Latest / Bloomberg Intelligence / Santos, Powell, and Obesity Drugs

Transcript

Santos, Powell, and Obesity Drugs · Bloomberg Intelligence

0:00
Speaker 1: Bloomberg is now on your dashboard with Apple CarPlay and
0:04
Speaker 1: Android Auto. It gives you access to every Bloomberg podcast,
0:08
Speaker 1: live audio feeds from Bloomberg Radio, print stories from Bloomberg
0:11
Speaker 1: News in audio form, and the latest headlines of the
0:14
Speaker 1: click of a button with Bloomberg News. Now it's free
0:18
Speaker 1: with the latest version of the Bloomberg Business App. That's
0:21
Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Business App. Get it on your phone in
0:24
Speaker 1: the Apple App Store or on Google Play. Just download
0:27
Speaker 1: the app, connect your phone to your car and get started.
0:30
Speaker 1: And it's all presented by our sponsor, Interactive Brokers.
0:35
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Bloomberg Markets Podcast. I'm Paul Sweeney. Alongside
0:38
Speaker 2: my co host Matt Miller.
0:40
Speaker 1: Every business day we bring you interviews from CEOs, market pros,
0:44
Speaker 1: and Bloomberg experts, along with essential market moven News.
0:48
Speaker 2: I'm the Bloomberg Markets podcast called Apple Podcasts or wherever
0:51
Speaker 2: you listen to podcasts, and at Bloomberg dot com Slash
0:54
Speaker 2: podcast times for New York get the latest thinking on boys.
0:58
Speaker 2: What's been just at work day in the House of Representatives,
1:03
Speaker 2: you know, congress Woman, thank you so much for joining
1:05
Speaker 2: us here. Can you help put in context what happened
1:07
Speaker 2: on the House floor today.
1:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we got the two thirds vote to remove
1:13
Speaker 3: George Santos. We've expelled him, and it was Look, it
1:18
Speaker 3: was a solemn day. I mean, he deserved it. He
1:20
Speaker 3: deserved to be removed. I voted for the expulsion. But
1:22
Speaker 3: the end of the day is it is a sad
1:25
Speaker 3: stain on the institution and it was important that we
1:29
Speaker 3: had to remove him so his constituents can elect somebody new,
1:34
Speaker 3: somebody they can trust and have a relationship with. The
1:37
Speaker 3: reality is George Santos had lost the trust of his colleagues,
1:41
Speaker 3: his constituents. And the bottom line here is we asked
1:44
Speaker 3: the Ethics Committee at the beginning of this year to
1:46
Speaker 3: do a thorough investigation, and they had issued thirty eight
1:51
Speaker 3: different subpoenas, interviewed forty individual witnesses, They reviewed one hundred
1:56
Speaker 3: and seventy thousand pages of documents, and they were able
1:59
Speaker 3: to produce use the evidence to the members that warrants
2:04
Speaker 3: his expulsion. I mean, he used campaign money on everything
2:08
Speaker 3: from luxury items to botox. He even created fictitious loans
2:14
Speaker 3: and then he used campaign donors money to reimburse himself
2:19
Speaker 3: to those fictitious loans. We even had a colleague, Max Miller,
2:23
Speaker 3: one of our colleagues here in Congress, who said that
2:26
Speaker 3: he even used his and his mother's credit card to
2:29
Speaker 3: make unapproved purchases or donations. And so it is really
2:35
Speaker 3: troubling and disturbing that we had this con artist sitting
2:39
Speaker 3: in Congress with us, and quite frankly, it's been a
2:42
Speaker 3: distraction this entire year. So I'm relieved to see that
2:47
Speaker 3: he will no longer be in this institution. And I'm
2:49
Speaker 3: hopeful that we will have a special election very soon.
2:52
Speaker 3: As you know, the governor does need to call a
2:54
Speaker 3: special election within ten days, and the people of the
2:57
Speaker 3: third Congressional District in New York, which is a piece
3:00
Speaker 3: of Queens and Nassau County, will be able to elect
3:03
Speaker 3: someone that they can trust.
3:04
Speaker 4: Yeah, Congressman, maybe if you can just elaborate there, tell us,
3:08
Speaker 4: you know, what is a special election, How does that
3:10
Speaker 4: play out from here? What kind of timeline, who would
3:13
Speaker 4: you know elect that kind of a person. Just give
3:16
Speaker 4: us a little bit of the lay of the land,
3:17
Speaker 4: how we proceed from here.
3:20
Speaker 3: But following expulsion, there will be a formal notification to
3:24
Speaker 3: the Governor of the State of New York. The governor
3:26
Speaker 3: then has ten days to call a set special election,
3:30
Speaker 3: and then it would most likely be in February, and
3:35
Speaker 3: at that point the people of New York's third district
3:38
Speaker 3: will be able to elect someone new and that's how
3:41
Speaker 3: the process will play out. So we will that seat
3:43
Speaker 3: will be vacant for a couple of months.
3:46
Speaker 2: So Congresswoman, will this help or hinder the GOP in
3:51
Speaker 2: terms of keeping the House?
3:54
Speaker 3: Well, I don't think that we could have based our
3:56
Speaker 3: decision on that. We have to do what is right
3:59
Speaker 3: in this case to be removed. But what I do
4:02
Speaker 3: believe is that the Nasau County organization, led by Chairman
4:06
Speaker 3: Joe Cairo, is one of the best in the country,
4:08
Speaker 3: and they have flipped because, by the way, not just
4:11
Speaker 3: because they're the best in the country, but because the
4:13
Speaker 3: Democrats policies in New York are just so ridiculous. Right,
4:16
Speaker 3: They've created a crisis, whether it's public safety, migrant crisis,
4:21
Speaker 3: the Democrats policies have done that. And because of that
4:24
Speaker 3: messaging that Republicans are right they write on policy, they've
4:28
Speaker 3: been able to flip not just these congressional seats, but
4:31
Speaker 3: they've been able to flip the county executive. You have
4:33
Speaker 3: Bruce Blakeman there is doing a great job. You also
4:36
Speaker 3: have a Republican district attorney now county legislature. They were
4:40
Speaker 3: able to flip all of that because not only are
4:44
Speaker 3: they a strong organization, but because the Democrats in New
4:46
Speaker 3: York have done such a bad job and are driving
4:49
Speaker 3: the city in the state into the ground. So with
4:51
Speaker 3: that said, I still believe that Republicans can hold onto
4:55
Speaker 3: that seat in a special election. But at the end
4:57
Speaker 3: of the day, it's up to the voters. The voters
5:00
Speaker 3: get to choose who they want. The bigger challenge for
5:03
Speaker 3: Republicans is that our governor is trying to redraw congressional
5:07
Speaker 3: maps again. She is trying to tilt the scale once
5:10
Speaker 3: again after we had an independent master last year draw
5:13
Speaker 3: our maps and we won these four seats. So that
5:16
Speaker 3: that corrupt activity that we're seeing from the Democrats trying
5:19
Speaker 3: to tilt the scale with and redraw these maps to
5:22
Speaker 3: give themselves an advantage is more what jeopardizes the Republican
5:25
Speaker 3: majority in Washington.
