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I would have thought its good for the sector, plus you have Beijing making strides to help biotech innovators fast track applications:

'China through a “fast track” channel as Beijing moves to accelerate early-stage drug development.'

On top of that there is a lot of M & A activity, from October:

'CK Life Sciences International is set to merge its subsidiary Polynoma with Nasdaq-listed TransCode Therapeutics, in a move expected to boost the pipeline of anticancer drugs, according to the biotech unit controlled by the Li Ka-shing family.'

https://www.thestar.com.my/aseanplus/aseanplus-news/2025/10/13/ck-life-unit-merges-with-transcode-as-li-ka-shing-firm-eyes-anticancer-drugs

Eli Lilly reaches $2.75 billion deal with Insilico to bring AI-developed drugs to the global market

Published Sun, Mar 29 20269:36 AM EDTUpdated 4 Hours Ago

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/29/eli-lilly-reaches-deal-to-bring-ai-developed-drugs-to-global-market.html

Four day week already being proposed, if WFH becoming the norm then it could lead to a resurgence in central online deliveries.

Could be a good hedge ..?

btw, some really encouraging developments on the animal free whey protein front, i guess they have seen an opportunity to press the proverbial button given such high commodity prices.

CK Life Sciences, a unit of Li Ka-shing-backed CK Group, plans to bring its cancer vaccine candidates to mainland China through a “fast track” channel as Beijing moves to accelerate early-stage drug development.

“We are planning to run investigator-initiated trials [IITs], hopefully, in the next year,” CK Life Sciences’ vice-president and chief scientific officer Dr Melvin Toh Kean-meng said in a recent interview.

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3348317/li-ka-shings-ck-life-unit-eyes-china-fast-track-cancer-vaccine-pipeline

Novartis shells out $2 billion for immunology biotech Excellergy, in second multi-billion dollar deal in a week

Published Fri, Mar 27 20267:43 AM EDT

> Novartis’ acquisition of U.S.-based Excellergy will add an early-stage drug candidate Exl-111 to the company’s existing allergy portfolio.

> It comes just a week after Novartis announced it is acquiring Synnovation subsidiary Pikavation Therapeutics for up to $3 billion to secure the rights to an experimental breast cancer drug.

> By the turn of the decade, pharma companies risk losing hundreds of billions in revenue as branded drugs get exposed to generic competition.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/27/novartis-nvs-stock-excellergy-buy-biotech-deal.html

Ai summary:

Meta AI (2013–2026): He joined Facebook in 2013 to found the Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab and served as Chief AI Scientist. During his time, he was a key proponent of open research.

AMI Labs (2026–Present): In March 2026, LeCun left Meta to launch a new startup called AMI Labs (Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs).

Wikipedia

Current Focus: AMI Labs & World Models

LeCun is currently focused on building Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) through "world models," which aim to make AI systems understand how the physical world works, rather than just generating text or images. He is a prominent critic of relying solely on Large Language Models (LLMs) to achieve human-level intelligence, arguing they are a "dead end" for reaching true AGI.

Are these not just sound bites for a hungry audience, sort of like click bait but for podcasts..?

Jeff Bezos and several other high profile backers have invested in a new start-up recruiting the architect of Ai, Yann LeCun - this guy is the foremost authority on artificial intelligence and has been an outspoken critic of LLM's for a good while, AMI Labs is the start up.

OpenAi, winding down more projects, expecting Atlas to be next..

'OpenAI recently confirmed it’s ending Instant Checkout, a tool that let users check out directly in ChatGPT, in favor of working with retailers to create dedicated apps in its chatbot.'

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/20/open-ai-agentic-shopping-etsy-shopify-walmart-amazon.html

Animal free protein has been a long time in the making so interested to see how it progresses, don't forget My Protein already has a tie up with Perfect day with Whey Forward..

https://us.myprotein.com/c/whey-forward/

Here's a good example of one that slipped through, its by pioneer Perfect Day into non animal based whey proteins, plant 1 supply is already sold out pre-production.

Perfect Day—a pioneer in the “animal-free dairy” space making whey proteins via precision fermentation—says it expects initial operations to begin at its new production facility in Gujarat, India, in the second half of 2026. This will be followed by a “controlled ramp-up” into 2027.

https://agfundernews.com/perfect-day-says-gujarat-facility-on-track-for-2026-start-2027-ramp-up-for-recombinant-whey-protein

We have some visibility of whey processing plants due to come online during 2027, this new supply may trickle down into 2026 futures prices.

