frs dow aetna, linovo novartis and more. >> jon: with special appearances by montgomery burns. the ghost of john d. rockefeller. the biblical personification of wealth, mammon. but, of course, the get-together is not just a celebration but a chance for the powerful to reflect on how the world has changed since the devastating financial collapse. that many of them caused and are profiting from. j.p. morgan chase c.e.o. jamie dimon. >> you made some provocative comments last week. you said the bank is under assault from regulators. >> i was referring to the fact that there are lots of different regulators. it's hard to deal with. we're going to deal with it. my job is to deal with it not to complain about it. >> jon: complaining about it is just my passion. ( laughter ) while some called for giant banks like morgan to be broken up jamie dimon would just like to let you know how hard something like that would be on us. >> a lot of my directors have mentioned to me that some of their companies were under some pressure to break up and thank god they didn't. the company itself was a

now along is coming a new treatment a genetic therapy where they take a harmless virus, novartis is working on this, and put a gene on it, and they inject it right into the inner ear and regrow the hair cells. it's worked in animals. it looks like it's going to work in humans. to answer your question, five years, one of the final point i want to make, the problem with that treatment is it washes out of your ear. you can't keep it for long. and critics say fine it will work for two weeks but then what? another company autonomy, has come up with a gel that will allow that treatment to stay in the ear. simple injection. >> you can get that right now? >> no. no. it's five years away. five years before you're going to be able to go to your doctor and get it instead of a hearing aid. >> if it's that far away dr. samadi and currently it's irreversible, is that a workaround, a way to try to prevent it? >> that's a very good point. i think one of the main reasons for hearing loss is this noise induced hearing loss. so you want to make sure that you keep the noise level below the 85 decibels. that's

indication as to when there will be a conclusion to the negotiations between the government and novartiste. the discussions are still under way. this would be a vital step forward, because of the horrors of this disease. but he also knows that there would be huge cost issues if we were to make sure that this was made available. so those discussions with the drug company are vital. they are ongoing, and if i can give him an update in a letter i will do so. >> the whole of herefordshire is behind a transformative project to create a new university specializing in engineering and technology, and, in particular the agri-technology, defense and security sectors. that is only possible because of the government's universities policy and their decision to lift the cap on student numbers. will the prime minister look hard, with the chancellor, at the potential to award some the government's universities public capital funding to support this enormously worthwhile project? >> my honorable friend is right to say that uncapping university numbers removes the cap on aspiration. we want to have a coun

so similar to novartis' drug for mul mul multiple sclerosis.y presented data in october in that indication which caused stock to go up 50%. credit suisse raised its price target to 140 from 125 ahead of the data presented this week. getting to more granularity on how well it works. but a big catalyst is business development. i talked to the ceo and they said they're looking for a partner, but this has been at takeover target. so they are he lllg fo building long term. >> that's interesting, but sepra was a $13 stock around thanksgiving. closed around 29 today. we've seen that before. except that on january 7, they priced $5 million secondary at 24 1/2 and stock they ever looked back. that's a great sign. a lot of analysts have $35 price targets.back. that's a great sign. a lot of analysts have $35 price targets. >> and exactly what he said about the antibiotics and the abuse basically of antibiotics. this isn't something where immigrants are coming in and they carry the super bug. they haven't been treated quite frankly with antibiotics the way

novartis stock up just a bit on that news. >>> and check this one out in europe. up suddenly in a street in suburban naples,itily. it was caused by an undergroundwater pipe bursting. heavy rains in that area. and that's the cnbc news update this hour. "the closing bell" returns after a quick break. >>> welcome back. wages remain a hot topic in this country especially in political circles. it's a top issue for 2016 and late last week walmart created waves by boosting their wages voluntarily. some say it proves the government should stay out of this issue. >> sure markets work and there's particularly today a premium on talent and we've got 5 billion jobs that could be filled if we had people with the skills but there's also on the part of companies a desire to retain their workforce. that was what aetna said and walmart was sort of hinting at the same time. we want to build our own and train them. >> with us for his reaction to thatened a all things 2016 is former senior adviser to president obama david axelrod. he's the author of the recent best-seller "believer:

