Category Archives: Regulators

UK is first to approve oral antiviral pill to treat Covid

Posted on by

Pill can be taken twice daily at home and priority will be given to elderly patients and those with health vulnerabilities

The UK medicines regulator has become the first in the world to approve an oral antiviral pill for Covid in a move that paves the way for tens of thousands of vulnerable patients to receive the treatment from this winter.

Nearly half a million doses of molnupiravir, a pill that can be taken twice daily at home, are due for delivery from mid-November and will be given as a priority to elderly Covid patients and those with particular vulnerabilities, such as weakened immune systems. The drug will initially be given to patients through a national study run by the NHS.

Continue reading...

Credit Suisse fined £350m over Mozambique ‘tuna bonds’ loan scandal

Posted on by

Bank also pleads guilty to wire fraud and forgives hundred of millions of dollars of debt owed by country

Credit Suisse has been fined nearly £350m by global regulators, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, and agreed to forgive hundreds of millions of dollars worth of debt owed by Mozambique in an attempt to draw a line under the long-running “tuna bonds” loan scandal.

The Swiss banking company had been accused of “serious” failings in its financial crime controls by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice that will put the bank under heavy monitoring for three years after having “defrauded US and international investors”.

Continue reading...

Why salmonella is a food poisoning killer that won’t go away in the US

Posted on by

About 1.35m Americans a year fall ill from the bacteria. Why are there still so many infections?

In my kitchen, I treat raw chicken as if it’s crawling with bacteria that could make me and my family sick. I use separate cutting boards for meats and produce; I wash my hands and disinfect everything that comes close to the bird, then cook it to 74C (165F). A little paranoid, but with good reason.

Chickens, turkeys and other fowl commonly harbour salmonella bacteria that are harmless to the birds but not to humans.

Continue reading...

UK competition watchdog to look into pricing of Covid tests for travel

Posted on by

CMA to investigate PCR tests market after concerns about vastly different prices being charged

The competition watchdog is to look into fees for the Covid-19 tests required for international travel after concerns about the vastly different prices being charged for them.

The Competition and Markets Authority will provide advice and intelligence on the market in PCR tests to the health secretary, Sajid Javid, to enable the government to act.

Continue reading...

Drug firm that hiked prices by 6,000% paid shareholders £400m

Posted on by

Advanz Pharma and former private equity owners were fined £100m by markets watchdog

A pharmaceuticals firm that inflated thyroid drug prices by up to 6,000% over a decade paid out more than £400m to shareholders and directors during the same period.

London-based Advanz Pharma – and its former private equity owners HgCapital and Cinven – were fined a combined £100m by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) on Thursday.

Continue reading...

UK says it wants to substantially rewrite Northern Ireland Brexit protocol

Posted on by

Blueprint for alternative arrangement published as sources say protocol was flawed at conception

The UK has launched an audacious bid to rewrite a key plank of the Brexit deal, saying the Northern Ireland protocol was flawed at conception but served its purpose to get the UK out of the EU as “one country”.

The European Commission immediately ruled out a renegotiation of the deal, which was trumpeted by Boris Johnson as a solution to the Irish border impasse two years ago. The commission is understood to be open to some changes on the special arrangements for Northern Ireland, however.

Continue reading...

Lockdown refunds: why are Ryanair and BA being investigated?

Posted on by

Airlines may have broken law by refusing refunds for flights customers could not legally take

British Airways and Ryanair are being officially investigated over whether they treated customers unfairly during the pandemic by failing to offer them flight refunds.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it was looking to see if the two airlines had broken consumer law, and indicated it was on the side of consumers on this issue. It has opened enforcement cases into both companies.

Continue reading...

Boris Johnson furious as inquiry launched into ‘cash for curtains’

Posted on by

Electoral Commission believes there are ‘reasonable grounds’ to suspect offences around renovation of 11 Downing Street

The Electoral Commission has launched an inquiry that has the potential to imperil Boris Johnson’s premiership as the “cash for curtains” row increasingly engulfed the prime minister.

With sweeping powers to call witnesses and refer matters to the police, the watchdog said its probe was necessary because it already believed there were “reasonable grounds” to suspect that payments for expensive renovations to Johnson’s Downing Street flat could constitute several offences.

Continue reading...

Alibaba shares jump after record $2.8bn anti-monopoly fine

Posted on by

E-commerce firm feels penalty by Chinese regulators means focus on company is at an end

Shares in Alibaba surged on Monday after the e-commerce company said that a record $2.8bn fine handed down by Chinese regulators marked the end of an investigation into anti-competitive practices at the company.

Top executives at the company, founded by the billionaire Jack Ma, told investors that while Chinese regulators continued a wider investigation into the sprawling conglomerates in the country’s tech industry, they believed the multibillion dollar fine announced at the weekend marked the end of the focus on Alibaba. The company is listed in Hong Kong and its shares climbed as much as 9% on the management’s comments.

Continue reading...

Top banks could be investigated over $20bn fire sale of hedge fund assets

Posted on by

Collapse of Archegos has reportedly prompted SEC and FCA inquiries into Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, Nomura and others

UK and US regulators are looking into whether global investment banks breached rules by holding group discussions shortly before launching a fire sale of nearly $20bn worth of assets belonging to the distressed hedge fund Archegos Capital Management, according to reports.

