The Wall Street Journal - 04.03.2020

B2| Wednesday, March 4, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

INDEX TO BUSINESSES

These indexes cite notable references to most parent companies and businesspeople
in today’s edition. Articles on regional page inserts aren’t cited in these indexes.

A
Air China.....................B6
Alibaba Group.............B4
Alphabet.........A3,A6,B14
Amazon.com..........B1,B3
Apple....................B5,B14
B
Baker Hughes...........B13
Beyond Meat...............B2
BNP Paribas..............B14
BP..............................B13
Brooklinen...................B3
C
Cambridge Quantum
Computing.................B4
Cargill..........................B2
Charles Schwab........B13
Chevron.....................B13
China Eastern Airlines
.....................................B6
China Evergrande Group
.....................................B6
Cimarex Energy.........B13
Citigroup....................B14
Costco Wholesale.......B1
Credit Agricole..........B14
Cronos Group............B14
Currax Pharmaceuticals
.....................................B2
CVS Health..................B3
D-E
Deutsche Bank..........B14
Devon Energy............B13
Diamondback EnergyB13
Estee Lauder...............B6
E*Trade Financial.....B13
Exxon Mobil..............B13
F-G
Facebook................A6,B3
Fidelity Investments B12

Foxconn Technology....B5

General Motors.........B14

H

Halliburton................B13

Hewlett Packard

Enterprise.................B4

Hillhouse Capital Group

.....................................B6

Honeywell International

.....................................B4

HSBC Holdings..........B14

Hudson's Bay..............B3

Hyatt Hotels...............B6

I-J

Impossible Foods........B2

iShares iBoxx USD High

Yield Corporate Bond

.....................................B2

Japan Airlines.............B6

J.P. Morgan Chase......B4

K

Kaisa Group Holdings.B6

Kinder Morgan..........B13

Kohl's...........................B1

Korean Air Lines.........B6

Kraft Heinz.................B1

L-M

L'Oreal.........................B6

Marriott InternationalB6

MGM Resorts

International...........B13

N-O

Newell Brands.............B1

Nordstrom...................B3

Norwegian Cruise Line

Holdings..................B13

Novo Nordisk..............B1

Occidental Petroleum

...................................B13

P-Q

Phillips 66.................B13

Qiagen.........................B3

R

Robinhood Financial.B13

Royal Dutch Shell.....B13

S

Schlumberger............B13

Sequoia Capital...........B6

Smithfield Foods........B2

SoftBank Group..........B6

SPDR S&P Oil & Gas

Exploration &

Production...............B13

Standard Chartered..B14

Summit Partners........B3

Sysco...........................B2

T

Takeda Pharmaceutical

.....................................A8

Target..........................B1

TD Ameritrade..........B13

Tencent Holdings........B6

Tesla..........................B14

Thermo Fisher Scientific

.....................................B3

Tilray.........................B14

Twitter........................A6

U-V

Uber Technologies....B14

Unibail-Rodamco-

Westfield..................B6

United Airlines..........B13

Valero Energy...........B13

VanEck Vectors Oil

Services...................B13

W-Z

WndrCo........................B4

Zapata Computing......B4

INDEX TO PEOPLE

BUSINESS & FINANCE

through diet and exercise.

The lack of insurance cover-

age is also a hindrance and is

likely to remain so. A bipartisan

bill that would require Medicare

to pay for obesity drugs—the

Treat and Reduce Obesity Act—

has floundered since it was first

introduced in Congress in 2013.

Governments outside the U.S.

are also reluctant to pay for

obesity drugs. “We know that

some payers are concerned that

if obesity was suddenly recog-

nized as a disease then a third

of the population has it, and it’s

not possible to treat all of them

initially,” said Camilla Sylvest,

head of commercial strategy at

Novo Nordisk.

Obesity drugs face reputa-

tional headwinds. Zimulti, an

older medicine made by Sanofi

SA, never won regulatory ap-

proval in the U.S. over concerns

that it could cause depression.

Meridia from AbbVie Inc. prede-

cessor Abbott Laboratories was

withdrawn from the market

over links to heart problems.

