customers six years ago, but did not report any profits from those sales on its 2019 tax returns because all of the income was supposedly earned offshore, according to an investigation by the Democratic staff of the Senate Finance Committee.

As a result, the company was able to avoid paying billions of dollars in federal income taxes and, in fact, also did not report any taxable income in the U.S. for 2018 and 2020. To accomplish this, Pfizer used what was described as an “egregious tax gimmick” called “round-tripping,” a tax avoidance scheme that involves making sales to U.S. customers, but treating the profits as foreign income for tax purposes.

Often, round-tripping refers to offshoring manufacturing to a foreign subsidiary located in another country or jurisdiction with lower tax rates. The list includes Puerto Rico and Ireland, where Pfizer has various operations. Another tactic is to shift intellectual property rights to such havens or engage in transfer pricing, which involves a company selling itself products at artificially high prices.

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Good morning. Let’s get straight into the news today.

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Good morning. The MAHA movement is influencing not only the federal government, but also state legislatures across the U.S. We discuss all that and the key biotech news today.

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When it comes to delivering shareholder value through M&A, Ron Renaud is a biotech investor’s best friend. Over the last 10 years, all three of the companies he has helmed were sold to Big Pharma for a combined $16 billion. 

With that track record — and the financial windfall it brings — no one would have begrudged Renaud, 55, had he desired to spend more time with his Cape Cod fishing buddies. But he can’t quit biotech. Weeks after overseeing the close of Cerevel Therapeutics’s $8.7 billion acquisition by AbbVie, Renaud is back as CEO of Kailera Therapeutics, a newly formed company with a pipeline of weight loss drug candidates.

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Good morning. Today, we look at the biggest biotech events to watch this quarter. And as my editor had to remind me (since I’m still in denial), we are indeed in the fourth quarter now.

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Atlas, Bain, and RTW Investments announced Tuesday that they have co-led a $400 million Series A financing for a new Boston-area startup company called Kailera Therapeutics. The investors have also brought in a familiar face: Ron Renaud, who recently oversaw the $8.7 billion acquisition of Cerevel Therapeutics, a spinout of Pfizer assets that Bain helped finance back in 2018. 

Kailera’s series A round total is one of the largest in the biotech industry this year, and speaks to just how much attention weight loss medications have garnered from investors.

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Good morning. It’s another busy news day, and I’m layering up at home to avoid turning the heater on. Fall is officially here.

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AbbVie reported Thursday that its experimental Parkinson’s drug that it got from Cerevel Therapeutics helped alleviate symptoms and improve quality of life in a late-stage study.

In the Phase 3 trial, early-stage Parkinson’s patients on the highest dose of the drug, called tavapadon, experienced a 10.2-point improvement on tests that measured motor symptoms and quality of life, also known as the MDS-UPDRS parts II and III. Meanwhile, those on placebo saw a 1.8-point worsening.

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Good morning. If you’re following the European Society for Medical Oncology meeting that starts tomorrow, sign up for our ESMO in 30 Seconds newsletter. My colleague Drew Joseph is on the ground in Barcelona (and I’m very jealous of him).

Onto the biotech news of the day.

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The BIOSECURE Act would prohibit many biotech and pharmaceutical companies from conducting certain research and development activities, including the manufacturing of drugs through named Chinese companies. On Monday, an updated version of the bill passed the House of Representatives with strong bipartisan support. Notably, a number of representatives with expertise in health care and the life sciences ultimately voted against the legislation. The Senate is expected to take up a slightly different version later this year.

BIOSECURE proponents argue that allowing the Chinese Communist Party access to U.S. patient information is a national security concern, as is the overreliance on China for drug development. They aren’t wrong. Protecting that information and being able to make our own medicines should be a national priority.

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