Apple regularly barnumistically launches new generations of iPhones. In mid-September, the fifteenth generation was presented. The media circus also has its financial aspect. This year, sales are better than expected, which could possibly return the company to profit after three quarters of declining revenue, the longest period in the last seven years.
Even more sensational were the results of the launch of Wegovy, a weight loss drug from the Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, which already has approval from the European Medicines Agency. After the release of trial data showing that it reduces the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients by as much as one-fifth, the company’s market value simply exploded, surpassing the rest of the Danish economy and is on track to become the most valuable company in all of Europe.
However, before Wegovy, Novo Nordisk stumbled in the market with Ozempic, a diabetes drug that has already begun to be widely used for weight loss. The manufacturer is facing a wave of lawsuits due to some unpleasant side effects. Nevertheless, it seems that the success with Wegovy will cover all losses and still bring enormous profit.
This story also shows that launching a new product is among the most demanding processes in business. When we descend from the global level to Croatian frameworks, we conclude that significant money is also invested here (of course, in the contexts of the size of companies and markets), and the risks are equally high. Goran Litvan writes about 100 new domestic products and services in this issue.
The baby boomer generation has not had much luck. They grew up during one cold war, and now they are aging during another. Because the increasingly tense tensions between the EU and China are practically a cold war of the digital age. Sparks have been flying between the two ‘entities’ for years, although the relationship has been publicly strained since the beginning of the war in Ukraine and the jumping of interdependent trading partners into opposing blocks. Thunder is rumbling on both sides. The last excuse for the thunder is Chinese-subsidized electric cars.
The Union has launched an anti-subsidy investigation, which, as they say from Brussels corridors, is necessary to protect European jobs and supply chains. The market is flooded with cheap Chinese vehicles, which is extinguishing all of this. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce claims that the investigation is ‘a blatant act of protectionism’. And it is not far from the truth, as the investigation could result in punitive tariffs. And this is precisely at a time of expensive green transition, which is made somewhat more bearable by cheaper Chinese vehicles.
In recent years, Europe has not been characterized by smart political capacities, but an open trade conflict with China is a level-up of incompetence and a lack of thinking beyond the mandate. Of course, the topic of dependence on various Chinese goods/raw materials/technology is very much allowed, moreover, it is necessary, but thinking a moment longer saves one’s citizens from a little more poverty. Because the consequences for the EU, already crippled by pandemic lockdowns, war, poor energy decisions, and inflation, have forced once-rich Germans to work several jobs to make ends meet. As it is for Germans, so it will be for everyone else. Gordana Gelenčer writes about the economic war.