Last month Belviq, an obesity

drug made by Japan’s Eisai Co.,

was withdrawn in the U.S. after

the Food and Drug Administra-

tion raised concerns that it in-

creased cancer risk. Eisai said it

respects the agency’s decision

but still believes Belviq’s bene-

fits outweigh the risks.

Novo Nordisk is running its

biggest-ever clinical trial, in-

volving 17,500 participants, to

prove the wider benefits of obe-

sity drugs. The study will track

the participants closely for sev-

eral years. Its main aim is to

test whether its next-generation

obesity drug can also reduce the

DAVID MCNEW/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

over $1 billion for the 52 weeks

ended Jan. 25, according to

Nielsen, up 14% from the prior

year. Sales of traditional meat

grew 0.8% to $96 billion over

that period.

Using new engineering and

production techniques, compa-

nies can form plant fibers and

proteins into burger patties

that sizzle and bleed like tradi-

tional ground beef. Restaurants

are signing up to add them to

menus to lure sustainability-

minded consumers.

Starbucks Corp. and Yum

Brands Inc.’s KFC division have

added plant-based meat prod-

ucts to their menus this year.

McDonald’s Corp. in January

broadened a test in Canada of

a sandwich made with a Be-

yond patty. Burger King and

White Castle put Impossible’s

plant-based burger patties on

sale across the U.S. over the

past two years.

Impossible and Beyond say

they use less grain, water and

energy to make burgers from

soy and pea protein than com-

panies that feed, slaughter and

transport livestock. But the

plant-based production pro-

cesses are more expensive than

traditional burger making,

partly because meat mimics

are made on a scale far smaller

than the global meat industry.

Impossible and Beyond say

they are working to change

that dynamic by adding more

manufacturing plants and mak-

ing their processing techniques

more efficient.

Impossible said its 15% price

cut would reduce what it

charges for direct sales of its

plant-based meat to about

$7.90-$8.50 a pound. Impossi-

ble said it couldn’t specify how

the price cut would affect res-

taurants and retailers that buy

through distributors.

Beyond Chief Executive

Ethan Brown said competitors

are trying to undercut the El

Segundo, Calif., company on

price. So far, he said, Beyond

has resisted broadly discount-

ing its burgers, but the com-

pany aspires to match the

price of traditional meat with

at least one of its products by

2024. Beyond reported a
      $452,000 quarterly loss last
      week, though sales more than
      tripled.
      Burger King, owned by Res-
      taurant Brands International
      Inc., sells its Impossible Whop-
      per for $5.99, around a dollar
      more than the original beef
      version. This year the chain
      added the Impossible sandwich
      to its two-for-$6 promotional
      menu to entice additional cus-
      tomers.
      Joe Pobereskin, a 60-year-
      old sales representative from
      the Chicago suburbs, said he
      tried an Impossible Whopper
      last year, adding he was
      amazed at how similar it was
      to beef, but he hasn’t bought
      an Impossible Whopper since.
      “I don’t feel it’s worth pay-
      ing more to eat Impossible
      Whoppers,” he said. “I’m not a
      vegetarian.”

Makers of plant-based meat

alternatives are cutting prices,

as startups compete with food-

industry giants for slices of the

rapidly growing market.

Impossible FoodsInc. said

Tuesday it had reduced whole-

sale prices for its products by

15%. Big food companies—in-

cluding Nestlé SA,Smithfield

FoodsInc.,CargillInc. and

food distributorSyscoCorp.—

have recently set plans to in-

troduce their own meat-free

patties, sometimes at lower

prices than those charged by

startups, like Impossible, that

helped popularize plant-based

products.

Impossible and rivalBeyond

MeatInc. are jockeying with

food-industry giants for a

plant-based meat alternative

market that is growing faster

than sales of traditional meat.

