Using Tech to Improve Access to Covid-19 Clinical Trials

If you can also listen to our radio show at two pm Eastern on Bloomberg Radio, and be sure to watch us too on YouTube by searching Bloomberg Global News. We know infection rates are accelerating in the Southwest and the Rocky Mountain West. After sweeping through states in the Midwest, we talked about a growing number of hospitals canceling or delaying some planned medical procedures to preserve staff and beds.

The death toll in US nursing homes and long term care facilities topping one hundred thousand, and meantime, you've got US airline traffic rising as some Americans traveled for Thanksgiving despite tons and tons of warnings from American health officials. Cases right now passing fifty nine eight million deaths topping one point four million. So let's talk about the virus our daily check today with Dr Michelle Longmire, CEO at Metable.

It's a platform connecting patient sites and clinical trial teams, and she joins us on the phone in Palo Alto. Dr Longmyer, so nice to have you here with us. First of all, um, tell us a little bit about what you're seeing on the ground there at there on the West coast. Sure, well, thank you so much for having me today. You know, I think everyone is talking about the risk mitigation strategies that are really needed for

the holiday. Um. Of course, everyone loves Thanksgiving. It's really a quintessential family holiday in the United States, and unfortunately this year, you know, the best thing to do is to really you know, take the safety measures into consideration. And unfortunately this means really not spending time um with family in person, you know, if they haven't been within

the same quarantine group. So I think that's really friend of mine for people in California, and we're just thinking about how we can look forward, you know, to a vaccine into an area and era where we can be

back with our family and friends. But certainly people are thinking about polity, but with safety and mind yeah, No, absolutely, And I know that your specialty is um autoimmune skin diseases, but I do want to um before we get into the kind of work you guys are doing at your firm um and your company that specifically, when you see the rising numbers of people who are traveling airline traffic, does that say to you that in a couple of weeks we probably are going to look back at Thanksgiving

as another super spreader event. I mean, you know, the data is the data, and it's we know that the social distancing, and we know that the masks and we know that, you know, the isolation measures are critical, and you know this is a very contagious illness, and you know the probabilities are what they are, and if you defy those by crowded airplanes and you know public like you know, public gatherings, we do see that the disease spreads.

So you know, it would be it would be very you know, it would be unlikely that we won't see that following the holiday because you know, people, if they are not heeding the warnings, we're going to see you know, much greater numbers and the spread is going to be there. So certainly I think that's why everyone's preparing for that because we're observing that there. You know, people are still traveling, and the airplanes are certainly an area where we know

that there is you know, contagent risk. Right, it's the antithesis of everything that everybody says. Right, it's closed, it's lots of people. It's not an ideal situation. So talk to us, Talk to us a little bit about the work you guys are doing it medable, Um, you guys are a platform. You bring together patient sites and clinical trial teams. I have members of my family that are in the medical community, so I understand this, this whole idea,

especially when they are UM. You know, therapies out there, you know, finding people who might be good for a trial, which just helps and kind of get learning to know more about a treatment. But tell me about what you guys are doing, specifically when it comes to COVID nineteen. Sure, so you know, clinical trials are a critical component of developing new medications, and I think it was an area of people didn't really think about prior to COVID, but

then once COVID hit. You know, the roles of clinical trials for vaccine and therapy development became something that the broader public was aware of, and you know, you look at the news coming out of Fiser and Maderna. Let's

take Fiser for example. You know, we've had over forty thou volunteers into the Fiser vaccine study, and these are people who you know, want to be a part of the research efforts, who also are eager to get the vaccination, and they've played a foundational role in us, you know, getting through this pandemic. You know, I think our role medical in this is to tackle some of the biggest challenges facing clinical trials, and one of the biggest challenges

is access. You know, the pandemic his results in enclosures of many of you know, the general kind of day to day health care facilities, right, we don't want people going in there because we don't want to spread the disease. And clinical trials in a traditional sense are no different than as you go to your doctor. What metaval pioneering is really a way to access the clinical trial and the convenience of your own home, and this has become extremely important in the setting of the pandemic and has

become extremely important in these large vaccine trials. You know, where we need the participation. People are eager to be a part of research, and we need to bring that into the comfort of their own home, you know, through the various aspects of the clinical trial. So we've seen a big shift from clinic based healthcare delivery and clinical trial delivery to much more of a remote, digital and