5:27
Speaker 2: Does do you have a candidate that you would like
5:30
Speaker 2: to see run.
5:32
Speaker 3: I do not have a candidate that is for the
5:34
Speaker 3: county organizations to determine. Hopefully they're going to be doing
5:37
Speaker 3: their due diligence now, and I know that they will.
5:40
Speaker 3: They'll be making sure that they have background checks and
5:42
Speaker 3: that they're going.
5:42
Speaker 2: Well, well, they don't have the greatest track record, let's
5:45
Speaker 2: be honest.
5:45
Speaker 3: Well that's why I'm saying. That's exactly what I'm saying.
5:47
Speaker 3: We've gotten their word now that they will be doing that,
5:50
Speaker 3: and so we could prevent this in the future. But look,
5:53
Speaker 3: I think it is it is important for people to
5:58
Speaker 3: understand that whether it's a Republican or Democrat, we needed
6:01
Speaker 3: to move to do this. The last five expulsions. By
6:04
Speaker 3: the way, we're all Democrats in our history. The first
6:07
Speaker 3: time a Republican has been expelled from the House of
6:10
Speaker 3: Representatives in the history of the United States.
6:12
Speaker 2: Equal opportunity.
6:13
Speaker 4: I guess so, congress Woman. You did list a whole
6:17
Speaker 4: bit of evidence that the Ethics Committee had compiled in
6:20
Speaker 4: supporting the expulsion of George Santos, But a lot of
6:24
Speaker 4: what the House members who elected to not expel him,
6:28
Speaker 4: what they were hung up upon, was that he wasn't
6:30
Speaker 4: actually convicted of anything yet. That is But I mean,
6:34
Speaker 4: do you think that this potentially could set a dangerous
6:37
Speaker 4: president here that if people's you know, skeletons come out
6:41
Speaker 4: of the closet and you know, maybe you just don't
6:43
Speaker 4: like how somebody's voted, that their seat could be in jeopardy.
6:47
Speaker 3: Well, first of all, he will have his day in
6:50
Speaker 3: court as it relates to responding to those twenty three
6:54
Speaker 3: criminal charges, and that will determine whether he goes to jail, okay,
6:57
Speaker 3: But as it relates to remaining in this is we
7:01
Speaker 3: referred it to the Ethics Committee and they did their
7:04
Speaker 3: they did their investigation where was able to produce the
7:07
Speaker 3: evidence that showed that he took from his campaign donations
7:11
Speaker 3: and used them for personal gain and enrichment and that
7:15
Speaker 3: was just inappropriate and warrants his removal from the institution.
7:19
Speaker 2: Congress Woman, as I understand that the Republicans have a
7:22
Speaker 2: four seat majority in the House, so that will go
7:24
Speaker 2: to three practically, what does that mean for getting legislation through?
7:29
Speaker 3: From your perspective, Look, whether it was four or three,
7:33
Speaker 3: it was still difficult, right, I mean, it is not
7:35
Speaker 3: easy when you have such a slim majority. We're trying to,
7:40
Speaker 3: you know, reconcile the differences and see where we can
7:42
Speaker 3: find that common ground to move things forward. Despite having
7:46
Speaker 3: the slim majority, we've been able to pass a good
7:48
Speaker 3: number of these appropriation bills to fund the government. The
7:52
Speaker 3: Senate has done zero, by the way, so they have
7:53
Speaker 3: a slim majority there too. I think it's by margin
7:56
Speaker 3: of one. So it makes governing difficult, which which really
8:00
Speaker 3: actually begs for more bipartisanship. I mean, at the end
8:04
Speaker 3: of the day, you know, sometimes the extremes try to
8:08
Speaker 3: upset the apple card. We see more bipartisanship, more common
8:13
Speaker 3: ground and common sense policy moving forward. And so we
8:17
Speaker 3: have to work with what we have and we continue
8:20
Speaker 3: to push for the things that we believe in, which is,
8:23
Speaker 3: we want secure borders, we want to support our law enforcement.
8:25
Speaker 3: We want to address this crisis of energy independence. We
8:29
Speaker 3: need more energy production, not less, like the president it says.
8:33
Speaker 3: And we need to make sure that we are addressing
8:37
Speaker 3: our fiscal issues, and that means we need to spend
8:40
Speaker 3: less money and be more responsible. And so that's what
8:42
Speaker 3: we're going to continue to push with that agenda, and
8:44
Speaker 3: we help some Democrats do join us, because those are
8:47
Speaker 3: the right things that the American people want to see.
8:49
Speaker 3: They want to see you inflation reduced, energy, affordable borders
8:53
Speaker 3: being secured, the migroant crisis ending in New York City.
8:55
Speaker 3: It would be great if Senator Schumer passes our legislation
8:59
Speaker 3: that would do these things, because we've passed them already
9:01
Speaker 3: out of the House.
9:02
Speaker 2: Right all right, Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us.
9:05
Speaker 2: Really appreciated. Nicole malliotakas Congresswoman Representatives of the US House
9:10
Speaker 2: of Representatives representing New York.
9:13
Speaker 5: You're listening to the team. Ken's our live program Bloomberg
9:16
Speaker 5: Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg dot Com,
9:20
Speaker 5: the iHeartRadio app, and the Bloomberg Business App, or listen
9:23
Speaker 5: on demand wherever you get your podcasts.