The Securities Exchange Commission is said to have requested further information from major US banks Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley, as well as Japan’s Nomura and Swiss lender Credit Suisse about a meeting with Archegos founder Bill Hwang on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Regulators around the world monitor collapse of US hedge fund

Posted on by

Liquidation of Bill Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management sparked a fire sale of more than $20bn assets

Financial regulators across the world are monitoring the collapse of the New York-based billionaire Bill Hwang’s personal hedge fund.

The sudden liquidation of Hwang’s Archegos Capital Management sparked a fire sale of more than $20bn assets that has left some of the world’s biggest investment banks nursing billions of dollars of losses.

Continue reading...

Clot theory curdles into junkets for migrants on Isle of Man

Posted on by

PM welcomes vaccine safety vow, then spots new offshore home for folk trafficked here under false pretence – of getting a welcome

After a morning spent painting flowers at a primary school in his Uxbridge constituency, Britain’s prize clot returned to Downing Street to lead a press conference on clots. Blood clots to be precise.

Following the decision of some countries to suspend their Oxford AstraZeneca vaccination programmes over concerns of blood clot side-effects, Boris Johnson was happy to report that the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency had declared the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine to be absolutely safe.

Continue reading...

Is big tech now just too big to stomach?

Posted on by

The Covid crisis has turbo-charged profits and share prices. But are the big six now too powerful for regulators to ignore?

The coronavirus pandemic has wrought economic disruption on a global scale, but one sector has marched on throughout the chaos: big tech.

Further evidence of the industry’s relentless progress has come in recent weeks with the news that Apple and Amazon both raked in sales of $100bn (£72bn) over the past three months – 25% more than Tesco brings in over a full year.

Continue reading...

Bezos leaves Amazon in its prime – keeping it that way is the task

Posted on by

Analysis: Running the online retailer should be a dream job, but where and how to grow will challenge Andy Jassy

A pain-free departure of a visionary founder is a difficult trick to pull off for any business. The stakes are even higher for a company the size of Amazon, as Jeff Bezos steps back from his day-to-day management role.

The decision by Bezos, 57, to quit as chief executive later this year took analysts by surprise, but the first step has already gone smoothly, with Andy Jassy appointed as his successor without any public power struggle.

Continue reading...

Analysis: is it wise for England to mix and match Covid vaccines?

Posted on by

US experts warn against plan to give different second jab if supplies run low

The UK is setting the pace around the world in the approval and use of Covid vaccines but, while other countries watch intently, not all are yet prepared to embrace what looks like public health pragmatism rather than strict adherence to evidence.

Britain is the first country in the world to approve and use the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine, just as it was first with Pfizer/BioNTech’s. In a further trailblazing decision, it is giving everyone a first shot of either of those vaccines, with the second shot delayed to 12 weeks afterwards instead of the three- or four-week interval in the trials.

Continue reading...

How vaccine approval compares between the UK, Europe and the US

Posted on by

The regulatory fast-tracking of the Covid vaccine in Britain by MHRA has led some to question its methods

The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) in the UK has not had a round of applause from anyone other than the UK’s politicians and the vaccine companies. It gave temporary authorisation to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on Wednesday and within hours, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) put out a stiff statement implying more work was needed than the UK regulator had done. Its own decision could come as late as 29 December. It may well have been needled by the crowing of the health secretary, Matt Hancock, who claimed the fast approval as a Brexit triumph. He had to backtrack. The MHRA’s chief executive, June Raine, pointed out that the agency had simply taken advantage of a provision that any country in Europe could use, to fast-track approval in a pandemic.

Continue reading...

No corners have been cut in Pfizer vaccine approval, says UK regulator chief – video

Posted on by

People should be confident in the safety of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid vaccine, the chief executive of the UK regulator said. Dr June Raine, head of the Medical and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), said the vaccine had been subjected to rigorous testing and had met strict standards of safety and quality

Continue reading...

Met police criticised for multiple errors in stop and search practice

Posted on by

London force accepts watchdog advice over flawed tactics undermining community confidence

The Metropolitan police force has been getting its use of stop and search wrong with multiple errors that have undermined its legitimacy, the police watchdog has found.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct said police in one case stopped and searched two black men who were innocently fist bumping, because officers wrongly thought they were drug dealing.

Continue reading...

Data on Covid care home deaths kept secret ‘to protect commercial interests’

Posted on by

Exclusive: English and Scottish regulators refuse to reveal homes with most fatalities

Covid-19 death tolls at individual care homes are being kept secret by regulators in part to protect providers’ commercial interests before a possible second coronavirus surge, the Guardian can reveal.

England’s Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Care Inspectorate in Scotland are refusing to make public which homes or providers recorded the most fatalities amid fears it could undermine the UK’s care system, which relies on private operators.

Continue reading...

CMA to look into Facebook’s purchase of gif search engine

Posted on by

Watchdog fears that social media giant’s takeover of Giphy may reduce competition

The UK’s competition regulator has opened an investigation into the proposed $400m (£320m) takeover of gif search engine Giphy by Facebook amid fears that the acquisition may reduce competition in the UK.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is inviting comments about Facebook’s purchase of a company that currently provides gif search across many of the social network’s competitors, including Twitter and the messaging service Signal.

Continue reading...