connected ecosystem. And our company has really been at the forefront of that transition and transformation where high tech world dr Longmeyer. But still, of course technology doesn't always it fails us occasionally, I asked um alright, put out the question of there you are in Palo Alto, smack in

the middle of Silicon Valley. Healthcare we know has been slow to change, slow to disrupt, but the virus has definitely made people um do more telement us in we'd start to see some changes in the health care system. What role can and should Silicon Valley be playing, even more so when it comes to kind of bringing healthcare to the twenty one century. Sure, I think that the pandemic is an unprecedented opportunity for Silicon Valley and technology

to show the value around major changes. So, you know, what we've seen is say telemedicine, you know, utilization up by five acts of what it was before. This is you know, really important that is a tech industry, we're able to move quickly to use the window of opportunity to bring in these changes and really for us as a clinical trial company to serve patients in new ways, and they're looking to connect to the health care system with new technologies now and bringing it back to your company.

Just got about forty seconds left here. I mean, the more patients that get involved in clinical trials, we ultimately on the other side figure out what treatments can best serve us as a as a population. I'm I mean Chlinical trials are the route to us, you know, achieving cures to seven thousand or more uncured diseases today, and they are a fundamental part of us developing new medication. So it's to the benefit of everyone. I'd encourage everyone,

you know to consider clinical trials. It's super important for us as you know, we move forward with better health as a society and certainly as we've seen with COVID night teams. All right, listen, great to check in with you, and I'm glad we were able to reconnect you well. Have a great Thanksgiving Dr Michelle Longmeyer. She is CEO at Meda bal And she is joining us on the phone from Palo Alto, California. This is Bloomberg Business Week

with Carol Messer from Bloomberg Radio. You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week. I'm Carol Masser. We continue to learn every day about the power of social media companies such as Google and others, and this story reported for Bloomberg Business Week really plays into that big time. It's how Google's deep pockets really makes some of its rivals less eager for an antitrust crackdown. You're probably saying, well it. So let's get into this um with our own Bloomberg Business

Week editor Joe Joe Webber. He's joining us on the access line in Brooklyn. This story written by Mark Bergen, who is technology reporter at Bloomberg News. But Joel, let me kick it off with you first. I mean, this is a story that I feel like, you know, we continue to see some of these big social media players, big you know, tech players, they just continue to dominate, and some of it is because of some of these

relationships they have with even some of their smaller competitors. Yeah, that's that's what makes this story, UM, I think part of an interesting antitrust conversation, UM and in an element

that UM we hadn't I hadn't heard before. And and part of that is, you know, Google has really, you know, just an amazing modernization ability, and as part of that, they are not shy about throwing their cash around, and a lot of that cash goes to to to We'll call them rivals, even though that you might not totally

always think of them as rivals. But but in this case, UM and the one that I'd love to have, Mark talked more about Mozilla, which has a rival product in his Firefox browser, UM actually makes a lot of money from Google, even though Google has a rival product and Chrome. So so Mark talked to us about how how how Mozilla in Firefox sort of see this relationship with Google in light of the anti Druss conversation that we're in the middle of. Yeah. Sure, I think there's like two

different version, right. There is a front facing, sort of official version, which is we have Mozilla and there in the story saying you know, it's interesting that they actually switched to Yahoo in two in fourteen because Yahoo is willing to give them a lump sum from our from understanding even like a hundred million more year or a year than Google, which was great from from Mozilla standpoint

to have you know, that much more money. But then a lot of their Firefox users just started switching over to Google. And so by they're telling officially, you know a lot of people just prefer Google Search show over alternatives.