9:27
Speaker 2: Look at the lay of the land on the markets
9:29
Speaker 2: as well as Washington, DC news coming from both places.
9:32
Speaker 2: Billy Lipshealty covers of markets for US for Bloomberg News.
9:35
Speaker 2: And Joe Matthew, the host of all kinds of stuff
9:38
Speaker 2: on radio TV. He's our political go to guy down
9:40
Speaker 2: and Washington will tie in with that. George Santos News
9:43
Speaker 2: coming out of the House of Representatives. Bailey, let's start
9:44
Speaker 2: with you. We've had a little bit of a rally
9:46
Speaker 2: here in stocks in the last hour. What's pushing that.
9:49
Speaker 6: Yeah, market's picking up the two year yield hitting a
9:52
Speaker 6: low of four point five seven percent, lowest since mid June.
9:55
Speaker 6: This coming is Powell speaks. The big thing, guys, that
9:58
Speaker 6: stands out. Powell a couple of a few weeks ago
10:01
Speaker 6: said policy is restrictive. Today he's saying it's well into
10:05
Speaker 6: restrictive territory. Investors that I've been talking to, reading between
10:08
Speaker 6: the lines, taking that a bit more dubvish than he
10:11
Speaker 6: has been, so not completely going full of molly, but
10:15
Speaker 6: does seem like he's indicating more that maybe we are
10:18
Speaker 6: going to see rates peter out and maybe not see
10:21
Speaker 6: the master.
10:21
Speaker 4: I can't help sometimes but just have to roll my
10:23
Speaker 4: eyes as people's like the traders interpretation of the Fed
10:26
Speaker 4: speak it's it's mad libs. Well, I we're literally hanging
10:29
Speaker 4: on the removal or edition of one word.
10:31
Speaker 6: But I will say that Powell has been very clear
10:34
Speaker 6: and he's delivered. That's why I think it's interesting that
10:37
Speaker 6: the market's right now pricing in five cuts this year,
10:39
Speaker 6: when Powell has continued to beat the drum that higher
10:42
Speaker 6: for longer is here and they're not considering cuts anytime soon.
10:46
Speaker 2: So Joe, We've had an hour here plus to kind
10:48
Speaker 2: of digest the news coming out of Washington, DC. Representative
10:52
Speaker 2: Santos from New York expelled from the House of Representatives.
10:56
Speaker 2: What are you kind of hearing from your sources down
10:58
Speaker 2: in DC, you know, in the last hour.
10:59
Speaker 7: So well, I find it compelling that a majority of
11:02
Speaker 7: Republicans voted to keep him. Yeah, when we spoke earlier,
11:05
Speaker 7: I hadn't seen the breakdowns yet, but a majority of
11:08
Speaker 7: the Republican conference voted not to expel George Santos. I'm
11:11
Speaker 7: not sure what that means for the narrative of this
11:13
Speaker 7: is the principled party that did what needed to be done.
11:17
Speaker 7: The entire leadership voted to keep him. And look, we
11:21
Speaker 7: got through this before a little bit. Lawmakers see a
11:24
Speaker 7: precedent being set here. He's not been convicted of anything.
11:27
Speaker 7: While the Ethics Committee did recommend this action and the
11:30
Speaker 7: chairman himself brought the resolution, he's not been convicted of
11:34
Speaker 7: anything technically, and that makes other lawmakers a little uncomfortable
11:37
Speaker 7: knowing they could maybe be in the same position someday.
11:39
Speaker 4: I mean, we did kid before that. Perhaps George Santos's
11:42
Speaker 4: next big appearance could be dancing with the stars, but
11:44
Speaker 4: it's very likely that he probably prison is probably the
11:49
Speaker 4: next up.
11:49
Speaker 7: Who knows that he's got He's got to go through
11:51
Speaker 7: his trial here. But there are a lot of folks
11:54
Speaker 7: speculating on what corner of the entertainment world might be
11:58
Speaker 7: a home in the meantime for George Sands, because look,
12:00
Speaker 7: he's not going to go quietly. He's already, by the
12:03
Speaker 7: way on his way out, put up a resolution to
12:05
Speaker 7: expel Jamal Bowman, and he says he's going to take
12:08
Speaker 7: as many other lawmakers down with him as he can.
12:10
Speaker 7: So we'll be hearing from George stands Joe.
12:13
Speaker 2: I mean, the Republicans in the House only had a
12:14
Speaker 2: four seat majority as it was thin as it was
12:18
Speaker 2: now it's even thinner. Does that practically day to day
12:22
Speaker 2: going to impact their ability to drive their agenda?
12:25
Speaker 5: Not going to help?
12:27
Speaker 7: To hear Speaker Johnson say, the whole number of the
12:29
Speaker 7: House is now four to thirty four. We just, by
12:33
Speaker 7: the way, got to four thirty five for the first
12:35
Speaker 7: time in quite a while. Last week a Republican won
12:38
Speaker 7: a seat in Utah that brought us back to quorum.
12:41
Speaker 7: So now that this has happened, we're just kind of
12:42
Speaker 7: back to where we were a couple of weeks ago.
12:45
Speaker 7: The fact is, I mean, four seats is nothing, and
12:48
Speaker 7: this technically doesn't make much of a difference between it's
12:50
Speaker 7: really it's barely a majority.
12:52
Speaker 4: Just to come back to the mad libs discussion aka
12:55
Speaker 4: interpreting Fed speak, Bailey, So you know, we had Vince
12:59
Speaker 4: Agnerella on before on our chief macro strategist here at Bloomberg,
13:02
Speaker 4: and he was saying to us that what traders were
13:04
Speaker 4: also really hanging on to was this word if in
13:07
Speaker 4: the Powell statement. So the full sentence, to take the
13:11
Speaker 4: full context here is that Powl said we are prepared
13:14
Speaker 4: to tighten policy further if it becomes appropriate to do so.
13:18
Speaker 4: That another word that your traders getting hut.
13:20
Speaker 6: Up on that is one. But I will say it's
13:23
Speaker 6: been well kind of expected that the FED is done,
13:26
Speaker 6: and we've seen rates implying that. So I think to
13:30
Speaker 6: your point and kind of Vince calling it out that
13:32
Speaker 6: if we're not a big if, but they're they're.
13:36
Speaker 8: Done, condicate the optionality exactly. And that's the big thing.
