The UK government has defended its decision to end free mass Covid-19 testing in England this month as it significantly expanded the official list of coronavirus symptoms. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said it was “simply unsustainable” for the taxpayer to continue to spend £2bn a month on free lateral flow and PCR tests for…
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Drug efficacy is not always the driving force behind healthcare stock rallies. Over the past year, the value of some Chinese makers of traditional remedies has soared. One of China’s most popular Covid-19 treatments is a herbal product made by drug company Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical. Endorsed by Beijing and Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam, the…
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A 60-year-old man allegedly had himself vaccinated against COVID-19 dozens of times in Germany in order to sell forged vaccination cards with real vaccine batch numbers to people not wanting to get vaccinated themselves. The man from the eastern Germany city of Magdeburg, whose name was not released in line with German privacy rules, is…
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Elon Musk has become one of the biggest shareholders in Twitter, just a week after he posted on the platform saying he was giving “serious thought” to building a new social media company. A filing disclosed on Monday by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that the chief executive of electric car maker…
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Swiss drugmaker Novartis is simplifying its structure as part of plans to save $1bn in costs by 2024 and strengthen its business in the US, the world’s largest pharmaceutical market. Three executives will leave the company as part of the restructuring, which will combine the oncology and pharmaceutical units into one innovative medicines division, with…
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Over the years, bitcoin has gone from fringe to mainstream. Once the playground for diehard developers, it has become a major topic of conversation for governments, big tech, and banks who are looking to position themselves to make a land grab. Since the dawn of bitcoin, there’s been a power struggle between the old and…
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The writer is director of UCL’s Institute of Health Equity and a professor of epidemiology and public health Relations between public health and industry have always been uneasy. The former tends to see the latter as pursuing profit at the expense of people’s health and the environment — but they have ways of fighting back.…
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Channel 4 has invested in cannabis company Cannaray through its venture capital arm, placing a bet that the European market for medical marijuana and non-intoxicating cannabidiol products will continue to grow. Channel 4, a so-called “public service broadcaster” that is owned by the UK government but funded by advertising, was the lead investor in a…
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In the second episode of this season of Tech Tonic, James Kynge, the FT’s Global China Editor, asks how significant Chinese intellectual property theft has been to the country’s rise as a global tech superpower. We hear from an FBI agent based in Silicon Valley whose job is to prevent the theft of trade secrets,…
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COVID-19 hospitalization numbers have plunged to their lowest levels since the early days of the pandemic, offering a much needed break to healthcare workers and patients alike following the omicron surge. The number of patients hospitalized with the coronavirus has fallen more than 90% in more than two months, and some hospitals are going days…
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