Category: 3. Business

Evan Kharasch, professor of anesthesiology and vice chair for innovation at Duke University, has developed two approaches that may aid in fentanyl addiction recovery. After attending MIT’s Substance Use Disorders (SUD) Ventures Bootcamp, he’s committed to bringing them to market.

Illicit fentanyl addiction is still a national emergency in the United States, fueled by years of opioid misuse. As opioid prescriptions fell by 50 percent over 15 years, many turned to street drugs. Among those drugs, fentanyl stands out for its potency — just 2 milligrams can be fatal — and its low production cost. Often mixed with other drugs, it contributed to a large portion of over 80,000 overdose deaths in 2024. It has been particularly challenging to treat with currently available medications for opioid use disorder.  

​​As an anesthesiologist, Kharasch is highly experienced with opioids, including methadone, one of only three drugs approved in the United States for treating opioid use disorder. Methadone is a key option for managing fentanyl use. It’s employed to transition patients off fentanyl and to support ongoing maintenance, but access is limited, with only 20 percent of eligible patients receiving it. Initiating and adjusting methadone treatment can take weeks due to its clinical characteristics, often causing withdrawal and requiring longer hospital stays. Maintenance demands daily visits to one of just over 2,000 clinics, disrupting work or study and leading most patients to drop out after a few months.

To tackle these challenges, Kharasch developed two novel methadone formulations: one for faster absorption to cut initiation time from weeks to days — or even hours — and one to slow elimination, thereby potentially requiring only weekly, rather than daily, dosing. As a clinician, scientist, and entrepreneur, he sees the science as demanding, but bringing these treatments to patients presents an even greater challenge. Kharasch learned about the SUD Ventures Bootcamp, part of MIT Open Learning, as a recipient of research funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). He decided to apply to bridge the gap in his expertise and was selected to attend as a fellow.

Each year, the SUD Ventures Bootcamp unites innovators — including scientists, entrepreneurs, and medical professionals — to develop bold, cross-disciplinary solutions to substance use disorders. Through online learning and an intensive one-week in-person bootcamp, teams tackle challenges in different “high priority” areas. Guided by experts in science, entrepreneurship, and policy, they build and pitch ventures aimed at real-world impact. Beyond the multidisciplinary curriculum, the program connects people deeply committed to this space and equipped to drive progress.

Throughout the program, Kharasch’s concepts were validated by the invited industry experts, who highlighted the potential impact of a longer-acting methadone formulation, particularly in correctional settings. Encouragement from MIT professors, coaches, and peers energized Kharasch to fully pursue commercialization. He has already begun securing intellectual property rights, validating the regulatory pathway through the U.S Food and Drug Administration, and gathering market and patient feedback.

The SUD Ventures Bootcamp, he says, both activated and validated his passion for bringing these innovations to patients. “After many years of basic, translational and clinical research on methadone all — supported by NIDA — I experienced that a ha moment of recognizing a potential opportunity to apply the findings to benefit patients at scale,” Kharasch says. “The NIDA-sponsored participation in the MIT SUD Ventures Bootcamp was the critical catalyst which ignited the inspiration and commitment to pursue commercializing our research findings into better treatments for opioid use disorder.”

As next steps, Kharasch is seeking an experienced co-founder and finalizing IP protections. He remains engaged with the SUD Ventures network as mentors, industry experts, and peers offer help with advancing this needed solution to market. For example, the program’s mentor, Nat Sims, the Newbower/Eitan Endowed Chair in Biomedical Technology Innovation at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and a fellow anesthesiologist, has helped Kharasch arrange technology validation conversations within the MGH ecosystem and the drug development community.

“Evan’s collaboration with the MGH ecosystem can help define an optimum process for commercializing these innovations — identifying who would benefit, how they would benefit, and who is willing to pilot the product once it’s available,” says.

Kharasch has also presented his project in the program’s webinar series. Looking ahead, Kharasch hopes to involve MIT Sloan School of Management students in advancing his project through health care entrepreneurship classes, continuing the momentum that began with the SUD Ventures Bootcamp.

