Ozempic + weight-loss drugs have high logistics costs: Despite soaring demand for Ozempic and other weight-loss drugs, revenues are not being reflected in pharma companies’ bottom lines due to complicated and costly logistics, the Wall Street Journal reports. While the weight-loss products are drivers of top-line revenue growth, they are minimally profitable, AmerisourceBergen CFO James Cleary is quoted as saying. This is due to wholesalers having to arrange industrial-scale logistics to keep the medications cold throughout transport and storage, WSJ writes.
What makes it so pricey? Ozempic and similar drugs are expensive, which drives up the costs of ins. and the level of security that trucks transporting them are outfitted with, the WSJ explains, adding that the high likelihood of theft also exacerbates the costs.
Methanol-powered vessels are picking up steam: Shipping giants Maersk, CMA CGM, and XpressFeeders are filling order books for methanol-powered vessels, with Maersk taking delivery of its first order from South Korean shipyards in July, Reuters reports. The tally for methanol-powered freighters is slated to increase from 30 this year to upwards of 200 by 2028, the newswire wrote, citing a DNV forecast. Methanol-powered vessels with dual-fuel options cost 10%-12% more than conventional vessels, but costs should fall as shipyards get into full steam, Reuters wrote citing Maersk.
But output is falling behind: The challenge rests between conventional methanol, which yields emissions cutbacks but still emits carbon dioxide, and green methanol, which is derived from renewable sources. While green methanol is more sustainable, it is at least twice as costly and presents new challenges for transportation between production sites and bunkering stations. “The real cost challenge remains on the fuel supply side and the need to rapidly build production globally and at scale; and the associated fuel infrastructure,” Maersk’s head of energy markets Emma Mazhari told Reuters.
ICYMI- Enterprise Climate reported earlier this week that Dutch chemical producer OCI Global completed a six-hour operation refueling the world’s first green-methanol-powered container ship with 500 tons of the green fuel in Egypt’s East Port Said. The refueling operation by OCI Global took place under a partnership with shipping and logistics giant AP Moller-Maersk.