13:39
Speaker 6: And that's what Powell's messaging from the start has been
13:42
Speaker 6: is keeping all doors open and not really trying to
13:44
Speaker 6: cheer on the market and just calling out right now
13:46
Speaker 6: a two year on pace four its largest drop since
13:51
Speaker 6: on a weekly basis since mid March.
13:53
Speaker 2: So he just remind us, Joe, kind of how the
13:56
Speaker 2: next steps are going to work here in terms of
13:58
Speaker 2: I guess calling for special election and all that. It
14:01
Speaker 2: happens pretty quickly, right.
14:02
Speaker 7: Yeah, this is going to be up to Kathy Hokel.
14:07
Speaker 7: There will be a special election. She's got if I
14:09
Speaker 7: remember correctly here, it's ten days after the ouster to
14:12
Speaker 7: announce the election, and then it'll have to be held
14:14
Speaker 7: within seventy to eighty days. So we'll go through this,
14:17
Speaker 7: but then we have to go through it all over
14:19
Speaker 7: again with the real election. And you know Democrats are
14:21
Speaker 7: determined to flip this seat. They think they have the
14:23
Speaker 7: votes to do it. You know, you're going to see
14:25
Speaker 7: a Swazi campaign that could do very well in that area.
14:28
Speaker 7: But Kathy Hockle will make the first move here and
14:30
Speaker 7: I suspect we'll hear from her in the coming days.
14:32
Speaker 2: All right, Very good, Joe Matthew, thanks for joining us here.
14:35
Speaker 2: A host of sound on that is one p M.
14:38
Speaker 2: Wall Street Time.
14:39
Speaker 8: Check it out.
14:40
Speaker 2: He'll have the latest reporting on what's happening in historic
14:42
Speaker 2: day in Washington, DC. And Billy Lipschutz, he covers all
14:45
Speaker 2: the markets for Bloomberg News, doing a little roundtable there
14:48
Speaker 2: on a very unique.
14:50
Speaker 4: Day here in both the jeh you know, hand in hand.
14:53
Speaker 5: Go figure. You're listening to the tape. Catch a live
14:56
Speaker 5: program Bloomberg Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg Radio,
15:01
Speaker 5: the tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg
15:03
Speaker 5: Business App. You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa
15:07
Speaker 5: from our flagship New York station Just Say Alexa, playing
15:10
Speaker 5: Bloomberg eleven thirty.
15:14
Speaker 2: George Hampton Georges. He's the president and CEO of cure
15:17
Speaker 2: Ax Pharmaceuticals. He joined us via zoom. George, your company,
15:23
Speaker 2: your cure X Pharmaceuticals. You have I Guess, a prescription
15:26
Speaker 2: medicine for overweight and abast patients. What is that and
15:29
Speaker 2: how is it playing in this market?
15:32
Speaker 9: Sure, we have Contrave. Contreve has been on the market
15:36
Speaker 9: in the United States is twenty fifteen. It's very different
15:40
Speaker 9: from the other products that you just mentioned. It's not
15:42
Speaker 9: a GLP one. It's the only oral non DEA control
15:45
Speaker 9: medication approved by the FDA for obese and overweight patients.
15:51
Speaker 9: And so it's it's been a pretty exciting year. As
15:54
Speaker 9: you mentioned, We've got you surges in our business across
15:57
Speaker 9: not just the United States, but across Europe and in
16:00
Speaker 9: all forty eight markets that we're currently operating.
16:02
Speaker 4: So something Georgia, Paul and I were wondering just as
16:05
Speaker 4: you were coming on here, is the obesity crisis in
16:09
Speaker 4: America getting any worse?
16:11
Speaker 2: Right now?
16:12
Speaker 4: Like? Why this year has it been such a breakout
16:15
Speaker 4: year for weight loss drugs? And you know, this really
16:17
Speaker 4: seemed to be something that was so top of mind
16:19
Speaker 4: in the news a couple of years ago. You know,
16:22
Speaker 4: is it getting any worse? Is it stabilizing? Like why
16:26
Speaker 4: now all this attention on weight loss drugs?
16:29
Speaker 9: Well, I think a few things when it was getting
16:31
Speaker 9: in a lot of attention a number of years ago,
16:33
Speaker 9: and then you know, the pandemic took over as a
16:36
Speaker 9: top healthcare news story over the number one epidemic, which.
16:39
Speaker 8: Is obesity in the United States. Right And so now.
16:42
Speaker 9: We've kind of be able to turn ourselves back to
16:44
Speaker 9: you know this this particular situation, obesity is not getting better.
16:49
Speaker 9: We are progressing as a society. We have over forty
16:51
Speaker 9: three percent of our adult population that's obese, projected to
16:54
Speaker 9: be almost fifty percent in the next decade. Our children
16:57
Speaker 9: coming behind us are even more obese than we are
16:59
Speaker 9: as adults. And so this is we have to intervene.
17:03
Speaker 9: And ABC is a you know, kind of a special situation.
17:05
Speaker 9: Is it's really the only chronic disease that's reached this
17:08
Speaker 9: level without any type of you know, pharmaceutical device or
17:12
Speaker 9: service intervention that's that's paid for.
17:15
Speaker 2: So but like, hasn't no zempic been in the marketplace
17:18
Speaker 2: for a while for and there's been other diabetes pharmaceutical
17:22
Speaker 2: solutions in the marketplace. Why are we now saying, hey,
17:24
Speaker 2: this can be for weight loss. Wasn't that known for
17:26
Speaker 2: a while.
17:29
Speaker 9: But I think it was known for a while. Sure,
17:30
Speaker 9: you know zepic. Importantly, it doesn't have the indication for
17:33
Speaker 9: weight loss.
17:34
Speaker 8: It's a sister product, which is.
17:35
Speaker 9: The same product at a higher dose, is called wa
17:37
Speaker 9: Gobe see commercials for that. Mon Journal from lily Is
17:41
Speaker 9: is another another diabete type two diabetes product that will
17:45
Speaker 9: also be under zep bound a new name that is
17:48
Speaker 9: uh that will be used for for weight loss. But
17:50
Speaker 9: they are essentially identical, identical products. We these tools are
17:55
Speaker 9: great tools, the g LP ones, you know, with goby
17:57
Speaker 9: and and and zep bound they are they're going to
18:00
Speaker 9: be great tools that a lot of people will be
18:02
Speaker 9: able to lose a significant amount of weight on. And
18:05
Speaker 9: they you know, when you get big companies like Novo
18:08
Speaker 9: and Lily in the marketplace, they tend to do the
18:10
Speaker 9: right thing, right. They tend to bring a great product
18:13
Speaker 9: to market and put all the products and services behind
18:16
Speaker 9: it to to help help that disease journey.