The program and its research are supported by the NIDA of the National Institutes of Health. Cynthia Breazeal, a professor of media arts and sciences at the MIT Media Lab and dean for digital learning at MIT Open Learning, serves as the principal investigator on the grant.

Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) are more likely to experience early relapse if they have a lower percentage of regulatory T cells (Tregs) at diagnosis, a new report published in Cancer Medicine has found.¹

Low Tregs might also be an indicator of functional high-risk (FHR) status, the authors noted.

Corresponding author Fang Xu, PhD, of the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, and colleagues wrote that assessing risk is critically important in MM because the disease is curable, and almost every patient will eventually relapse. Xu and colleagues pointed to a 2023 study that showed that more than 1 in 10 (11.6%) of patients who are not categorized as high risk using traditional baseline risk assessments will still go on to have an early relapse, which they defined as relapse within 18 months.²

“Therefore, identifying patients with functional high risk early has brought increased attention,” Xu and colleagues wrote.

FHR refers to patients who will experience an aggressive disease course and early relapse even when treated with novel agents like proteasome inhibitors and/or immunomodulatory drugs, autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), and CD38 antibodies, they wrote.

To identify FHR patients, Xu and colleagues started with the tumor microenvironment. Within the MM tumor microenvironment, Tregs play a particularly important role.

“Tregs can suppress the body’s immune response, thereby weakening the immune attacks on tumor cells,” they said. “Secondly, Tregs may promote tumor growth and survival by regulating the immune response in the tumor microenvironment.”

The investigators hypothesized that studying patient Tregs at diagnosis might therefore provide insight into potential correlations between Tregs and early relapse.

The authors identified 70 patients who were newly diagnosed with MM between 2016 and 2023. Participants’ Tregs were assessed at baseline. Early relapse was defined as relapse within 18 months following initial treatment or relapse within 12 months of ASCT. Sixteen patients in the study went on to have early relapses.

In the cohort as a whole, neither the median progression-free survival (PFS) nor the median overall survival (OS) was reached. However, in patients with early relapse, the median OS was 24.8 months and the median PFS was 10.8 months.

When the investigators analyzed patients’ medical records, they found that elevated serum creatinine levels, the presence of extramedullary disease, and a lower percentage of Tregs at diagnosis were associated with early relapse. Extramedullary disease and Tregs were found to be significant predictors of early relapse in multivariate analysis.

Previous research has suggested features like elevated LDH, extramedullary disease, and high-risk cytogenetic abnormalities were associated with early relapse.

“Our results indicate that when traditional high-risk biological factors are incorporated, Tregs at diagnosis were demonstrated to be an independent risk factor for ER18 (early relapse),” they wrote. “Therefore, Tregs at diagnosis may be used to predict some type of FHR.”

Conversely, patients with a higher percentage of Tregs at diagnosis tended to have better outcomes.

Xu and colleagues acknowledged that their findings are at odds with a handful of previous studies that suggested higher Tregs were associated with poorer OS and PFS. One reason for the discrepancy may be changes in treatment regimens over time. They also noted that their study was a single-center study with a small sample size.

Still, they said their findings suggest that Tregs at diagnosis could be an important factor to incorporate into treatment planning as clinicians seek to personalize care.

References

1. Zhou Q, Xu F, Wen J, et al. Tregs at Diagnosis as a Potential Biomarker for Predicting High-Risk Functionality in Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma. Cancer Med. 2025;14(11):e70980. doi:10.1002/cam4.70980
2. Yan W, Xu J, Fan H, et al. Early relapse within 18 months is a powerful dynamic predictor for prognosis and could revise static risk distribution in multiple myeloma. Cancer. 2024;130(3):421-432. doi:10.1002/cncr.35056

Welcome to Thoughts on the Market. I’m Ron Kamdem, Head of Morgan Stanley’s U.S. Real Estate Investment Trusts and Commercial Real Estate research. Today I’ll talk about the ways GenAI is disrupting the real estate industry.

