AstraZeneca says it takes China investigation ‘very seriously’
AstraZeneca’s chief executive has said it is taking investigations by Chinese authorities into its business in the country “very seriously” and insisted it is committed to China in the long run.Authorities are thought to be investigating the importation of two cancer treatments manufactured by Britain’s biggest pharmaceutical company into China.Pascal Soriot, the AstraZeneca chief executive, said: “We take the matters in China very seriously.If requested, we will fully cooperate with the authorities.”Soriot, Britain’s best-paid boss of a FTSE 100 company, who is in line for an £18.
7m package this year, denied there had been a lack of oversight by headquarters, but conceded that in a large workforce of more than 16,000 in China “unfortunately some will be tempted” to maximise sales,AstraZeneca has strengthened its 200-plus compliance team in the country, introducing field-based compliance officers, and uses artificial intelligence to scrutinise sales staff’s expense reports to identify any misbehaviour, he said,“We are at a very early stage,” he said,“We have very little information because we haven’t been approached as a company so far,We remain very committed to China, we are in China for the long run, it’s a very important market for us” as it has “a lot of patients” and an “important part of innovation in the industry,” referring to research & development of new drugs.
The company still plans to build a $450m factory in the country,Batting off suggestions of a potential spin-off of the China division, Soriot said: “I don’t think we have anything to regret,We never said we wanted to spin off the business in China,”The company’s share price has fallen over the past fortnight, since it announced that its China president, Leon Wang, who was executive vice-president for international, was stepping back because he is under investigation by Chinese authorities,Alongside Wang, two former and two current executives have also been detained over allegations of illegally importing oncology medicines.
AstraZeneca’s China business is now being run by Michael Lai, the general manager.Chinese authorities are thought to be investigating the importation of AstraZeneca’s cancer drug Imjudo, which has not been approved for sale in China, as well as shipments of Enhertu between Hong Kong and the mainland.Enhertu is another cancer treatment, which was first licensed in Hong Kong and then in mainland China.Sources said shipments may have been made from Hong Kong before it was approved on the mainland.The investigations concern the five individuals, and not the company itself.
There has been a wider crackdown by Beijing on international drugmakers and hospitals in recent years as part of an anti-corruption campaign, aimed at bringing rising medical spending under control.Sign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningafter newsletter promotionAstraZeneca’s market value fell by £14bn in a single day a week ago after a report that dozens of senior executives at its China unit could be implicated in an insurance fraud case in the country’s pharmaceutical sector.This relates to a separate issue dating back to 2021.AstraZeneca said that “to the best of the company’s knowledge, the investigations include allegations of medical insurance fraud, illegal drug importation and personal information breaches”.Soriot’s remarks came as AstraZeneca lifted its 2024 revenue and profit forecasts, and announced it was spending $3.
5bn (£2.7bn) on research and development and manufacturing of cancer and other drugs in the US, its biggest investment globally in at least a decade.The company reported a 21% rise in revenues to $13.6bn between July and September, catapulting pre-tax profit 24% higher to $1.8bn, stripping out currency moves.
In China, sales grew by 15% to $1.7bn in the third quarter.The drugmaker now expects 2024 revenues and core earnings a share to increase by a high teens percentage.Revenues in the US, its biggest market, climbed by 23% to $6bn – 44% of the company’s total sales.The company is still in negotiations with the UK government over expanding its vaccine site in Speke, near Liverpool, with talks centring on the amount of Treasury funding.
Soriot said another issue, also raised by other industry leaders, was access to new medicines on the NHS.“If you don’t think your products are going to be reimbursed and used by patients, of course it’s a less attractive environment.”
TechScape: Will Elon Musk fire a third of the US government?
Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m Blake Montgomery, US tech editor at the Guardian. In this week’s newsletter: Elon Musk and Donald Trump want to create a “Department of Government Efficiency”, crypto wins big across the board, and a modern equivalent of Lysistrata takes hold on TikTok. Thank you for joining me.Trump, president-elect of the US, said he wants to appoint Musk, the world’s richest man, as the country’s “secretary of cost-cutting” to reduce bureaucracy in the federal government by an order of $2tn, roughly a third
Musk’s influence on Trump could lead to tougher AI standards, says scientist
Elon Musk’s influence on a Donald Trump administration could lead to tougher safety standards for artificial intelligence, according to a leading scientist who has worked closely with the world’s richest person on addressing AI’s dangers.Max Tegmark said Musk’s support for a failed AI bill in California underlined the billionaire’s continued concern over an issue that did not feature prominently in Trump’s campaign.However, Musk has warned regularly that unrestrained development of AI – broadly, computer systems performing tasks that typically require human intelligence – could be catastrophic for humanity. Last year, he was one of more than 30,000 signatories to a letter calling for a pause in work on powerful AI technology.Speaking to the Guardian at the Web Summit in Lisbon, Tegmark said Musk, who is expected to be heavily influential in the president-elect’s administration, could persuade Trump to introduce standards that prevent the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI), the term for AI systems that match or exceed human levels of intelligence
Bitcoin price tops $87,000 for first time amid ‘Trump pump’
The price of bitcoin has risen above $87,000 for the first time as it benefited from traders’ hopes that Donald Trump will favour cryptocurrencies when he returns to the White House.Bitcoin reached a record high of $87,198, before slipping back slightly on Monday. The price has more than doubled from about $37,000 12 months ago.The election has also affected traditional currency markets, individual stocks – most notably Elon Musk’s electric car company, Tesla – and broad US equity markets, as investors bet on deregulation and tax cuts from Trump.Trump has in the past called bitcoin a “scam against the dollar”, but he changed his tune on cryptocurrency during the US presidential election campaign, courting the crypto community and appearing at industry events
How a second Trump term could further enrich Elon Musk: ‘There will be some quid pro quo’
Donald Trump owes his decisive 2024 presidential victory in no small part to the enthusiastic support of the world’s richest man. In the months leading up to the election, Elon Musk put his full weight behind the Maga movement, advocated for Trump on major podcasts and used his influence over X to shape political discourse. Musk’s America Pac injected nearly $120m into the former president’s campaign.Now, Trump is looking to return the favor. Speaking with reporters last month, he said he would appoint Musk as “secretary of cost-cutting”
How Elon Musk became Donald Trump’s shadow vice-president
As Donald Trump watched election results roll in from a party at his Mar-a-Lago compound, Elon Musk sat arm’s length away, basking in the impending victory he had helped secure. In less than five months, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO had gone from not endorsing a candidate to becoming a fixture of the president-elect’s inner circle.“The future is gonna be so 🔥 🇺🇸🇺🇸,” Musk posted to his social media platform, X, just after midnight, along with a photo of himself leaning over to talk with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago dinner.Musk’s place at the head table was the result of months of political efforts by the world’s richest man, and an injection of at least $130m of his own money. Musk campaigned for Trump both online and offline, funded advertising and get-out-the-vote operations for a campaign at a severe financial disadvantage to its opponent
Ofcom warns tech firms after chatbots imitate Brianna Ghey and Molly Russell
Ofcom has warned tech firms that content from chatbots impersonating real and fictional people could fall foul of the UK’s new digital laws.The communications regulator issued the guidance after it emerged that users on the Character.AI platform had created avatars mimicking the deceased British teenagers Brianna Ghey and Molly Russell.Under pressure from digital safety campaigners to clarify the situation, Ofcom underlined that content created by user-made chatbots would come under the scope of the Online Safety Act.Without naming the US-based artificial intelligence firm Character
P&O Ferries spent £47m on mass layoffs amid financial woes, accounts show
US inflation rises to 2.6% in October; Post Office closures put 2,000 jobs at risk – as it happened
Post Office plan to close 115 branches and cut jobs condemned as ‘immoral’
It’s time for the RBA to admit its fears of a wage-price spiral were misguided – and cut interest rates | Grogonomics
Key US inflation measure ticks higher for first time since March
Klarna chooses New York over London for much-anticipated IPO