💉 Compounding problems

Thursday ✅.

Today's newsletter is 692 words, a 2.5-minute read.

🔔 The dashboard: The S&P 500 closed down 0.2%.

• Biggest gainer? MarketAxess (+7.5%), the electronic bond trading platform, reported a 38% jump in Q3 total average daily trading volume.
• Biggest decliner? Constellation Brands (-4.7%), the beverage company, delivered mixed Q2 results with plenty of "headwinds" warnings from executives.

The FDA issued a warning yesterday for weight-loss drug compounders: the party may soon be over.

Why it matters: Sellers profiting from a surge of copycat alternatives to the newly popular GLP-1 drugs are suddenly facing the prospect of being locked out of a red-hot market.

Catch up quick The FDA yesterday took tirzepatide injections (Eli Lilly's Mounjaro and Zepbound) off of its official drug-shortage list.

• The drugs' appearance on the list 22 months ago had triggered a rush of companies seeking to exploit a loophole that allowed them to sell compounded versions of the injections.

That's all changing. "Pharmacies must immediately cease preparing and dispensing compounded copies of Mounjaro and Zepbound," the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding said in a statement.

• Lilly said those mass-producing compounded and counterfeit tirzepatide "need to stop immediately."
• The message was clear: "Compounders beware," Leerink Partners analyst David Risinger wrote today.

The impact: Telehealth platform Hims & Hers, one of the most prominent companies to offer compounded GLP-1 drugs, saw its stock close down 9.6% today.

• Hims doesn't actually offer compounded tirzepatide. It offers a compounded version of semaglutide, the key ingredient in Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, which remains on the FDA's shortage list for now.

Zoom out: Compounders say they're improving access for people who have been prescribed GLP-1s for diabetes and obesity but are still scrambling to find the drugs, Axios' Tina Reed reported in September.

• Patients will be "caught flat-footed" by the latest FDA decision, Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding CEO Scott Brunner said in a statement.

Go deeper

Levi Strauss' buoyant year took a sour turn today after the company projected underwhelming fourth quarter sales.

Between the lines: CFO Harmit Singh last night cited "headwinds" such as a lagging performance in China and the company's struggling Dockers khakis brand.

• The company lowered its full-year revenue forecast to 1% growth from a previous forecast of 1% to 3%.
• Levi shares fell 7.7% today.

The big picture: The denim maker has been on the comeback trail under CEO and former Kohl's boss Michelle Gass, having recaptured its cool factor when superstar Beyoncé featured the brand in a song. (That's since turned into an official campaign.)

• Even with today's drop, its stock is still up almost 20% for the year.

What's next: The company said it's considering a sale of Dockers.

• The bottom line: Beyoncé doesn't have any songs about khakis.

☕️ Ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz's comment to a union supporter was illegal, the NLRB ruled. (Reuters)

⚡️ Charging network EVgo landed a $1 billion federal loan guarantee to expand fast-charging stations. (Reuters)

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Oil prices jumped over 5% today on mounting suggestions that Israel could strike Iranian oil facilities in retaliation for Tuesday's missile attack.

Zoom in: Although prices have been rising modestly all week, oil traders straightened up this morning after President Biden acknowledged the possibility.

• Iran, an Opec member, exports about half of the 3.3 million barrels of oil it produces each day.

Between the lines: Although most analysts say immediate supply disruptions are not likely in the U.S., today's market reaction reflects a growing fear among traders of a longer-term escalation.

• Today's price spike for benchmark U.S. crude was the largest single-day gain since the early stages of the Israel-Hamas war a year ago, WSJ noted.

Yes, but: U.S. oil and gas production — already the highest of any country in the world — is at record highs, FT noted.

• "The U.S. is the most prepared out of any developed [economy] . . . to handle a significant disruption in the Middle East," Hunter Kornfeind, an oil market analyst at Rapidan Energy Group, told the paper.

JetBlue meals will soon be a dish served cold.

State of play: The airline will no longer serve hot meals on transatlantic flights for people seated in economy class, Business Insider reported.

• Westbound travelers will get a choice of pesto pasta salad or mushroom and lentils, while eastbound travelers get a chicken grain bowl or ginger garlic tofu.

The big picture: "Low-cost and ultra-low-cost carriers have been shaking up their operations as they contend with reduced profits," Business Insider writes.

💭 Nathan's thought bubble: Time for a hunger strike.

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Today's newsletter was edited by Pete Gannon and copy edited by Carlos Cunha.

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