Plant-based meat sales in U.S.

retail stores totaled a little

BYJACOBBUNGE

ANDHEATHERHADDON

Plant-Burger Price on Front Burner

Impossible and Beyond say they are working to add moremanufacturing plants and make their processing techniques more efficient.

have any difficulty with a rule

that the money should be re-

turned to investors where fea-

sible?” asked Justice Neil

Gorsuch. The more liberal Jus-

tice Elena Kagan posed a simi-

lar question, as did other jus-

tices.

Arguing the case for the

SEC, Deputy Solicitor General

Malcolm Stewart later said he

didn’t object to that approach.

The SEC says it tries to re-

turn ill-gotten gains to inves-

tors whenever possible. In

some cases, such as those al-

leging bribery of foreign offi-

cials or insider trading, there

are no obvious victims to re-

turn money to, regulators say.

The SEC says courts’ au-

thority to require disgorge-

ment comes from their power

to enforce corrective measures

that make victims whole again.

The dispute before the

court relates to an enforce-

ment action taken against

Charles Liu and Xin Wang in

2016. The couple was accused
      of defrauding investors who
      handed them $26 million to
      build a cancer-treatment cen-
      ter. Courts ordered Mr. Liu and
      Ms. Wang to give back that
      entire sum, not just the profits
      they were accused of pocket-
      ing.

About $3.8 billion left one
of the biggest high-yield bond
exchange-traded funds, the
iShares iBoxx USD High Yield
Corporate Bond ETF, last
week, the largest weekly out-
flow on record, according to
FactSet data going back to
2007.
The goodwill accounting at
Newell that is being probed by
the SEC wouldn’t necessarily
have affected its bond ratings
or how the stock was per-
ceived by investors.
“I doubt that too many in-
vestors pay much attention to
or care about goodwill and in-
tangible impairments, and any
relevant debt covenants, if
they are affected, are usually

Continued from page B1

waived,” said Carol Levenson,

director of research at Gimme

Credit LLC, a bond-research

firm.

Ms. Levenson said Newell’s

financial reporting was

“messy” and opaque, adding

the company has for the past

two years disclosed a material

weakness in internal control

over its financial reporting.

Newell said that its “finan-

cial reporting reflects the

complexity of Newell’s two-

year divestiture program, not

a lack of transparency” on the

part of the company, adding,

“that complexity is behind

us.”

The impairment of goodwill

is highly subjective, with

many questioning the accu-

racy of how it is measured.

“The goodwill-impairment

test is one of the most second

guessed of the accounting

tests that exist,” said Thomas

Linsmeier, professor of ac-

counting and law at the Uni-

versity of Wisconsin-Madison.

—Sharon Terlep

contributed to this article.

B
Babin, Rebecca..........B13
Bajaj, Mohit..............B13
Brown, Ethan..............B2
Brusuelas, Joseph......B1
C
Cecala, Guy...............B12
Cook, Tim....................B5
D
Droster, Lauri............B12
E
Egan, Dan..................B12
F-G

Fiddelke, Michael........B1
Foulkes, Helena..........B3

Fulop, Rich..................B3

Galoma, Thomas di...B13

H-J

Hillam, Stephen..........B6

Holt, Kevin................B13

Jones, Kathy.............B12

K-L

Katzenberg, Jeffrey....B4

Khater, Sam..............B12

Levenson, Carol..........B2

M-N

Marcelli, Solita...........B1

Moodie, Martin...........B6

Nordstrom, Erik..........B3

Nordstrom, Pete.........B3

P

Pistoia, Marco.............B4

Porat, Ruth...............B14

Preloger, Kevin..........B13

R-S

Rasgon, Stacy...........B14

Sylvest, Camilla..........B2

T

Thummel, Rob.............B1

Todd, Jerry................B12

U

Uttley, Tony................B4

W

Whitman, Meg............B4

Wilding, Tiffany..........A1

Regulator

Probes

Newell

risk of heart attack and stroke.

“We hope that can guide the

community, payers, physicians,

about what kind of disease is

this,” Ms. Sylvest said. “Not

treating might be much more

expensive than treating,” she

said, because tackling obesity

can prevent more complex

health issues like type 2 diabe-

tes and heart disease.