It’s Tuesday, July 1st, at 10am in New York.

What if the future of real estate isn’t about location, location, location – but automation, automation, automation?

While it may be too soon to say exactly how AI will affect demand for real estate, what we can say is that it is transforming the business of real estate, namely by making operations more efficient. If you’re a customer dealing with a real estate company, you can now expect to interact with virtual leasing assistants. And when it comes to drafting your lease documents, AI can help you do this in minutes rather than hours – or even days.

In fact, our recent work suggests that GenAI could automate nearly 40 percent of tasks across half a million occupations in the real estate investment trusts industry – or REITs. Indeed, across 162 public REITs and commercial real estate services companies or CRE with $92 billion of total labor costs, the financial impact may be $34 billion, or over 15 percent of operating cash flow. Our proprietary job posting database suggests the top four occupations with automation potential are management – so think about middle management, sales, office and administrative support, and installation maintenance and repairs.

Certain sub-sectors within REITs and CRE services stand to gain more than others. For instance, lodging and resorts, along with brokers and services, and healthcare REITs could see more than 15 percent improvement in operating cash flow due to labor automation. On the other hand, sectors like gaming, triple net, self-storage, malls, even shopping centers might see less than a 5 percent benefit, which suggests a varied impact across the industry.

Brokers and services, in particular, show the highest potential for automation gains, with nearly 34 percent increase in operating cash flow. These companies may be the furthest along in adopting GenAI tools at scale. In our view, they should benefit not only from the labor cost savings but also from enhanced revenue opportunities through productivity improvement and data center transactions facilitated by GenAI tools.

Lodging and resorts have the second highest potential upside from automating occupations, with an estimated 23 percent boost in operating cash flow. The integration of AI in these businesses not only streamline operations but also opens new avenues for return on investments, and mergers and acquisitions.

Some companies are already using AI in their operations. For example, some self-storage companies have integrated AI into their digital platforms, where 85 percent of customer interactions now occur through self-selected digital options. As a result, they have reduced on-property labor hours by about 30 percent through AI-powered staffing optimization. Similarly, some apartment companies have reduced their full-time staff by about 15 percent since 2021 through AI-driven customer interactions and operational efficiencies.

Meanwhile, this increased application of AI is driving new revenue to AI-enablers. Businesses like data centers, specialty, CRE services could see significant upside from the infrastructure buildout from GenAI. Advanced revenue management systems, customer acquisition tools, predictive analytics are just a few areas where GenAI can add value, potentially enhancing the $290 billion of revenue stream in the REIT and CRE services space.

However, the broader economic impact of GenAI on labor markets remains hotly debated. Job growth is the key driver of real estate demand and the impact of AI on the 164 million jobs in the U.S. economy remains to be determined. If significant job losses materialize and the labor force shrinks, then the real estate industry may face top-line pressure with potentially disproportionate impact on office and lodging. While AI-related job losses are legitimate concerns, our economists argue that the productivity effects of GenAI could ultimately lead to net positive job growth, albeit with a significant need for re-skilling.

Thanks for listening. If you enjoy the show, please leave us a review wherever you listen and share Thoughts on the Market with a friend or colleague today.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Commodity Futures Trading Commission today announced the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois entered a consent order imposing permanent injunctive relief, civil monetary penalties, disgorgement, and equitable relief against Chicago commodity pool operators LJM Partners Ltd and LJM Management Ltd (collectively, LJM); former LJM chairman, owner, and registered associated person Anthony J. Caine of Colorado; and former LJM chief portfolio manager and registered AP Anish Parvataneni of Illinois. 