You talk to sort of privately with a lot of people that they work there, and they're like die hard privacy advocates, right, and they're kind of some of them are disturbed or upset about some of Google's privacy practices, and so it's they like, you know, as much as they want to push on on Google for Chrome, and they have done to the marketing and you know they can out with a great billboard a few years ago

that's a big browser is watching you. They're they're well aware that they're sort of like poking the bear, uh and and they're they're actually kind of targeting who is their biggest bank roller. So it's just very awkward, I think kind of a unique position for the company to be in, um that many other Google partners are also in, right, and and so that kind of brings us to the anti trust context. Um, So how do how would like a regulator um look at at an arrangement like this

and try and make sense of it. I think, I mean, you know, Mozilla's come out and publicly and they think mostly we expected to privately to say. The d o J is coming after these search deals that Google has UM where they pay up front for for distribution of the search engine. Um. That seems to be something where you're going to see a lot of companies that would maybe normally come out in the port of that now arguing please don't make those illegal bigger because they're really

important for our bottom line. Um. So I don't know how the d o J is going to land on that. You know, you certainly like the Apple Google relationships and really fastened anyone, Well get into that one. That's the one that blew my mind in your story because it's I mean, they really benefit from each other. It's it's

a great mutual benefit of Google. All these talks about how it has a horizontal business, right, uh, and so so much of their advertising, right, they're sharing revenue with publishers, they're sharing with websites and YouTube. Right. It's it's all the same sort of model with the Android right every single you know, Samsung gets a lump of change every year from the Google searches on Samsung, and Apple gets the same deal, although it is a much more secretive deal.

There are very few people at both companies know you know the details of that. Um. You know, we reported Apple had had talked to Microsoft and being a few years ago. I think that really scared Google because they get so much revenue from from iPhones. Mark. Can we talk about like Mozilla specifically and like how how much do they get in in cash, cold hard cash from from Google and how significant is that to their bottom line? Yeah,

so we don't. Mozilla is a it's a nonprofit. It's private company owned by a non profits that they put out numbers of last numbers from I think with teen where they don't give the exact figure saying a line one it says from Google, but they have royalties and royalties were close to the um They said about ninety percent of royalties I believe in over four hundred million a year and the revenue and the bulk of that comes from these search deals. And so we're from our

based on our source. Thing that's like about probably minimum of that of their entire revenue comes. So this is close to half a half a billion dollars a week here. That's amazing. UM. So you know, you you also mentioned that, you know, and you mentioned this earlier, the privacy element, and one of the things that you sort of had explored or was explored in the story, um, is that there was actually a kind of a niscent ability to sort of jump into the search game. Oh you're gonna

cut me off for Joe Biden, aren't you. I love you dearly, Happy Thanksgiving. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from Bloomberg Radio. So I do want to get to our Bloomberg Green segment because changing times, based on the changing political wins. That story in our Bloomberg Green segment today really about how today's smart money is staying away from Arctic oil drilling. Let's get into it with Bloomberg News Environmental regulations reporter Jennifer de Lowe. She

is with us on the phone from the nation's capital. Hey, Jen, nice to have you here with us. So we're talking about drilling rights and selling those drilling rights. That's something that Trump Trump administration has been pretty aggressive about doing absolutely. You know, they were part of a push several years ago to get Congress to basically mandate that they stand up a drilling program in the Arctic as part of

the tax bill in two thousand seventeen. And now they're taking really concrete steps to try to get drilling rights sold. Really in the final days and maybe even hours of the Trump presidency, we could see at least Sail January nineteen uh trying to basically get these drilling rights out the door, and folks are lining up for them. Correct, little little sarcasm, Well, tell listen, let's listen. I feel like this speaks to so many conversations we have on Bloomberg.

That right, you can put it out there. But the winds have changed, especially when it comes to things like this and the impact on the climate and kind of where the energy markets are going. That's exactly right. I mean, we see the same thing in the market, you know, with a whole and Naphi gas in the electricity market,

and here, you know, it's just remarkable. Had this sale happened even a year ago, you'd have probably seen much more interest, much more activity, including some bigger names, and and the reality is that oil companies are facing, you know, not just the reality of a Biden administration that has promised to block are they're drilling, So these leases are really going to be worthless for four years at least, but they're also seeing you know, financing dry up for

these projects, and the pr you know, hit that they would take from from drilling in the Arctic, which is wildly unpopular, is a significant factor to a year ago, some of these considerations were not at play, Jed, you know what I think really that was I thought interesting that anybody who bids on these drilling rights, as you say in your reporting, we'll meet outside financing. And again, as you said the pr image, there are a lot

