CLINICAL SERVICES: New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services awarded an $8 million contract to the Forest Hills-based nonprofit Child Center of New York on Thursday to train child protective staff how to assess families who have mental health, substance use or domestic violence concerns. The award is a one-year extension of the Child Center’s current contract for clinical consultation services until the city releases a new bid, a notice filed in the City Record shows.
NIH GRANT: The National Institutes of Health awarded nearly $40 million to Rutgers on Thursday to advance translational science, a field of medicine that transfers lab discoveries into clinical practice. The Rutgers Institute for Translational Medicine and Science will receive the federal funding over seven years and will use it to advance research around a range of areas including diagnostics and therapeutics, medical procedures and behavioral health interventions.
ABORTION IMPACTS: Fewer medical graduates are applying to residency programs in abortion-restrictive states in the two years since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the federal right to abortion, according to new research from the American Association of Medical Colleges. Residency programs in states with abortion bans saw their applications decrease by an average 4.2%, higher than the 0.6% average decline in states without bans. The specialties most likely to see a drop in applications were ob-gyn, family medicine, internal medicine and emergency medicine.
OverT Bio, a Kips Bay-based biotechnology company focused on building gene therapies for solid tumors, has raised a $16 million seed round. The all-equity funding, announced Monday, was led by Artis Ventures and Wing VC.
OverT aims to use cell engineering to create better treatments for solid tumors, said Mat Legut, the firm’s co-founder and chief executive. The round will allow the company to continue developing two types of technology, make additional hires and move toward getting drug candidates into clinical trials by the end of 2026. OverT currently has 10 employees in New York and aims to have 14 by the end of the year, Legut added.
Solid tumors are currently considered difficult to treat because they’re made up of multiple types of cells, making it hard for drugs to target certain ones and eradicate the diseases, and their microenvironment suppresses the immune system. To that end, Legut’s co-founder Neville Sanjana, who is a pioneer of CRISPR gene editing technology, developed a DNA sequencing platform that screens more than 20,000 genes to see which are best-suited to make medications, Legut said. The platform is called OverTarget.
“Instead of going after some target from a textbook, we’re letting the biology lead the way and seeing, without any assumptions, what is the best possible gene that we can use,” he added.
Scientists at OverT have also developed a second platform, called OverTune, to help T cells in patients’ immune systems work with the therapies. This would help avoid the pitfalls of other therapies which kill cancer cells but also destroy healthy parts of the body, Legut said. He estimated that the seed round would give OverT enough runway to continue operations through the end of 2026 before fundraising again.
OverT was founded in 2022 and counts Alexandria Venture Investments and Civilization Ventures among its investors. It is located inside the Alexandria Center for Life Science.
The stock market climbed to its highest level since early April, extending a rebound that’s been fueled by speculation the Federal Reserve will be able to cut interest rates this year.
Equities rose as higher-than-estimated jobless claims reinforced bets on US policy easing — with the market extending gains after a $25 billion sale of 30-year bonds saw good demand. The S&P 500 topped 5,200 amid below-average volume. The advance in stocks has also been attributed to Commodity Trading Advisors — who surf momentum — being modeled to buy shares this week.
“Our sense is that the rebound has been unloved, largely because economic surprises have turned modestly negative, and we believe this is likely to lead to additional near-term upside,” said Chris Senyek at Wolfe Research. “Looking out to year end, we expect to remain constructive on the outlook.”
To Doug Ramsey at Leuthold, another 10% gain in the S&P 500 isn’t out of the question, at least statistically. He analyzed 80 years of data on bull-market rallies, focusing on those that happened when unemployment was this low and the economic cycle this mature. If the current rally meets the prior records for length and height, the S&P 500 would end the year at 5,705.
The S&P 500 traded less than 1% away from its all-time high. Apple Inc. climbed as Bloomberg News reported the company will deliver some of its upcoming artificial-intelligence features this year via data centers equipped with its own in-house processors. Nvidia Corp. led losses in chipmakers.
Treasury 10-year yields declined four basis points to 4.46%. The pound rose, despite growing confidence the Bank of England can soon begin loosening policy.
A survey conducted by 22V Research shows investors are practically split on the S&P 500’s next 10% move — with 52% betting the benchmark gauge will go higher and 48% seeing a down move.
“To the extent that conviction in the next big move in asset prices remains mixed, expect correlations to remain low and stock picking and micro themes to dominate,” said Dennis DeBusschere, founder of 22V.
When it comes to the Treasury market, 68% of those surveyed by the firm believe the 10-year yield is going to 4% next — while only 32% said 5%.
Senyek at Wolfe Research noted that he’d remain constructive in equities unless the economy shows signs of spilling into recession, or inflation is sticky enough that the market starts to price in a Fed hike.
“Neither are part of our base case!” he said.
Initial applications for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since August, topping estimates. U.S. policymakers are keeping a close eye on labor demand and wage growth as they debate when it might be appropriate to ease policy. Fed Bank of San Francisco President Mary Daly said rates are currently restraining the economy, but it may take “more time” to return inflation to their goal.
“Time will tell whether it’s a one-off or part of a genuine cooldown in the labor market,” said Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley. “Investors may have adjusted to the idea of the Fed waiting until September to cut interest rates, but that doesn’t mean they’re comfortable waiting indefinitely.”