The consent order requires Caine and Parvataneni to pay civil monetary penalties of $500,000 and $200,000, respectively. Additionally, the consent order requires LJM and Caine to pay $4,624,271 in disgorgement, jointly and severally, which includes pre-judgment interest, and Parvataneni to pay $721,093 in disgorgement, which includes pre-judgment interest. It also imposes registration bans of three years for Caine and one year for Parvataneni and enjoins them from managing or advising the trading for or on behalf of any third parties for three years and one year, respectively, except for themselves, their wives, or children. The order permanently enjoins the defendants from further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations, as charged.   

Case Background

The consent order stems from a CFTC complaint filed against defendants LJM, Caine, and Parvataneni in May 2021. [See CFTC Press Release No. 8392-21]. 

The CFTC previously ordered former LJM Chief Risk Officer Arjuna Ariathurai to pay $247,444 in civil monetary penalties, disgorgement, and pre-judgment interest for failing to disclose certain information when speaking to prospective and existing pool participants about LJM’s risk management.

The court also entered an order resolving the Securities and Exchange Commission’s related charges against the same defendants. 

The CFTC acknowledges and appreciates the cooperation and assistance of the SEC, National Futures Association, and Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.

The Division of Enforcement staff responsible for this action are W. Derek Shakabpa, Patrick Daly, Nicole Buseman, David Oakland, Michael Cazakoff, Elizabeth May, Jordon Grimm, Lenel Hickson, Manal Sultan, Charles Marvine, and former employee David Acevedo.

CFTC’s Commodity Pool Fraud Advisory

The CFTC has issued several customer protection fraud advisories, including the Commodity Pool Fraud Advisory, which warns customers about a type of fraud involving individuals and firms, often unregistered, offering investments in commodity pools. 

The CFTC also strongly urges the public to verify a company’s registration with the CFTC at NFA BASIC before committing funds. If unregistered, a customer should be wary of providing funds to that entity.

Suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, can be reported to the Division of Enforcement via a toll-free hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382) or file a tip or complaint online or contact the Whistleblower Office. Whistleblowers are eligible to receive between 10 and 30 percent of the monetary sanctions collected, paid from the Customer Protection Fund financed through monetary sanctions paid to the CFTC by violators of the CEA.

• Gold rallies to four-day high as DXY recovers after touching fresh three-year low.
• US Senate passes $4.5T tax cut bill; Bullion market largely unmoved by fiscal headlines.
• JOLTS Job Openings and ISM data support Powell’s wait-and-see stance; ADP and NFP in focus next.

The Gold price rises over 1% as the Greenback pares some of its earlier losses, which sent the US Dollar Index (DXY) to a three-year low. Meanwhile, the US Senate passed the Trump tax bill, which is ready to be sent to the House of Representatives for its approval. At the time of writing, XAU/USD trades at $3,340, trading around four-day highs.

Bloomberg revealed that “Senators voted 51-50 to pass the bill. Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. The package, which now goes to the House, combines $4.5 trillion in tax cuts with $1.2 trillion in spending cuts.”

The passage of the bill was ignored by Bullion traders so far. Economic data from the United States (US) was not ignored, justifying Federal Reserve (Fed) Chair Jerome Powell’s wait-and-see stance.

The US Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) revealed that vacancies increased in May, exceeding economists’ forecasts. Manufacturing activity, as reported by the Institute for Supply Management (ISM), contracted for the fourth consecutive month but showed signs of improvement, approaching the expansion/contraction threshold.

Recently, Powell crossed the wires and remained slightly hawkish.

Aside from this, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent warned that countries could be notified of higher tariffs as the July 9 deadline approaches.

This shortened week, ahead of the US Independence Day on July 4, will feature ADP employment figures, Initial Jobless Claims, and the Nonfarm Payrolls report for June.