18:18
Speaker 4: So tell us more about what cure Ax offers in
18:21
Speaker 4: this space, the drug that you guys have for obesity,
18:24
Speaker 4: how somebody can take it, what they should be maybe
18:27
Speaker 4: reasonably expecting in terms of the weight loss goals, and
18:30
Speaker 4: what the drug can accomplish.
18:32
Speaker 9: Sure, so we know the product's been growing, you know,
18:36
Speaker 9: significantly over the last decade since it's been launched in
18:39
Speaker 9: the United States. We acquired the product in twenty nineteen,
18:43
Speaker 9: and we acquired it with a different lens of how
18:46
Speaker 9: to grow the product and how to make it available
18:47
Speaker 9: to patients. So the first thing we did knowing that
18:49
Speaker 9: it was a cash only market, right, so these are
18:52
Speaker 9: not covered by private insurance and they're not covered by
18:54
Speaker 9: the government yet, although we're I think we're.
18:56
Speaker 8: Starting to make some good progress.
18:58
Speaker 9: We create a program called Cure Access where any patient
19:02
Speaker 9: who's prescribed the product can actually access the product for
19:06
Speaker 9: ninety nine dollars and have.
19:07
Speaker 8: It shipped directly to their home.
19:08
Speaker 9: We put that in place as a bridge to, you know,
19:11
Speaker 9: help people start to fight this disease for themselves, until
19:14
Speaker 9: such time that that insurance and the government, you know,
19:17
Speaker 9: start start covering these products as they as they typically would.
19:21
Speaker 8: For all of the chronic diseases.
19:22
Speaker 9: We'll do well over five hundred thousand prescriptions this year
19:25
Speaker 9: just in the United States, over a million worldwide, and
19:28
Speaker 9: as I mentioned, we've got and we've got we're now
19:31
Speaker 9: in forty eight countries approved.
19:33
Speaker 4: It seems like that could be a huge opportunity for
19:35
Speaker 4: you if insurance would cover this kind of a drug.
19:37
Speaker 4: I mean, is that something that's likely to happen anytime soon?
19:42
Speaker 9: I think so. You know, the tro act, which is
19:44
Speaker 9: the treatment reduced O BCD ACTSS, has never had more
19:47
Speaker 9: support inside of both both both chambers in Washington, d C.
19:52
Speaker 9: We've we've spent a lot of time up there educating
19:54
Speaker 9: the different the different groups on exactly what this disease
19:57
Speaker 9: is are The biggest barrier really is that for the
20:01
Speaker 9: longest time, Americans and Europeans in all First world countries
20:06
Speaker 9: that view obesity as a lifestyle and you just can't.
20:10
Speaker 9: You just can't tell someone to put the pork down
20:12
Speaker 9: and go for a walk. It doesn't it doesn't work.
20:14
Speaker 9: They truly have an underlying disease that's driving their obesity.
20:18
Speaker 9: And you can see this and in families, you can
20:20
Speaker 9: see families who have a beast members and other family
20:22
Speaker 9: members who are coming from the same eating habits and
20:25
Speaker 9: lifestyles are not obese. And so you know, we finally
20:27
Speaker 9: have start, you know, start to have enough medications to
20:30
Speaker 9: make a dent in uh and we're striving this.
20:33
Speaker 2: George, your company cure Ex Pharmaceuticals. It says here in
20:36
Speaker 2: Mike Bloomberg terminal based in Marstown, New Jersey.
20:40
Speaker 9: We we were prior to the epidemic, and the epidemic
20:43
Speaker 9: we moved to Nashville, Tennessee.
20:45
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, question, why do you get if you
20:47
Speaker 2: guys are in this space which people are going crazy for,
20:50
Speaker 2: why are you still at private company? Why aren't you
20:52
Speaker 2: public or why hasn't somebody bigger acquired you?
20:57
Speaker 9: Well, our first our first goal was to establish the
20:59
Speaker 9: product in a better in a better marketplace, in a
21:02
Speaker 9: in a better position than it was in the previous hands. Right,
21:05
Speaker 9: So the company that had it before us went went
21:07
Speaker 9: bankrupt and yeah, right, and so we we established cure
21:12
Speaker 9: acts really to go after two different disease dates, you know,
21:15
Speaker 9: obesity and smoking cessation. And so we're doing a great job,
21:19
Speaker 9: I think with now the number one Oral branded product
21:23
Speaker 9: in the United States. Uh, and we have a nice
21:26
Speaker 9: we have a great product in that's phase three ready,
21:28
Speaker 9: we're negotiating with the FDA for smoking cessation. So we
21:31
Speaker 9: continue to achieve our goals. I think we're you know,
21:33
Speaker 9: we're getting we're getting a fair amount of attention now
21:35
Speaker 9: now for the obste the epidemics taken off and and
21:38
Speaker 9: we've we've yeah.
21:41
Speaker 2: All right, Well, I would say, I mean, I like Nashville.
21:43
Speaker 2: It's a great town. But there's no Jersey shore down there, dude,
21:45
Speaker 2: So I don't know.
21:46
Speaker 4: You have to excuse me because we are Jersey people
21:49
Speaker 4: in the studio.
21:51
Speaker 9: I lived in Philly for a long time. I spent
21:53
Speaker 9: a lot of time in Avalon.
21:54
Speaker 8: There you go. There's my man.
21:55
Speaker 5: All right.
21:55
Speaker 2: George Hampton, thank you so much for joining us. George
21:57
Speaker 2: is the president and see of cure Ax Pharmaceuticals, giving
21:59
Speaker 2: us some more information on these some obesity drugs, the
22:03
Speaker 2: weight loss drugs, and kind of where we are in
22:05
Speaker 2: that pipeline. A lot of options out there, and it
22:07
Speaker 2: seems like it's going to become even more pronounced going
22:10
Speaker 2: forward as these companies continue to invest.
