenswear, has announced that all of its stores will be handing out free solar eclipse viewing glasses starting April 1 until the big day. Up to two pairs will be provided per family. This will go on while supplies last, but based on some patterns we've been seeing — the way flights to the path of totality are getting fully booked and hotel rates in the path have been skyrocketing — I wouldn't expect supplies to last very long.
Space.com
https://www.space.com/warby-parker-total-solar-eclipse-glasses-april-8
3/6/1899 Bayer patents aspirin
Thanks for reading!