of banks who are like thanks, but no thanks. Because increasingly we're seeing among the big investor, there's institutional investors. They are looking at the investments, the loans that a bank makes, right, the business that it transacts, uh, in terms of how it fits into increasingly e s G criteria. Well that's exactly right. A movie seen five major US banks adopt policy saying that they are not going to

finance oil and gas projects in the Arctic refuge. And they're saying, you know that they're adopting these policies not because they're you know, just being pressured by environmentalists, which is something you hear from the Trump administrations, but in fact there are real financial risks involved. They've already taken hits with their oil investments, and of course they're concerned about risks to the climate, to their investments and their

reputation if they keep underwriting these projects. So what happens though, if somebody does buy a lease before the Biden administration steps in, Um, it's real right and it can lead to drilling. In fact, it can so these leases if they are formally not just sold, but actually formally issued before or Biden is inaugurated, their ten year contracts, and it's really hard to to get out of a contract and would be really hard for the Biden administrations to

walk away from them. Uh. The reality is every single permit these companies would need to actually do something with those leases is not going to come in the next four years. I mean we're talking about drilling permits, but also environmental various environmental approvals and wildlife approvals. So all of those are an obstacle to actually standing up activity in the next four years. One thing that's going to

be interesting to see is really who shows up. We won't have big names, but we could see some small sub speculators and little known companies that have ties with the last interests that want to see the theory of develops. Yeah, it's a fascinating story and a deep dive into what's going on. Uh, you know, as everything else is going on around us, we've got to keep a watch on these kinds of things. Jen Thank you so much. Jennifer Deloe.

She is environmental regulations reporter for us here at Bloomberg News in our Bloomberg Green segment today. Check her out on Twitter and you can check her out on the Bloomberg terminal and also at Bloomberg dot com. This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer from Bloomberg Radio. Oh, just scanning my Bloomberg terminal and yeah, this is the most right story in the past eight hours on the Bloomberg and kind of feeling a little bit chilly across

Wall Street. This story is about Bank of America's leaders, how they are planning year and bonuses that break with Wall Streets traders hopes for hefty raises. It's kind of odd considering they've had a bit of a record setting run. So let's explain what's going on. Michelle Davis, finance reporter at Bloomberg New she's with us once again on the phone from Vermont. Michelle, good to have you here with us. You know, you put bonus in a headline and it's

going to trend high on the Bloomberg. What's going on here? Yeah, So, you know, as you mentioned, Bank America's senior executives have been floating plans right now about you know, what bonuses are going to look like. It's that time of year and a lot of people in the industry, you know, traders have been expecting to get big payoffs because trading revenue has surged this year. You know, it's been one of the best years in in a decade or since

the financial crisis. Some people feel like they've worked harder than they ever have before. And uh, the color we're getting is that exacts they're actually thinking about keeping the bonus pool slots for traders, even though you know, trading revenue jumped in the first nine months of the year. And a lot of this has to do with the fact that, you know, Bank of America while it has Wall Street Operations also has a big consumer bank that

uh hasn't been performing as well over the past few months. Uh. This you know, matches what what other banks have also been dealing with. And so you know, banks have had to put up a ton of money, billions of dollars to cover potential loan losses on the consumer side of their businesses, and so in preparation for that, they're having to temper expectations about bonuses on the on the Wall Street side to try to you know, sturdy the ship,

study the ship before poss well on certain right. And some would say, listen, they that's executives the C suite being responsible and looking at the whole business and saying, Okay, what do we need to do to make sure one year from now we're in pretty good shape, right because we still don't have a lot of visibility about next year. Um. And so some of them would say, or some would argue,

right that it's top grasping responsible exactly exactly. And you know, it's a pretty big deal because as we've been talking about, you know, this year, the five biggest US investment thanks you know, they're on taste to generate almost a hundred billion dollars in trading revenue for the first time in more than time years. And if Bank of America comes out and says, you know, bonuses are probably gonna be flat.