five companies, merck, sanofi, novartis, and glaxo account for nearly 90% of the vaccine sales.easles vaccines combined with vaccines for other diseases like mumps. that segment reported $1.14 billion of sales for america. like vaccines, and drugs, they can take years to win approval, up to a billion dollars and 10 to 15 years, according to pharma, the trade association for drug companies and companies get exclusivity from the fda for new vaccines for 12 years. but profitability, it is hard to quantify. some vaccines for targeted diseases can make big money, but others for measles and flu for example, may not because big purchasers are governments, non-profit health organizations and big health care providers. they negotiate huge discounts because they purchase just, you know, crate loads, truckloads of these vaccines, but these vaccine makers are publicly-traded companies as we showed you. so they obviously would in the look for new vaccines or keep making older ones, even ones off patent like merck's bigamies sills vaccine if they didn't think they could make money for investo

of a bloomberg report that the company is considering weighing a sale of itself and that possibly novartisohnson & johnson said to be interested in possibly acquiring this company. now, pharmacyclics. it specializes in cancer and immunotherapy drugs. it could be a takeover target for some big fat pharmas. that's why the shares are on the rise. >> dom, thank you so much coming up. final trade from the desk. a special surprise visitor. you don't know who is going to show up when we come back. you can call me shallow... but, i have a wandering eye. i mean, come on. national gives me the control to choose any car in the aisle i want. i could choose you... or i could choose her if i like her more. and i do. oh, the silent treatment. real mature. so you wanna get out of here? go national. go like a pro. sometimes they just drop in. always obvious. cme group can help you navigate risks and capture opportunities. we enable you to reach global markets and drive forward with broader possibilities. cme group: how the world advances. return on investment isn't the only return i'm looking forward to. f

the biggest non-us company was number nine novartis.ig picture here is that apple's outsized market cap is matched by outsized earnings. a chart showing apple's influence on s&p 500 earnings -- in the fourth quarter, apple made up for 8% of the s&p 500's earnings. it reported profits of $18 million -- $18 billion. in terms of what to look for it depends on what apple does with its cash holdings. when his $70 billion in cash -- $178 billion in cash. >> thank you so much, scarlet fu. pepsico shares up in the premarket after the company posted quarterly earnings that beat wall street estimates. the second of the big three soda makers to report this week. coke beat estimates this week. all three companies are working to offset a decade-long decline in soda sales. which are projected to fall even more in the next three years. one smaller lesser-known rival is benefiting from that fall. the making of sparkler -- maker of sparkling ice. says it's on track to become the next billion-dollar beverage brand by 2018. the president and ceo of the be

the california-based drugmaker has attracted attention from the likes of novartis and johnson & johnson. it could fetch $18 billion in a sale. >> you can join the conversation on twitter and let us know about anything that's on your mind this morning. >> coming up it's all in the past. that was the message from hsbc executive stuart gulliver. caroline was just telling you about tax practices. how will the other issues play out in the coming elections? stay tuned for that. ♪ >> welcome back to "countdown." the government was just elected on anti-austerity platform. we sat down with the finance minister. he told us what the new deal means for the greek people. >> we never promised her people would we would negotiate completely and bring it to conclusion the first two weeks. the greek people are not that gullible, and we are not that cynical. secondly, we promised the end of the troika. whenever said anything about wanting to get out of the eurozone. our pledge to our partners and to the greek people is we're going to do everything necessary to stay in the eurozone. clearly that means havi

the fda giving novartis the okay to treat patients that relapsed after aggressive blood cancer. >> big is another housing crash on the horizon? our next guest believes a perfect storm is brewing that could spark another mortgage melt down. she capital markets equity research analyst and joins us to layout his reasons for this forecast. we read this. you put out this report. what's happening? >> well basically if you think about the last seven years you realize that the bank versus paid you know maybe $100 billion in fines and other penalties related to mortgages. they were put -- loans were put back to them in the tens of billions. it was something called the qualified mortgage rule that was created that requires people to put down 20% to buy a home and also they can't have more than 45% of all their debt payments as a percentage of their total changes in the way the banks have to have capital against certain mortgages. there have been changes in the secure rules. in essence you find the banking industry is reluctant to make mortgage changes as they were in the past. many banks have ad