INSULIN COST CUTS: CEO TO RESIGN: OUT OF ORBIT:
Facing pressure to follow a wave of industry price cuts, the drugmaker Sanofi said Thursday that it would reduce the sticker price of its most commonly used insulin by 78 percent. The company said it would also cap, at $35 per month, that product's out-ofpocket costs for diabetes patients with private health plans. Sanofi's moves, which will go into effect at the start of next year, follow similar announcements this month by the two other large insulin manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. Together, the three companies control about 90 percent of the insulin market in the United States.
Emmett Shear, the CEO of the livestreaming site Twitch, said Thursday that he was resigning, ending a 16-year tenure for the co-founder of the platform favored by video game enthusiasts. Shear said in a blog post that he was stepping down because he just had a child. He said that Dan Clancy, Twitch's president, would take over as CEO, and that Shear would remain at Twitch in an advisory role. The site is a place where video game players stream their play. In 2014, Amazon purchased the site for $1 billion.
Virgin Orbit said Thursday it is pausing all operations amid reports that the company is furloughing almost all its staff as part of a bid to seek a funding lifeline. The Californiabased satellite launch company confirmed it's putting all work on hold, but didn't say for how long. Virgin Orbit, which is listed on the NASDAQ stock exchange, was founded in 2017 by British billionaire Richard Branson to target the market for launching small satellites into space.
REBATES SUSPENDED:
Oregon will temporarily suspend rebates for buying or leasing an electric vehicle for a year starting in May because too many people are applying and the program is running out of money, The Oregonian/ OregonLive reported Thursday. A growing number of Oregonians are buying or leasing electric vehicles, with over 60,600 registered in the state. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality announced Wednesday the suspension of the Clean Vehicle Rebate Program that has disbursed more than $71 million over five years to help people buy or lease roughly 25,000 of those vehicles. A fifth of the rebates went to lowand moderate-income households, state data shows.