22:12
Speaker 5: You're listening to the tape cans Are Live program Bloomberg
22:15
Speaker 5: Markets weekdays at ten am Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, the
22:19
Speaker 5: tune in app, Bloomberg dot Com, and the Bloomberg Business App.
22:22
Speaker 5: You can also listen live on Amazon Alexa from our
22:25
Speaker 5: flagship New York station. Just say Alexa, play Bloomberg eleven thirty.
22:32
Speaker 8: Let's talk AI.
22:33
Speaker 2: Why not because that was a big driver of this
22:35
Speaker 2: market performance of this year. I couldn't tell you. I
22:37
Speaker 2: wouldn't know AI if I tripped over. But people tell
22:39
Speaker 2: me it's going to revolutionize the world. And we've got
22:42
Speaker 2: one of those folks here, Charlie Hernandez. He's to see
22:44
Speaker 2: of my pocket lawyer who joins us live here in
22:46
Speaker 2: our Bloomberg Interactive Brokers Studio. So let's start, really thirty
22:50
Speaker 2: thousand foot Charlie, what is MyPocket lawyer dot AI?
22:54
Speaker 10: Well, let me start by saying the entire legal profession
22:57
Speaker 10: is about to fundamentally change, and wait going to be
23:00
Speaker 10: without a little bit of heartburn. Okay, the world doesn't
23:02
Speaker 10: like to change, but luckily Silicon Valley is in the
23:04
Speaker 10: business of changing world.
23:05
Speaker 8: So I hear.
23:06
Speaker 10: We've got something very exciting, which is the first time
23:09
Speaker 10: AI technology is in the position where it can give reliable,
23:12
Speaker 10: high quality, and most importantly affordable legal advice online and
23:15
Speaker 10: that's going to change the landscape fundamentally.
23:18
Speaker 4: Tell us a little bit about your background, Charlie, and
23:20
Speaker 4: how you got into this.
23:21
Speaker 8: Absolutely.
23:22
Speaker 10: So I started a fintech company about four years ago
23:24
Speaker 10: after doing a JDMBA out of Harvard, So my backgrounds
23:27
Speaker 10: in business and law.
23:28
Speaker 8: But I think the important thing.
23:29
Speaker 10: Is that when we were at this fintech company, we
23:32
Speaker 10: realize that consumers who are underserved from a financial perspective
23:36
Speaker 10: also don't have access to legal resources. And this is
23:39
Speaker 10: a huge problem in the US right now, especially when
23:41
Speaker 10: you get to low income communities. Almost one hundred percent
23:43
Speaker 10: of civil legal issues go completely unaddressed. And so that's
23:46
Speaker 10: what this technology is designed to solve for, is that
23:50
Speaker 10: we really have a big problem with people not getting
23:52
Speaker 10: the legal help that they need in the US, and
23:54
Speaker 10: for the first time, we have an ability to use
23:56
Speaker 10: technology to get them that legal help.
23:58
Speaker 8: How does it work?
24:00
Speaker 10: If a beta product out right now which takes a
24:02
Speaker 10: contract that you have any sort of legal document, we
24:04
Speaker 10: will simplify it, we will summarize it, we will explain
24:06
Speaker 10: it for you.
24:07
Speaker 8: But that's really just the teaser.
24:08
Speaker 10: The real product we're launching a month from now, and
24:10
Speaker 10: that's what's going to fundamentally change everything because that is
24:12
Speaker 10: a place where you can go. Any legal question you have,
24:15
Speaker 10: you can go, you can get it answered in a
24:17
Speaker 10: reliable way. But the challenges are there are a lot
24:19
Speaker 10: of people who are afraid of this technology. Right you
24:21
Speaker 10: can imagine how lawyers would react to this. Most lawyers
24:23
Speaker 10: are anywhere between concerned too panicked.
24:25
Speaker 8: At the idea of AI.
24:26
Speaker 10: And so there are really three reasons why people have
24:29
Speaker 10: opposition to this type of technology. The first one is
24:32
Speaker 10: people are concerned that if you use AI to give
24:34
Speaker 10: legal advice online, it will cause consumer harm if it
24:36
Speaker 10: gives the wrong legal advice. Now, the answer to that,
24:39
Speaker 10: and it's a really easy one, is that there is
24:40
Speaker 10: real consumer harm happening right now every day by people who.
24:44
Speaker 8: Do not have access to legal help.
24:45
Speaker 10: The second piece of opposition is that people are concerned
24:48
Speaker 10: that this will create a two tiered system where some
24:50
Speaker 10: people will have access to lawyers wealthy people, and other
24:53
Speaker 10: people will only have access to technology. Now that is wrong,
24:56
Speaker 10: because there is already a two tiered system. Wealthy people
24:58
Speaker 10: have access to lawyers, everybody else doesn't have access to anything.
25:01
Speaker 10: And now the third piece of opposition for why people
25:03
Speaker 10: are afraid of this technology is lawyers are afraid it
25:06
Speaker 10: will take their jobs. And why I'm here to say
25:09
Speaker 10: that we've built this technology in a way that all
25:10
Speaker 10: it is going to do is get lawyers more work,
25:13
Speaker 10: more clients, access to people that never would have had
25:15
Speaker 10: access to lawyers before, and more revenue streams.
25:17
Speaker 8: So it's really a win for everything.
25:19
Speaker 2: How do you see that playing out? How does that
25:21
Speaker 2: scenario work?
25:21
Speaker 10: So there are millions of people across the country right
25:24
Speaker 10: now who don't have access to lawyers at all, and
25:26
Speaker 10: these are some of the most entrepreneurial people in our
25:28
Speaker 10: workforce right These are immigrancies or people starting businesses and
25:31
Speaker 10: they can't afford lawyers, and so in the short term,
25:33
Speaker 10: these are people who can go to a lawyer and
25:35
Speaker 10: for the first time they will have access to legal
25:37
Speaker 10: help in a much more efficient way because by the
25:39
Speaker 10: time we send people through our technology to an attorney,
25:42
Speaker 10: to our network of attorneys, it is packaged in a
25:44
Speaker 10: really efficient way that we have a memo, we have
25:46
Speaker 10: a brief put together. They know exactly what the case
25:48
Speaker 10: issue is, what the context is. We have a recommendation
25:51
Speaker 10: for the course of action. So if it used to
25:53
Speaker 10: take them three hours to bring on a new client,
25:55
Speaker 10: they can now do it in thirty minutes.
