PHARMACEUTICALS
Abbott pleads guilty to fraud
Abbott Laboratories pleaded guilty and agreed to pay US$1.5 billion over allegations that it promoted the anti-seizure drug Depakote for uses that were not approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. The case includes a criminal fine and forfeiture of US$700 million and civil settlements with the US federal government and states totaling US$800 million. US Deputy Attorney General James Cole said on Monday the settlement reflects the determination by government “to hold accountable those who commit fraud.”
AGRICULTURE
Marubeni set to buy Gavilon
Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp is in the final stages of talks to buy US grain giant Gavilon LLC for about US$3.8 billion, a report said yesterday. Marubeni is in negotiations with Gavilon’s top shareholders, including US investment firm Ospraie Management LLC, over its plans to purchase the company, the Nikkei Shimbun said. Acquiring Gavilon would make the Japanese trading house a global leader alongside Cargill Inc of the US, with each handling about 40 million tonnes of grain a year, the Nikkei reported.
TECHNOLOGY
Kodak to end online service
Kodak will close its online photo service on July 2 after a US federal bankruptcy judge approved selling the business to Shutterfly for US$23.8 million. Shutterfly Inc emerged last month as the sole bidder for Eastman Kodak Co’s Kodak Gallery. The judge issued an order approving the sale last week. Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, is selling the photo printing, storage and sharing business to generate cash and to narrow its focus.
TECHNOLOGY
Toshiba’s profit halved
Toshiba Corp said yesterday its full-year net profit dropped by almost half to US$921 million on a strong yen, weak digital product sales and last year’s natural disasters in Japan and Thailand. Toshiba said net profit was ¥73.7 billion (US$923 million) in the fiscal year to March, down 46.5 percent from ¥137.8 billion a year earlier. However, it predicted that net profit would bounce back in the current fiscal year. Operating profit for the latest period fell 14 percent to ¥206.6 billion on sales of ¥6.1 trillion, down 4.7 percent, it said.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Adecco’s Q1 profit up 12%
The world’s biggest temporary staffing group, Adecco, said yesterday its first-quarter net profit rose 12 percent to 112 million euros (US$146 million). The results, which were in line with analysts’ expectations, also showed that operating profit rose by 7 percent to 168 million euros, while sales went up 2 percent to 5 billion euros in the first three months of the year, the Swiss group said in a statement. The group said it expects similar results for the second quarter, “with North America holding up, but Europe remaining challenging,” chief executive Patrick De Maeseneire said.
AUTOMOBILES
Chrysler issues mass recall
Chrysler will recall nearly 120,000 vehicles in the US to fix an electrical problem with the anti-lock brake and stability control, safety regulators said on Monday. The automaker found that the power distribution center in certain Dodge Charger or Chrysler 300 vehicles could overheat and blow a fuse. If the fuse blows, the vehicle could lose its anti-lock brake and stability control system.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day