PHARMACEUTICALS
ScinoPharm receives ANDA
ScinoPharm Taiwan Ltd (台灣神隆) on Friday said its generic fondaparinux sodium injectable product has secured the US Food and Drug Administration’s approval for an abbreviated new drug application (ANDA). Fondaparinux sodium is a generic injectable product for anticoagulation. The company reported net income of NT$82.61 million (US$2.67 million) for the third quarter of this year, down 22.8 percent annually, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$0.1, while revenue fell 3.67 percent to NT$817.71 million.
SHIPPING
Wan Hai to buy containers
Wan Hai Lines Ltd (萬海航運) on Friday said it would purchase new containers to renew its container fleet. The shipping company said it plans to buy 16,100 containers at US$2,430 per unit on average from Hong Kong-listed Singamas Container Holdings Ltd (勝獅貨櫃企業). The total cost would be US$39.12 million, Wan Hai said. The company reported net income of NT$430.68 million last quarter, down 66.25 percent annually, with EPS of NT$0.19. Revenue rose 9.58 percent to NT$17.33 billion.
ELECTRONICS
Acer income down 20.83%
Acer Inc (宏碁) on Thursday said that net income last month fell 20.83 percent annually to NT$228 million, with EPS of NT$0.08. Revenue also declined 11.12 percent to NT$19.96 million. Acer was required by the Taiwan Stock Exchange to release last month’s financial results after its shares became volatile in the past few sessions, with a decline of more than 11 percent this month. In the first 10 months of this year, the company’s EPS reached NT$0.91, while cumulative revenue rose 3.05 percent to NT$198.57 billion.
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],”
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
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