The scientific foundation for

treating obesity as a disease,

rather than a lifestyle problem,

was solidified in the mid-1990s

when researchers discovered

that fat tissue releases proteins,

called adipokines, that act as

hunger and fullness signals to

the brain.

This system is out of balance

in people with obesity, making

it more difficult for them to lose

weight. And for those who do

lose weight, there are biological

mechanisms that make it hard

to keep it off.

“Fad diets usually only work

for a finite time, but then your

biology wins,” said Ania Jas-

treboff, an obesity specialist at

Yale School of Medicine who

has consulted for several com-

panies, including Novo Nordisk.

Proponents say drugs can

help obese people overcome dif-

ficulties they face in following a

lower-calorie diet. Many obesity

drugs, including Saxenda, work

by suppressing appetite, making

weight loss easier.

The Novo Nordisk medica-

tion doesn’t work for everybody.

In clinical trials, nearly a third

of patients on Saxenda stopped

treatment early, with around

10% of all participants suffering

side effects, mainly nausea, di-

arrhea and vomiting.

Contrave, fromCurrax Phar-
maceuticalsLLC. Overall, obe-
sity drugs generate about $744
million in annual sales in the
U.S., according to market intelli-
gence provider Datamonitor
Healthcare.
The untapped market is
huge. Research by Weill Cornell
Medical College in New York
found that almost half of all
American adults would qualify
for weight-loss drugs under
guidelines recently drafted by a
group of American endocrinolo-
gists. But just 2% of those take a
drug to help slim down, the re-
search found. Obesity generally
means having a body-mass in-
dex—a rough measure that cali-
brates weight to height—of 30
or higher.
Pharmaceutical firms,
though, have had a tough time
persuading patients to consider
obesity drugs and doctors to
prescribe them. Just one in 10
doctors said they would recom-
mend a prescription medication
to help address obesity, accord-
ing to a study funded by Novo
Nordisk and published in the
journal Obesity in 2017. Critics
argue that obesity drugs—which
typically cause side effects like
nausea, diarrhea and head-
aches—create unnecessary risk
when a person can lose weight

Continued from page B1

Firm Bets

On Drugs

For Obesity

Saxendaworldwidesales

$800

0

200

400

600

million

2016 ’17 ’18 ’19 1999-2000 ’05-’06 ’17-’18

U.S.

sales

Rest of

world

U.S.obesityrates

Adults ages 20

and over

Youths ages

2-19

AGrowingProblem

Novo Nordisk's big push into obesity is helping sales

of weight-loss drug Saxenda.

Sources: EvaluatePharma (2016-18), the company (2019);

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (rates)

40

0

10

20

30

%

WASHINGTON—U.S. Su-

preme Court justices Tuesday

indicated they may be inclined

to rein in how courts and reg-

ulators order wrongdoers to

return money earned through

illegal investment schemes.

In arguments, liberal and

conservative justices ques-

tioned how they could narrow

the remedy without quashing

it outright, an alternative they

appeared to reject. The Securi-

ties and Exchange Commission

obtains billions of dollars in

such relief every year with the

goal of returning it to harmed

investors.

Challengers say courts lack

express authority from Con-

gress to order the punishment,

which is known as disgorge-

ment. The critics also argue

the SEC sometimes fails to re-

turn the money to investors,

making the payments look

more like a penalty that would

require explicit congressional

authority.

Justices on Tuesday ap-

peared to dwell less on those

questions and more on how

disgorgement should be calcu-

lated and where the money

should go.

“Would the government

BYDAVEMICHAELS

Justices Signal Curbing SEC Remedies

DIFFERENTNATIONALORIGINS.

SAMEFAIRHOUSINGRIGHTS.

FAIRHOUSING:THELAWISONYOURSIDE.

Gotohud.gov/fairhousing

orcall1-800-669-9777

FederalRelayService1-800-877-8339

It is illegal for landlords and real estate agents to deny

youhousingopportunitiesbecauseofyourethnicity.The

FairHousingActprohibitshousingdiscriminationbased

onnationalorigin.Ifyoubelieveyouhaveexperienceda

violationofyourrights,fileacomplaint.