Blackstone Inc. President Jon Gray said economic growth will slow as stubborn inflation weighs on the Fed’s ability to begin lowering borrowing costs.
“We see a deceleration of growth,” Gray said at the Macquarie Australia Conference in Sydney on Thursday. “Central banks will be slow on the cutting of rates, because they don’t want to see a rise of inflation,” he said. “The Fed will be patient, they’ll have the opportunity to cut once this year,” he added.
If the economy is slowing, unemployment rising, inflation receding, and the Fed is expected to cut rates, there will be plenty of buyers for U.S. Treasury notes and bonds, according to Joe Kalish at Ned Davis Research.
“But make no mistake. When conditions change, prices can change too – and quickly!”
Kalish noted that the buyers of bonds are now different from the buyers of bonds during the quantitative-easing era. Currently, buyers are price-sensitive, and the burden has mostly fallen on households, he added.
“There will always be a price to clear the market,” he noted. “So now we are just haggling over the price."
A former New York City assistant district attorney and his husband are suing the city, claiming its health plan discriminates against gay male couples by denying them coverage of in vitro fertilization benefits.
The city plan’s definition of “infertile” violates federal, state, and city civil rights law by excluding gay male couples, while including gay female couples and different-sex couples, former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Corey Briskin and husband Nicholas Maggipinto argue in a proposed class action filed Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
The lawsuit raises bigger questions about who qualifies for fertility-related care under employer-sponsored plans, an issue that’s taken on more significance since the US Supreme Court’s landmark Bostock v. Clayton County decision that affirmed protections for LGBTQ+ employees under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
At least two federal court decisions, one in California and another in Illinois, have since said that a health-care plan that excludes IVF for same-sex couples or imposes greater costs for them to use it than other couples can be deemed discriminatory, according to Thursday’s complaint.
The complaint seeks an injunction to end the city’s current policy that restricts coverage of IVF treatment for same-sex male couples.
The New York City health plan defines “infertility” as the inability to conceive through male-female sexual intercourse or through intrauterine insemination for 12 months, according to the complaint.
“In this case, the City of New York has not just made it harder for gay men like Mr. Briskin and Mr. Maggipinto to qualify for IVF benefits,” the complaint says, “the City has made it impossible for gay men to qualify for IVF benefits.”
The office of New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who is also named in the complaint along with former Mayor Bill de Blasio, said it is reviewing the suit.
“The Adams administration proudly supports the rights of LGBTQ+ New Yorkers to access the health care they need,” a city hall spokesperson said in a statement. “The city has been a leader in offering IVF treatments for any city employee or dependent covered by the city’s health plan who has shown proof of infertility, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Legal history
The question of access has also been raised on a federal level. The Biden administration in March announced it was amending its IVF guidelines to extend the benefits to veterans and active servicemembers who are single or in same-sex relationships.
The New York City employee health care plan covers 75% the costs of IVF, including associated tests and procedures, according to the complaint.
Briskin and Maggipinto said they successfully created embryos last year without the plan’s coverage.
The couple previously filed a discrimination charge with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in April 2022, and was given a “right to sue” letter from the Department of Justice, their complaint said.
The city argued in a position statement following the EEOC charge that the two were asking for benefits related to a surrogate—which are not covered—but Briskin and Maggipinto countered they were only asking for coverage of egg retrieval and fertilization in the same manner that the service is covered for other couples.
Briskin left the city to clerk for a federal judge in January 2022, but he and Maggipinto remain covered under the city plan through COBRA.
The complaint says the city’s health-care policy violates Title VII, the New York State and City Human Rights Laws, and the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the US and New York State Constitutions.
Briskin and Maggipinto are represented by Peter Romer-Friedman and Patrick David Lopez of Peter Romer-Friedman Law PLLC.
Lopez served as the general counsel for the EEOC from 2010 to 2016, where he advocated to advance protections for LGBTQ+ workers under Title VII.
A massive multifamily project planned for Long Island City has landed a similarly huge construction loan.
North Carolina-based developer Grubb Properties has received roughly $215 million in financing from Kennedy Wilson, a real estate investment firm based in Beverly Hills, for Link Apartments QPN, a 417-unit development at 25-01 Queens Plaza North in the bustling Queens neighborhood. The project is still under construction but should be ready by next year for residents to move in, according to CBRE, which brokered the deal for Grubb.
The project will stand 26 stories tall, and 124 of the residential units will be set aside as affordable for households earning up to 130% of the area median income, or about $182,000 for a family of three. It will also feature 6,920 square feet of retail space on the ground floor. Grubb is building an elevator to the Queensboro Plaza subway station as part of the development as well.
The project's close proximity to public transportation was one of the main reasons Kennedy Wilson opted to provide the construction loan, said Patrick Crandall, senior managing director at the firm. It has long known Grubb to be a quality developer, he said.
Grubb purchased the Long Island City site in September 2021 for $63 million, property records show. It bought 111 Washington St. in Manhattan's Financial District for about $89.2 million around the same time; it is planning a 462-unit residential project there that should be finished in 2026, according to the company.
The median rent in northwest Queens hit $3,244 in April, the second-highest it has ever been for the month, according to the latest report from Douglas Elliman. The overall record for the neighborhood is $3,900, set in August last year.
The CBRE team of Elliott Voreis, Nate Sittema, Kristen Reilley and Owen Hall represented Grubb in the transaction.