PHARMACEUTICALS
Ebola drug pushes Fujifilm
Fujifilm shares rose as high as 4 percent in Tokyo yesterday after it said it would increase its supply of an experimental Ebola drug to help stem the spread of the virus. Fujifilm said late on Monday it would increase its stock of Avigan, which has been given to several patients who were evacuated from Ebola-hit west Africa to Europe. Fujifilm said it has enough Avigan tablets — approved as an influenza drug in Japan — to treat 20,000 people and enough of its active ingredient for 300,000 treatments. The company did not say by how much it would increase its finished stock of the drug.
INTERNET TRADE
Amazon, publisher in deal
Amazon.com Inc on Monday reached a multiyear agreement with major publisher Simon & Schuster. The online retailer issued a statement saying the agreement would help both sides. Simon & Schuster sent a letter to its authors and their agents, saying the agreement was “economically advantageous.” Simon & Schuster authors include Stephen King and Walter Isaacson. Monday’s agreement is for both print and digital books.
COMMUNICATIONS
US clears Samsung devices
Samsung Electronics Co says some of its Galaxy mobile devices were approved for use with classified US government networks and data. The South Korean company said yesterday the Galaxy S5, the Galaxy Note 4 and seven other smartphones or tablets became the first consumer devices validated by a partnership between the US National Security Agency and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology. The validation clears Samsung devices to be considered by US government departments to handle classified information.
PHARMACEUTICALS
AbbVie drops Shire
AbbVie Inc is walking away from its proposed US$55 billion takeover bid of Shire PLC and has agreed to pay the rival drugmaker a US$1.64 billion breakup fee. The two companies said on Monday that the deal was off following the decision last week by AbbVie’s board to withdraw support from the proposed acquisition. Shire had rejected several unsolicited offers from Abb-Vie before the companies made the deal in July.
EGYPT
Moody’s raises outlook
Moody’s said Egypt’s political and security situation has stabilized, raising the country’s outlook from negative to stable. The ratings agency credits “the launch of government initiatives toward fiscal consolidation, signs of a growth recovery and an improvement in macroeconomic stability” for its revised assessment, which was announced on Monday. However, Moody’s kept Egypt’s government bond rating at “Caa1” — essentially junk bond level. Moody’s said the continued low rating “reflects the very weak and challenging state of Egypt’s government finances.”
MACROECONOMICS
Global policy ‘a threat’
The current ultra-expansive monetary policy around the world could pose a threat to financial stability, the chief economist of the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) in Basel warned on Monday. In an interview with the German daily Die Welt, the chief economist of the Basel-based BIS, Claudio Borio, warned of the dangers of easy money. “Interest rates are globally too low to guarantee price stability and financial stability,” Borio said. Companies are not using the cheap cash to invest, he added.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last