Daily digest market movers: Gold price climbs as US yields and US Dollar advanced

• Gold continues to rally, even as US Treasury yields rise. The 10-year US Treasury note is yielding 4.242%, a three-and-a-half basis point increase. US real yields, which are calculated by subtracting inflation expectations from the nominal yield, are also moving up close to four basis points to 1.979%.
• The latest JOLTS report revealed that job openings in May rose to their highest level since November, reaching 7.769 million, up from 7.391 million, and exceeding forecasts of 7.3 million.
• The ISM Manufacturing PMI in June improved, although it remained in contraction for the fourth consecutive month. The index rose to 49.0, up from 48.5 in May and above estimates of 48.8.
• Powell revealed that policy is modestly restrictive and added that he can’t say if July is too early to cut rates, though he wouldn’t rule anything out. He said that if not for President Donald Trump’s tariffs, the US central bank probably would have cut rates further.
• Citi expects Gold prices to return to $2,500 – $2,700 by the second half of 2026.
• The jobs data will be announced on Wednesday and Thursday. The ADP Employment Change is projected to improve from 37K private jobs added to the workforce to 85K. June’s Nonfarm Payrolls figures are likely to show that the labor market is indeed cooling down, projected at 110,000, down from May’s 139,000.
• Money markets suggest that traders are pricing in 62 basis points of easing toward the end of the year, according to Prime Market Terminal data.

Source: Prime Market Terminal

XAU/USD technical outlook: Gold price poised to challenge $3,400

Gold uptrend remains intact, although traders need to achieve a daily close above the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) at $3,322, which would keep them hopeful of higher prices. Bullish momentum has increased as portrayed by the Relative Strength Index (RSI).

That said, if XAU/USD climbs past $3,350, the next area of interest would be $3,400. On further strength, the following resistance levels would be $3,450 and the all-time high (ATH) at $3,500.

On the flipside, if Gold falls below the 50-day SMA, the first support would be $3,300. A breach of the latter will expose the June 30 swing low of $3,246.

Siemens AG announced that it has completed the acquisition of Dotmatics, a leading provider of Life Sciences R&D software headquartered in Boston and portfolio company of global software investor Insight Partners, for an enterprise value of US$5.1 billion. With the transaction now completed, Dotmatics will form part of Siemens’ Digital Industries Software business, marking a significant expansion of Siemens’ industry-leading Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) portfolio into the rapidly growing and complementary Life Sciences market.

Latham & Watkins LLP represented Siemens in the transaction with a corporate team led by New York partners Eyal Orgad, Daniel Williams, and James Gorton, with associates Jameson Miller, Junhan Zhang, David Lee, Sam Berry, and Alex Reiher. Advice was also provided on antitrust matters by Washington, D.C. partners Michael Egge, Jason Cruise, Frankfurt/Düsseldorf partner Max Hauser, London partner Jonathan Parker, and Frankfurt counsel Nils Bremer; on CFIUS and Foreign Direct Investment matters by Washington, D.C. partner Damara Chambers, Hamburg partner Jana Dammann de Chapto, and Washington, D.C. counsel Catherine Hein; on environmental matters by Los Angeles/Houston partner Joshua Marnitz; on compensation and benefits matters by Los Angeles partner Larry Seymour and London partner Kendall Burnett, with associate Megan Ampe; on labor and employment matters by Chicago partner Nineveh Alkhas; on real estate matters by Chicago counsel Jeffrey Anderson; on tax matters by Bay Area partner Katharine Moir with Washington, D.C associate Christina McLeod; on intellectual property matters by Orange County counsel David Kuiper; on data privacy matters by Bay Area partner Robert Blamires and Frankfurt counsel Wolf-Tassilo Böhm; on healthcare regulatory matters by Washington, D.C. partners Jason Caron and Ben Haas, and Paris/Brussels partner Eveline Van Keymeulen; and on insurance matters by Los Angeles partner Drew Levin and San Diego/Los Angeles counsel Hannah Cary.

As Mark Zuckerberg staffs up Meta’s new superintelligence lab, he’s offered top tier research talent pay packages of up to $300 million over four years, with more than $100 million in total compensation for the first year, WIRED has learned.

Meta has made at least 10 staggeringly high offers to OpenAI staffers, sources say. One high ranking researcher was pitched on the role of chief scientist but turned it down, according to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations. While the pay package includes equity, in the first year the stock vests immediately, sources say.

“That’s about how much it would take for me to go work at Meta,” says one OpenAI staffer who spoke with WIRED on the condition of anonymity as they aren’t authorized to speak publicly about the company. Other employees said that they were weighing the money against the potential impact they could have at Meta in comparison to OpenAI. Several believed their impact would be greater at OpenAI.

“These statements are untrue – the size and structure of these compensation packages have been misrepresented all over the place,” says Meta spokesperson Andy Stone. “Some people have chosen to greatly exaggerate what’s happening for their own purposes.”

A senior engineer who spoke to WIRED confirmed their pay was around $850,000 per year at Meta—an impressive sum that pales in comparison to the packages currently on offer. Those in the pay band above this engineer (E7’s, in Meta terms) make on average $1.54 million a year, according to user data submitted on Levels.FYI.

Andrew Bosworth, chief technology officer at Meta, said that not everyone is getting a $100 million offer during a Q&A with employees last week. “Look, you guys, the market’s hot. It’s not that hot. Okay? So it’s just a lie,” he said. “We have a small number of leadership roles that we’re hiring for, and those people do command a premium.” He added that the $100 million is not a sign-on bonus, but “all these different things” and noted OpenAI is countering the offers.

As a point of comparison, Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, received $79.1 million in total compensation in 2024, most of it in stock, according to a financial filing by the company. Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, made roughly $39.4 million (again, mostly in stock) the same year.

On Monday, Mark Zuckerberg sent a note to Meta staff introducing the new superintelligence team. Alexandr Wang, formerly the CEO of Scale AI, is now Meta’s chief AI officer, Zuckerberg said. He’s joined by Nat Friedman who previously led GitHub. Together, Wang and Friedman will colead an organization Zuckerberg dubbed the Meta Superintelligence Labs. The company did not name a chief scientist or a chief research officer as part of the announcement. Neither Wang nor Friedman are thought of as researchers, at least in the traditional sense. None of the OpenAI staffers who left for Meta received the $300 million offer, according to a source with knowledge of the contracts.

The Greenback dipped to new multi-year troughs before attempting a mild rebound on Tuesday, as investors continued to assess the participation of Chief Powell at the ECB Forum, while fresh tensions emerged on the trade front in anticipation of the July 9 tariffs deadline.

Here’s what to watch on Wednesday, July 2:

The US Dollar Index (DXY) added to the ongoing lower leg and receded to new multi-year lows in the sub-97.00 neighbourhood. The usual weekly MBA Mortgage Applications are due, followed by Challenger Job Cuts, the ADP Employment Change report, and the EIA’s weekly report on US crude oil stockpiles.

EUR/USD halted its multi-day positive streak shortly after reaching fresh yearly peaks above the 1.1800 level. The ECB Forum on Central Banking will precede the release of the EMU’s Unemployment Rate.

GBP/USD resumed its decline soon after hitting new YTD tops near 1.3790, just to end the day with humble gains in the low 1.3700s. Next on tap across the Channel will be the BoE’s DMP Survey and Credit Conditions Survey, seconded by the final S&P Global Services PMI, all due on July 3.

USD/JPY remained on the back foot and retreated to the 142.70 region, or four-week lows. Next on the Japanese docket will be the weekly Foreign Bond Investment figures on July 3.

Following its risk-related peers, AUD/USD hit new tops just below the 0.6600 barrier before succumbing to some modest downside pressure. The Ai Group survey is due alongside Building Permits, Retail Sales and Private House Approvals.

WTI prices maintained their multi-day erratic performance on Tuesday, always around the $65.00 mark per barrel as traders remained prudent ahead of the OPEC+ meeting and rising expectations surrounding the trade front.

Gold prices rose markedly and revisited the $3,360 zone per troy ounce, or multi-day highs, following the increasing caution around the US trade policy and the vacillating Greenback. Silver prices extended Monday’s uptick to two-day highs around $36.60 per ounce.