All the other banks they pay close attention to, you know, not only surveys about compensation, but also what what competitors are doing, because no one wants to be the one paying the least, but they also don't want to want to be, you know, the entity that's handing out big wads of cash when they could get away with paying less. And so Bank of America coming out, you know, this story could give others cover to pay less than what

they would have paid. UH and all of us kind of I guess based on what we know from surveys. You know, there's a compensation of UH consultant Johnson Johnson Johnson Associates, sorry, Johnson Associated consultants earlier this month, they projected that equity traders, you know, could see bonuses jump by bond traders could see them increased by or more. If one of the big, biggest wallster banks is going to keep it fought, then you know, maybe the survey

wasn't totally right, but we still don't know. There's still a month left in the quarter. In the fourth quarters, things could change, um. But yeah, well, and I think it's a it's a key point about Bank of America, right because they've got a big consumer side. And I have to say anecdotally, I know people who have been reaching out to some of the big banks for either home equity loans or so on, and what they're hearing is that they're not doing any kind of new loans,

so there being a lot more conservative going forward. And you do wonder what that means about what they're seeing internally, maybe on the consumer side of the business. I'm not saying be of a specifically, but just in general, that's what I've been hearing. So I don't know, Like, um, I'm thinking about an individual, can they lobby for a larger payout? Like how does this work? And just got about forty seconds here. Yeah, So what we understand is that not all of this is set in stone just yet.

If there are high performers who you know, did really well, there's still time for executive to lobby for larger payouts to them. But I think that the other big things to keep in mind here for Banks America is there's a lot of optics here. You know, the economy is struggling.

Businesses they're shuttering, people are losing their job. Brian wynahand the CEO, you know, he recognizes that it probably doesn't look great to be handing out huge checks to you know, traders at a time like this, and so that's definitely something that's going to be coloring any decision. Yeah, and safe to say that's left over from the financial crisis, right.

We saw a lot of sensitivity, um, in terms of what the big banks were doing, what Wall Street was doing, certainly at the time of the financial crisis, and having to kind of either force it reining in because the regulators are just trying to not be tone deaf amid a really really tough time. Um, listen, thanks so much, Michelle, Thank you. Have a great Thanksgiving. Michelle Davis, she's finance reporter at Bloomberg News joining us on the phone in Vermont,

Bloommac Journal. Yeah but you let me drive, No, no, no, honey, please, I'll do the riding drivel. I want to drive, Just drive, baby, the questions trying. This is the drive to the globe. Give me thanks. We'll drying up on Bloomberg Radio. This Indeed, we're just about litten under twelve minutes away from the closing bell, wrapping up at least the first three days of trading in this holiday short and trading week. Of course, we come back on Friday for a shortened day as well.

In the meantime, let's check out the trade back with us as Shaun Cruise, manager of Trader Strategy at t D a merror trade, he joined us on the phone in Florida, Seawan, nice to have you here, um. Just looking at some of the notes you shared with us. You say, the elevator ride takes a pause this morning, but it's still been an impressive week. It really has been, hasn't it? It has? And I actually what I thought

was interesting. I went and looked at some of the volumes we were seen, and there is actually some pretty decent volumes we were seeing behind these moves, and I think that shows that there actually maybe is a little bit more staying power to some of the gains that we have seen. Because I think that's what everyone's really

asking themselves, is this is this move higher? Is this something that you know we should we should expect to be able to maintain or maybe should I be dialing back exposure just in case things do turn around rather quickly. And you know, they say markets can kind of go up up an elevator, but they go down off of cliff. I think that's what everyone's asking themselves. But looking at the volumes, I think this move seems sustainable at least

for the time being. Why I think the big thing is really markets are looking ahead, and I really think the news that Janet Yellen is being considered as considered a front runner for the nomination for Chartery secretary really gives anything a lot of optimism to markets because the assumption also alongside that is that you're not going to see Pow go anywhere, and now you're gonna have Janet Yellen, who who I think certainly in the past has has

been a vocal proponent of strong fiscal stimulus from Congress. So we will have POW who we got from the minute. Today we know that it is going to remain accommodati, as they say, to the future, and they're they're willing to actually step up and do more in the asset purchase side um and and that's something they've all been calling for and now it looks like you're also going to have a big proponent of accommodative policy on the

fiscal side as well well. And when you look at things, listen, when you invest in the market, there are people who play it short term. There people play it long term. And I do think about when we get on the other side of COVID, do we hopefully have the policies in place to create a much more sustainable, enduring economy, not one that is just beneficial to Wall Street, but to the broader economy, which ultimately means a more prosperous

economy for everyone. I think so. And I think that the thing that I find really interesting to be with the phenomics in Janian is as you've heard Pow talk about wanting to really focus on more inclusiveness, especially in terms of jobs games UM in Janual and certainly echo that sentiment. And I think people need to remind her her background, her her bread and butter, so always speak, is really um as a labor economist. So she is

very very strong when it comes to labor economics. And as we come out of this recovery, UM, what sort of of jobs growth for getting? You know, does that translate into into well paid jobs with with strong wages, and is it going to be more inclusive across the board?

