• Small Bites
  • Posts
  • Russia To Launch Free Cancer Vaccine In 2025

Russia To Launch Free Cancer Vaccine In 2025

5mins read

Author

Small Bite
December 18, 2024

Hey Small Biters,

Russia's health ministry claims it has developed a vaccine against cancer that will be rolled out to patients for free. Andrey Kaprin, who heads the Radiology Medical Research Center of the Ministry of Health, said the shot will launch in early 2025, according to state-run media.

The vaccine will apparently be used to treat cancer patients, rather than being given to the general public to prevent tumors from forming in the first place.

Previous comments by Russian government scientists suggest each shot is personalized for the individual patient, which is similar to cancer vaccines being developed in the West.

It is currently not clear which cancers the vaccine is designed to treat, how effective it is or how Russia plans to roll it out. The name of the vaccine has not been revealed. 

Similar to the rest of the world, cancer rates are increasing in Russia, with more than 635,000 cases recorded in 2022.  Colon, breast, and lung cancers are believed to be the country's most common forms of the disease.

Unboxing a strike… Unionized AmazonAMZN $230.84 (-0.72%) workers want a contract, and they’re using the company’s peak shipping season as a bargaining chip. On Friday, 5.5K warehouse employees and delivery drivers serving New York City voted to authorize a strike against Amazon. While authorization doesn’t guarantee a work stoppage, it boosts the odds of one with just over a week before Christmas.

  • Wish list: Amazon’s union, which joined the 1.3M-strong Teamsters union this summer, is demanding wage hikes, safer working conditions, and added job security. Amazon hasn’t formally recognized the union (awkward).

Cartful of problems… While Amazon’s unionized workforce is a tiny fraction of its 800K front-line US workers, if it wins a sweetened contract, it could quickly spur more warehouse unionization (and work stoppages). A holiday strike would be the latest in a string of negative labor headlines for Amazon.

  • Safety problems: A Senate investigation published on Sunday found that Amazon manipulated warehouse-injury data, ignored internal safety recommendations, and discouraged injured workers from getting outside medical care.

  • Corporate conflict: Amazon’s also facing pushback from its corporate staffers, who are required to return to the office five days a week beginning next month. 73% of employees are said to have considered quitting because of the mandate.

The S&P 500 was up 0.4%, the Nasdaq 100 rose 1.5%, and the Russell 2000 notched a 0.6% gain to kick off the week.

Breadth was — you guessed it — negative despite the move higher in the benchmark US stock index, with more S&P 500 constituents falling than rising for the 11th straight session, matching the streak set in September 2001.

Consumer discretionary and tech paced gains among S&P 500 sector ETFs; only 4 of 11 were up on the day. Energy was at the bottom of the leaderboard, down 2.2% as West Texas Intermediate crude-oil futures slumped 1%.

Broadcom AVGO $238.00 (-3.98%) built on Friday’s colossal post-earnings gain with another double-digit advance, adding more than $300 billion in market cap over the course of two sessions in which it was the best-performing S&P 500 constituent on each day. Nvidia NVDA $131.25 (-1.25%) once again moved in the opposite direction from its competitor and the semi space broadly with a 1.7% decline, and was the only member of the Magnificent 7 to decline.

Index additions and deletions helped drive price action on Monday, with Super Micro Computer SMCI $33.65 (1.08%) down 8.3% after the Nasdaq said it would be booted from its closely-watched Nasdaq 100 Index at the end of this week.

What Else Are We Biting

Biting Fact Of The Day

Reply

or to participate.