FRANCE
Fillon shocked by pay
Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Friday that he and others in the government were considering the idea of imposing extra taxes on companies that overpay their top executives. Fillon told the regional daily Nice-Matin in an interview that he was shocked by the high salaries of some executives. “I do not believe in controls on salaries. On the other hand, I am shocked to see the wage increases of a few that are completely disconnected from the economic reality of companies and wage negotiations,” Fillon was quoted as saying. President Nicolas Sarkozy’s conservative government is pushing a package of fiscal reforms through parliament that would scrap an unpopular tax shield for the rich, while also raising a wealth tax threshold to relieve middle-class households whose property has jumped in value.
PHARMACEUTICALS
J&J recalls products
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said on Friday it has recalled 16,000 bottles of its Risperdal schizophrenia treatment and another 24,000 bottles of a generic formulation of the medicine due to consumer reports of odors in the products. The company said the latest two recalls stem from odors believed caused by trace amounts of a chemical called TBA found in pallets used to transport and store materials. J&J last year recalled a number of over-the-counter drugs — including its Tylenol and Motrin painkillers and its Benadryl allergy treatment — because of the same musty or moldy odor linked to the chemical. “While not considered to be toxic, TBA can generate an offensive odor and a very small number of patients have reported temporary gastrointestinal symptoms when taking other products with this odor,” J&J said on Friday.
TECHNOLOGY
Damages claim revealed
Oracle is seeking between US$1.4 billion and US$6.1 billion in a patent lawsuit against Google over the lucrative smartphone market, according to a court filing. Oracle sued Google last year, claiming the Web search company’s Android mobile operating technology infringes upon Oracle’s Java patents. Oracle bought the Java programming language through its acquisition of Sun Microsystems in January last year. A US judge last week ordered Google to make public parts of a court filing that contains details about Oracle’s damage claims. Google complied with that order on Friday and revealed the damages range sought by Oracle. Google disputes the Oracle damages amount in the court filing, calling it “a breathtaking figure that is out of proportion to any meaningful measure of the intellectual property at issue.”
PHARMACEUTICALS
GSK ordered to recall drug
GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK), the UK’s biggest drugmaker, was ordered to recall an antibiotic on sale in China following similar moves in Taiwan and Hong Kong after authorities detected an industrial plasticizer in the drug. China has halted sales of Augmentin manufactured by GSK after finding diisodecyl phthalate, known as DIDP, the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration said yesterday in a statement on its Web site. Taiwan and Hong Kong earlier this month also ordered a recall of Augmentin. Animal tests suggest long-term consumption of the chemical might affect the liver, according to a statement from Hong Kong’s Department of Health.
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure