◼ BUSINESS Bloomberg Businessweek August 12, 201915ILLUSTRATION BY XAVIER LALANNE-TAUZIA. DATA: IQVIA NATIONAL SALES PERSPECTIVES, JAN. 2019
THE BOTTOM LINE A new birth control gel from Evofem holds the
promise of a sex-on-demand contraceptive for women. But its likely
low price and high legal exposure could limit drugmakers’ interest.similar to that of branded contraceptive pills, about
$140 to $170 a month.
Still, U.S. regulators already rejected the prescrip-
tion version once. Evofem is planning to resubmit its
application by the end of this year. Pelletier says that
should be quick enough to bring Amphora, after all
its twists and turns, to the market by mid-2020. “It
isn’t just a kitschy lifestyle category,” she says. “It’s
something that’s really serious and meaningful.”
This sentiment can’t override that pharmaceu-
ticals companies will never be able to sell birthcontrol drugs at anything like the prices they get
on new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthri-
tis, obesity, or heart disease, lowering interest in
reproductive health medicine.
“The pill is as cheap as chips,” says Anna Glasier,
honorary professor at the University of Edinburgh.
“So everything has to be not much more expen-
sive than that.”�Naomi Kresge and Cynthia KoonsPackage
Tours Are
No Picnic
For decades, tour operators such as TUI, Kuoni,
and Thomas Cook thrived by offering package holi-
days to sun-starved Europeans put off by unfamiliar
tongues, foreign currencies, and hotel reservations
made from afar. But now the euro has eased money
concerns, discount airlines will fly northerners to
warmer climes for the cost of lunch, and beachfront
accommodations are just a few mouse clicks away—
no language skills needed. At the same time, terror-
ism, political turmoil, and hotter summers in the
north have kept many would-be travelers at home.
The shift has squeezed profits at tour operators
and forced long-standing players from the field.
French stalwart Club Med went on the block in 2015
and ended up in the hands of Fosun Tourism Group
from China. Switzerland’s Kuoni in 2015 sold its tour
operations to a German supermarket chain after off-
loading its business travel and airline units. Thomas
Cook—which invented the package holiday in the
1840s with train trips through the English Midlands
for temperance activists—said in July it would sell its
consumer tourism business to Fosun after its bonds
fell to one-third of face value.
The one exception: TUI, a century-old German
company with roots in mining. After branching out
into goods ranging from chemicals to toothbrushes,● Even as Thomas Cook struggles, Germany’s
TUI thrives by sticking closer to customersin 1997 it bought German freight line Hapag-Lloyd,
which owned a handful of cruise ships and a
package-tour unit, Touristik Union International.
The idea was to abandon heavy industry and focus
on travel, and the company changed its name to
TUI in 2002. “When rivals are in trouble, you always
have to ask yourself: Is that because they’re per-
forming poorly, or is the industry getting more dif-
ficult?” says Chief Executive Officer Fritz Joussen.
“The industry has become more difficult, and that’s
why we began to transform.”
It’s been a bumpy road, with investors criticizing
management for missing earnings targets and sell-
ing industrial assets too cheaply while overpaying
for an ill-timed foray into container shipping. The
company even held a controlling stake in Thomas
Cook for 15 months but was ordered to sell it in