This what Glanbia said recently with their results:

'However, the division’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) fell by almost a quarter to €233.8 million, driven by record inflation in whey protein prices.'

These food trends are very cyclical going through phases of popularity, mentioned the whole vegan thing which was the last one of any size or note.

When researching whey processing plants I found the companies involved reluctant to comment, this could be because they want to maintain status quo not spooking market prices with more supply coming online.

Please do your own research into this area and post any new plant news..

At the moment most of the external factors affecting profitability are generally considered at top end of ranges, if any of these move the other-way THG will benefit directly without doing anything.

Management have done a good job at growing the business despite these headwinds, imagine what would happen if things reverted back to 2021 in terms of inflation, interest rates and whey..

Better than expected given world events, thumbs up from me..

THG Nutrition VAT Update

The group notes the First Tier Tribunal ruling that 'Sunwarrior' (Global By Nature Ltd) protein powders qualify for 0% UK VAT.

THG has consistently applied prudence by paying UK VAT against its powdered protein and collagen products and certain supplements in line with HMRC guidance, while a number of competitors instead took a different interpretation and chose to zero rate some products for VAT purposes. Consequently, retrospective claims have been submitted to HMRC, who have stated they will provide a substantive update in relation to protein powders by the end of Spring 2026.

A successful claim would result in a cash payment of c.£78m, comprising c.£60m on protein powders and the further c.£18m on certain supplements.

Dunnow Dav, as ggg pointed out there's also no mention of a TU just FY 25 results.

That said, they will have to give a TU as we are at nearing the end of Q1 '26.

Hope this is not a response to the spike in whey prices as posted this morning, also APN mentioned the disruption to shipping routes in their market update.

Not sure if this link will work, its for Whey Powder European Jun '26 (W5M26)

https://www.barchart.com/futures/quotes/W5M26/interactive-chart

NBC have picked up this (didn't see this before posting)

OpenAI announces it is shutting down video platform Sora

NBC News

11.9M subscribers

https://youtu.be/MIISc5gNRto

Still a way to go for results but not expecting much change for Q1 2026, there has been some marginal improvement in FX EUR/JPY/USD but this maybe more than offset by higher whey prices which have sky rocketed last few days..

That said, i think top line growth will be okay..

https://www.barchart.com/futures/quotes/DG*0/futures-prices

Look at how quickly these 'deals' unwind..

Disney had a full one page piece of this at the time, so did OpenAi..we are only in March, Dec this was announced.

'In December, Disney announced it would invest $1 billion in OpenAI and allow users to make videos with its copyrighted characters on Sora. However, the transaction never closed.'

The whole backdrop in which S4 operates is changing, Ai is more and more being seen as a tool to assist rather than replace existing companies, its limitations are becoming well defined.

Open Ai's complete U turn on Sora marks a significant shift, the amount of hype surrounding this app was staggering even though Open Ai used a traditional media company to produce their own launch ad instead of Sora.

That's not to say stand-alone one stop shops wont flourish, FB and so on with their large behemoth platforms but for serious ad production of quality traditional agencies will still play an important roll imo..

AI Age

OpenAI shutters short-form video app Sora as company reels in costs

Published Tue, Mar 24 20264:49 PM EDTUpdated Tue, Mar 24 20266:06 PM EDT

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/24/openai-shutters-short-form-video-app-sora-as-company-reels-in-costs.html

Pharma giant Merck is buying U.S. biotech firm Terns Pharmaceuticals for $6.7 billion, the company said Wednesday.

This is the third multibillion-dollar acquisition for Merck over the past year as the company looks to bulk up its portfolio ahead of its best-selling cancer drug Keytruda losing patent protection in 2028.

Merck will acquire Terns for $53 per share in cash for an equity value of about $6.7 billion. That marks a 6% premium to Tuesday’s closing price, according to CNBC’s calculations. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter.

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/03/25/merck-buy-terns-pharmaceuticals-mrk-stock-boost-cancer-pipeline.html

Excellent point, draws a line in the sand valuation wise..good comparable too.