BIOTECHNOLOGY
Gottlieb exit rattles market
The NASDAQ Biotechnology Index, a closely watched gauge of investor sentiment, reversed an intraday rally on Tuesday to fall as much as 0.6 percent in late afternoon trading that US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb announced that he would leave his post next month. Drugmakers including Incyte Corp, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc, Nektar Therapeutics, Mylan NV and Alexion Pharmaceuticals Inc were among those that saw some of the biggest declines. Gottlieb was universally respected and his departure could potentially disrupt how medicine is practiced, Loncar Investments CEO Brad Loncar said. Gottlieb was among those pushing for faster approvals of copycat drugs and touted a brisk pace of generic approvals among options to lower drug prices. He also led a movement toward quicker approvals in biotechnology’s fastest-growing fields, such as gene therapies.
ENTERTAINMENT
Hello Kitty to get new film
Sanrio Co Ltd yesterday announced that it would team up with New Line Productions Inc and FlynnPicture Co to create an English-language Hello Kitty film for global audiences, with Warner Bros Entertainment Inc as distributor. The iconic cat, first designed in 1974 with a trademark pink bow, is to be turned into a movie character after nearly five years of talks to secure the film rights. The new partnership also includes film rights to Sanrio’s other creations. Shares in Sanrio, which develops cartoon characters and merchandise items, jumped as much as 12.1 percent in Tokyo, marking the biggest intraday gain since March 16, 2011. Investors are expecting a recovery in Sanrio’s earnings in the next fiscal year, even as the company is on course to see its fifth year of profit declines. Shares are up 17 percent since the start of this year. Hello Kitty follows a trend of US and Japanese companies teaming up to bring Japan’s beloved characters to Hollywood, including Pokemon Detective Pikachu.
MANUFACTURING
GE falls after CEO’s warning
General Electric Co (GE) on Tuesday tumbled after CEO Larry Culp warned that the beleaguered manufacturer would have negative industrial free cash flow this year. The gloomy outlook is due to continued hurdles in the company’s power equipment division, Culp told a conference in New York. GE brought in US$4.5 billion of industrial free cash flow last year. Significant headwinds to this year’s cash flow would “meaningfully lessen” next year and in 2021, GE said. Culp’s comments underscored how far he has to go to turn around a company struggling with challenges across multiple business lines. The firm’s shares sank 6.1 percent to US$9.75 at 1:32pm in New York after sliding as much as 7.7 percent for the biggest intraday decline in more than three months.
INVESTMENT
Moody’s cuts Oman to ‘junk’
Moody’s Investors Service cut Oman’s rating to “junk” amid skepticism that the nation’s weakening fiscal metrics will not improve anytime soon. The ratings company lowered the country by one notch to “Ba1,” one level below investment grade, with a “negative” outlook. Moody’s forecast that Oman’s fiscal deficit will remain high, ranging from 7 percent to 11 percent of GDP in the next three years. “This view is underscored by delays of measures that were announced in early 2018 and that Moody’s expected would be implemented during 2018-2019,” the agency said in a statement.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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