25:57
Speaker 4: So give us an example of this, Charlie. Let's say
25:59
Speaker 4: maybe I mean you're in a car accident or something
26:03
Speaker 4: and you're seeking you know, maybe you're like, oh, could
26:05
Speaker 4: I sue? Could I get damages? And so is this
26:07
Speaker 4: going to be like a smartphone app? Like what do
26:09
Speaker 4: you do?
26:10
Speaker 8: It is so easy.
26:11
Speaker 10: All you have to do is go to MyPocket Lawyer
26:12
Speaker 10: dot AI and you ask your question. It'll guide you
26:15
Speaker 10: through a series of prompts that'll say, Okay, where did
26:17
Speaker 10: this accident happen?
26:18
Speaker 8: Was it in California. Was it in New York? Do
26:20
Speaker 8: you have a driver's insurance policy? If so, upload it.
26:23
Speaker 8: We'll take a look.
26:23
Speaker 10: We'll get I guess of what your damages might be,
26:25
Speaker 10: what your liability might be. And if this is something
26:28
Speaker 10: that we can solve with the technology alone, we will.
26:30
Speaker 10: And that's it, and it's easy. If it's something that
26:32
Speaker 10: we need to escalate to a lawyer, we will look
26:34
Speaker 10: for you in your local area. We will find a
26:36
Speaker 10: lawyer that is specifically focusing on this practice area, and
26:40
Speaker 10: we will put you in touch with that person and
26:41
Speaker 10: we'll send all that information obviously with your consent to
26:44
Speaker 10: that lawyer to put you in the position to get
26:45
Speaker 10: your help you need.
26:46
Speaker 4: And you have attorneys that are like signed onto the
26:48
Speaker 4: network already that this is I mean, I guess do
26:50
Speaker 4: they see this as good for their business?
26:52
Speaker 10: So the funny thing is most attorneys are really really
26:54
Speaker 10: excited about this. There's a movement in the legal profession
26:57
Speaker 10: called the Access to Justice movement, which essentially recognizes the
27:00
Speaker 10: massive need for this type of help across the US
27:02
Speaker 10: right now and by the way, beyond the US too.
27:04
Speaker 10: And so we've had tons of attorneys tell us not
27:07
Speaker 10: only that they are really excited about this, but that
27:09
Speaker 10: they want to invest. And this is everyday attorneys, small
27:11
Speaker 10: and medium sized law firm attorneys all the way up
27:13
Speaker 10: to massive law firm partners and even some celebrity lawyers.
27:16
Speaker 2: Also, how are you funding this thing?
27:19
Speaker 8: This is where it gets really exciting.
27:20
Speaker 10: So I mentioned earlier that Silicon Valley is in the
27:22
Speaker 10: business of changing worlds. This is an eight hundred billion
27:25
Speaker 10: dollar industry and Silicon Valley is just dying to disrupt
27:28
Speaker 10: this industry. There is no more antiquated industry out there
27:31
Speaker 10: than the legal profession right now.
27:33
Speaker 8: It is so inefficient.
27:34
Speaker 10: There are so many places where we can make changes,
27:36
Speaker 10: and Silicon Valley investors are Let me ask you a question,
27:39
Speaker 10: when is the do you.
27:40
Speaker 8: Remember the first time you took an uber? Sure? Yeah,
27:43
Speaker 8: really you do? Sure?
27:45
Speaker 2: Tell me a marketing trip in La Okay?
27:48
Speaker 4: Wow, I couldn't tell you. Okay, keep going?
27:50
Speaker 10: And how much of a better experience for that is
27:54
Speaker 10: the experience that we are promising people.
27:55
Speaker 8: With my pot It's a big promise, dude, it is.
27:57
Speaker 10: And there it's all of the same challenges, right. I mean,
28:00
Speaker 10: you have this highly regulated industry. There is not a
28:03
Speaker 10: free market open and you have this embedded industry group
28:06
Speaker 10: that has access to lobbyists. There's regulatory capture at play,
28:09
Speaker 10: and they don't want to give up the revenue stream
28:11
Speaker 10: of basically what was the taxi industry group back then.
28:13
Speaker 10: That's what the legal profession is right now. That's the
28:15
Speaker 10: fight that we're waging, and I'm telling you it is
28:17
Speaker 10: going to be a war.
28:18
Speaker 2: What kind of competition? Who do you think your competition
28:20
Speaker 2: is out there? Is there any technological competition to you
28:23
Speaker 2: out there?
28:23
Speaker 10: In terms of this, we are the most technologically advanced
28:25
Speaker 10: from an AI perspective in the consumer legal tech space.
28:29
Speaker 10: Now that said, our competition really isn't other legal tech
28:33
Speaker 10: competitors or even incumbents. What the competition is is people
28:36
Speaker 10: not seeking out the help that they need. So people
28:38
Speaker 10: who don't recognize that they have a legal problem, people
28:40
Speaker 10: who don't think that they can afford a.
28:41
Speaker 8: Lawyer, people who are scared to go to a lawyer.
28:43
Speaker 10: So that can be you know, we have a lot
28:45
Speaker 10: of folks who are immigrants who need this type of
28:46
Speaker 10: help and they're scared because they're undocumented, they don't want
28:49
Speaker 10: to go to a lawyer.
28:50
Speaker 8: It can be startups who think they can afford a lawyer.
28:52
Speaker 8: It can be.
28:53
Speaker 10: Anybody who doesn't get the legal help that they need.
28:56
Speaker 10: That is the challenge is that they don't realize yet
28:58
Speaker 10: that this type of access is out there.
29:00
Speaker 4: How does this make money?
29:02
Speaker 10: It's a really good question. So it is a two
29:06
Speaker 10: process system.
29:06
Speaker 8: Basically. The first one is a subscription model.
29:09
Speaker 10: So if you think about how much it costs for
29:10
Speaker 10: somebody to go to a lawyer right now, the average
29:13
Speaker 10: hourly cost is about three hundred and fifty dollars an
29:15
Speaker 10: hour to year.
29:16
Speaker 4: It sounds low. Maybe that's my New York mind.