I think having a labor economists in the as a Secretary of Treasury, and then you also have a pal who's also indicated he wants to to make sure that's the focus of the FED moving forward sort of gives you a little bit more facet that may actually be um the experience of this recovery when we do get

to the other side of this. You know, Sean, We're just did a story Charlie Pellett and I that basically talked about when you know, a lot of the global fund managers, they you know, see an end of the pandemic, but they differ in terms of strategy on how to

play it. And there's a lot of discussions about market rotation, right And depending on the day, we see market rotation, whether it's into some of the value names, whether it's continuation finally with small caps um and then all of a sudden, tech comes roaring back and it's like, wait

a minute, Okay, so much for market rotation. UM, So I don't know, do you have a strategy you know that you are kind of thinking about when it comes to the COVID recovery and what it will be or is it something for a few months now and then

something else. Well, I think one the first thing everyone was asking Solf was is are we going to see a true um rotation in the sense of you are going to see money flowing out of some of those high flying text doctors that have done so well this year, come out of observer that pile and go into some of the more cyclical or small casts, and we're a

lot more of the just value oriented place right now. UM. And I think what we've learned over the past couple of weeks, there was an initial reaction when fights are announced their their vaccine where you sort of saw that play out on the screens. You saw, um the NAZAC actually get hit. But a lot of the cyclical sectors and the industries that really have a strong wait into some of those more cyclical type names actually did really well.

I think markets sort of reassessed that, and in the sense I'm getting now is look, we're going to hold on to some of these techniques. We think they really have made some pretty strong progress and use your growth getting people on their platform. This year UM, but we're also seeing some some attractive valuations in the cyclical sector, so it really looks like equities are more generally favored. Interstingself worth the money, where's the money going to come from?

If if you just really look at any any gauge of sort of sideline cash, and that could be in looking at money markets, look at UM, savings rates, and in depository institutions. All of those are incredibly high right now. So I think that's where you're going to see UM the money flow from. It's going to come out of being really truly on the sidelines and m and markets

and savings accounts. But I also think some of what you've seen, just the strong demand flowing into treasury that's pushed yields so low, I think you're actually going to see that also reverse a little bit. And when you start to think of what that means for interest rates and yields, it can favor certain areas like banks UM, but also there are some interest rates sensitive areas of the economy and the market thinking housing automotives that maybe are going to be on the other side of that

coin generally costed more. I think at fair exequities what's the story we need to keep a watch on. What's the thing that could be, you know, kind of turn us upside down again. Here is it rising virus numbers, everything taking just a little bit longer than we anticipate. What is it? In your view? I think it's everything

taken a little bit longer than we anticipate. So I'm really focused on what sort of a story of the fiscal cliff households are going to experience if we aren't able to extend some benefits, um, if banks aren't able to maybe um renegotiate some of some of these loans or some of the deaths that are owed out there, you could see a pretty pronounced fiscal cliff coming here towards the end of the year. And I think that's

really going to be something that shapes the recovery. Is what sort of a platform are we lifting off from and if we don't get I think some some sort of extension, if not another round of stimulus, we may be coming from a little bit more of a weak point that we would like that we would like to be when we do try and fire up the economy again, and that could that could also really determine the recovery

we get. So that's really what I'm watching the disco cliffs at the end of the year, and we know rolling that rock back up the hill is not easy and that's for sure. Um. Sean, thank you so much. Have a good and safe holiday, Happy Thanksgiving. Sean Cruz. He is manager of Traders Strategy at t d A Marriage Trade, joining us on the phone from Chicago on this Wednesday. Thanks so much for listening to Bloomberg Business Week.

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