Russia’s big tech boss

As the dog days of summer near their end, the back-to-school scaries are creeping in: Google searches for “how to fall asleep fast” spiked on Monday. Insomniacs, assemble.

Stocks yesterday moved up slightly as investors twiddled their thumbs ahead of Nvidia’s earnings today. One big mover was Walgreens, whose stock lost 9% after Eli Lilly said it had started selling discounted vials of its weight-loss drug Zepbound directly to consumers.

Sending a message… Telegram boss Pavel Durov was detained by French authorities on Saturday and is expected to remain in custody through at least today. Durov was arrested as part of an investigation into the messaging platform, which the company says has nearly 1B monthly users. Durov’s arrest is connected to allegations against an unnamed person who French authorities say is complicit in crimes committed via Telegram, including the distribution of child exploitative material, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

Safety and censorship… it’s a fine line. Durov’s arrest has reignited a debate over free speech and moderation. Telegram said, “It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform.” Telegram supporters called Durov’s arrest government censorship, but French President Emmanuel Macron said it was “in no way a political decision.” Elon Musk tweeted #FreePavel, while Mark Zuckerberg said gov’t officials had wrongly pressured Meta to censor some Covid-19 posts.

Responsibility is a gray area… In the US, Section 230 shields online platforms from being legally liable for their users’ posts — but there’ve been calls to scrap that immunity. In the EU (where stricter regs went into effect last summer), the Telegram investigation could set a precedent for how authorities handle crimes on platforms. And if French authorities charge Durov, it could mean a reckoning for other tech bosses.

Pickin’ up migraine meds... from the front porch. Pfizer launched its first direct-to-consumer portal yesterday. The platform (dubbed: PfizerForAll) lets US users schedule doc appointments, book vax shots, and order meds directly to their doors. Pfizer says it wants to “close gaps” in healthcare and help people get treated for common conditions like the flu.

Flipping the script... Employers and insurers typically use pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) like CVS’s Caremark and Cigna’s Express Scripts to negotiate prices with drugmakers to save $$. But last month the FTC dropped a scathing report saying PBMs may be inflating drug prices. Meanwhile, more pharma companies are dealing directly with consumers. In January, Eli Lilly launched its LillyDirect portal, becoming the first major pharma co to sell meds straight to customers. Drugmakers may be trying to compete with direct-to-consumer disruptors:

Direct relationships can drive profits… By nixing intermediary negotiators, drugmakers can prevent PBMs from eating into their sales. This month, the Biden admin revealed the prices for the first 10 drugs included under its Medicare negotiation program (including one from Pfizer). By going directly to patients, drugmakers could ease the negotiation squeeze.

Uncharted: What company — which serves a lot of green food but is stuck in the red — is this? Answer here.

Answer here.

How old are the posts Threads are recommending to its users? Read more.

Fill in the headline: A report said that globally half of _______ were used for less than one hour a day. (Answer here.)

There are only about 630 Mister Softee trucks left

Authors of this Snacks own shares of: Alphabet, Amazon, CVS, Nvidia, and Snap

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