29:18
Speaker 8: That's because we're in New York.
29:19
Speaker 4: Okay, I'm jaded.
29:20
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean you go in New York market and
29:22
Speaker 10: you're talking one thousand dollars twelve hundred dollars an hour,
29:24
Speaker 10: especially when you start to get into the areas of
29:25
Speaker 10: startup law, real estate law people who are trying to
29:28
Speaker 10: close on homes. But when you go to even rural
29:30
Speaker 10: areas where people don't really have access to lawyers, it's
29:32
Speaker 10: still extremely expensive to get an attorney. And so we
29:35
Speaker 10: can charge a small amounts subscription model that really is
29:39
Speaker 10: a phenomenal alternative to having to go directly to a lawyer.
29:42
Speaker 8: Now that's the first piece.
29:43
Speaker 10: The second piece is lawyers spend a ton of money
29:46
Speaker 10: every year on trying to acquire new clients, and we
29:49
Speaker 10: can make this job so much easier for them. They
29:51
Speaker 10: are huge, untapped pool of pools of consumers out there
29:54
Speaker 10: that need access to legal help and we can send
29:56
Speaker 10: all of those people to lawyers, and lawyers are willing
29:58
Speaker 10: to pay us big bucks.
29:59
Speaker 8: To do that.
30:00
Speaker 2: So where are you in terms of the rollout of
30:02
Speaker 2: this product and service.
30:04
Speaker 10: So this is where it gets really exciting. A month
30:06
Speaker 10: from now, we've got the technology built already. We are
30:08
Speaker 10: going to roll it out in about a month, and
30:11
Speaker 10: it's going to cause a It's going to ruffle a
30:14
Speaker 10: lot of feathers.
30:14
Speaker 8: I'll tell you.
30:15
Speaker 10: We've already gotten lawsuit threats, We've gotten a cease and
30:18
Speaker 10: assist from a competitor. People are not going to be
30:20
Speaker 10: happy about this, and it is going to be a big,
30:22
Speaker 10: big fight. I mean to use the Uber example again.
30:24
Speaker 10: You remember all of the challenges that they had when
30:26
Speaker 10: they came into these new cities, and the taxi industry groups,
30:29
Speaker 10: taxi and livery, the departments of transportation. They didn't want
30:32
Speaker 10: to let their golden goose go. And that is the
30:34
Speaker 10: fundamental sea change that has happened in the legal profession
30:37
Speaker 10: right now.
30:37
Speaker 4: Are there particular areas of law you think that this
30:40
Speaker 4: is going to be more successful in than others?
30:43
Speaker 10: Absolutely, So let me just give you an example. In
30:46
Speaker 10: landlord tenant law, we have an eviction filing happening every
30:49
Speaker 10: fifteen seconds here in the US. In those eviction cases,
30:53
Speaker 10: ninety percent of the landlords have access to council, only
30:56
Speaker 10: ten percent of the tenants due. And you can imagine
31:01
Speaker 10: what happens there when you're an unrepresented tenant going up
31:03
Speaker 10: against the landlord who has an expensive lawyer, You're not
31:06
Speaker 10: going to prevail. So things like landlord tenant law, things
31:09
Speaker 10: like family law, employment law, wage garnishment issues, startups who
31:13
Speaker 10: don't have access to this, small businesses who don't have
31:15
Speaker 10: access to this, debt, consumer debt, bankruptcy. Really, I mean,
31:19
Speaker 10: I hate to be so expansive, but that is really
31:21
Speaker 10: the scalability of this technology that we're talking about. It's
31:25
Speaker 10: phenomenally applicable and it really is going to change the
31:27
Speaker 10: game day one.
31:28
Speaker 2: How do you start awareness of the build awareness of
31:31
Speaker 2: this out there for your target market.
31:33
Speaker 10: So we are being as loud as we can be
31:38
Speaker 10: about the fact that there is a potential for a
31:41
Speaker 10: new world's approach here. The world could look very differently
31:45
Speaker 10: when this technology is available, and so we're trying to
31:48
Speaker 10: basically communicate it to consumers. We're saying, hey, this could
31:50
Speaker 10: be very different. You don't have to take a taxi anymore,
31:53
Speaker 10: you can take an uber. You don't have to go
31:54
Speaker 10: to an expensive lawyer right away anymore. You can go
31:56
Speaker 10: to my pocket lawyer. That's the communication process that we're doing.
31:59
Speaker 10: That's why it's really important to talk to folks like you,
32:01
Speaker 10: and I think the interesting thing that's been happening is
32:03
Speaker 10: that for probably over a decade, lawyers have recognized the
32:09
Speaker 10: challenges that the access to justice crisis represents. That lawyers
32:13
Speaker 10: are embedded. They don't want to give up the revenue
32:15
Speaker 10: streams that they have, and they think they have to.
32:16
Speaker 10: We're telling them that you don't. We're telling them that
32:18
Speaker 10: we can actually make you more money by serving more clients.
32:21
Speaker 10: And the challenge always has been the legal community doesn't
32:24
Speaker 10: communicate with the business community. Right I was a JDMBA,
32:27
Speaker 10: so I was on both the law side and the
32:29
Speaker 10: business side, and there is very little communication. I go
32:32
Speaker 10: to these law conferences, I am the only person from
32:34
Speaker 10: the business side there, and I'm especially the only person
32:37
Speaker 10: from Silicon Valley there. Silicon Valley they didn't used to
32:40
Speaker 10: invest in legal tech. That is something new for them
32:42
Speaker 10: and it is very exciting.
32:43
Speaker 2: Interesting, fascinating story. Charlie, thanks for coming in and sharing
32:46
Speaker 2: it with us. Charlee and Hernandez CEO of My Pocket Lawyer.
32:49
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the Bloomberg Markets podcast. You can
32:52
Speaker 2: subscribe and listen to interviews at Apple Podcasts or whatever
32:56
Speaker 2: podcast platform you prefer.
32:58
Speaker 1: I'm Matt Miller. I'm on Twitter at Matt Miller nineteen
33:01
Speaker 1: seventy three.
33:03
Speaker 2: And I'm fall Sweeney. I'm on Twitter at pt Sweeney.
33:05
Speaker 2: Before the podcast, you can always catch us worldwide at
33:08
Speaker 2: Bloomberg Radio.