Business
New railway corridors to benefit K-P businesses | The Express Tribune
ISLAMABAD:
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Industries and Production Haroon Akhtar Khan on Saturday reaffirmed the government’s commitment to addressing the challenges faced by the business community in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
He said this while chairing a meeting with a delegation of the Sarhad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), which focused on the key issues faced by the chamber, said a news release.
Haroon Akhtar assured the delegation that, on the directives of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, all issues raised by the chamber would be addressed promptly. He added that the premier was working actively for the uplift of small, micro and large businesses across the country.
The PM aide emphasised that all policies and efforts of the Ministry of Industries & Production were focused on resolving business challenges and strengthening the national economy. He highlighted that new railway corridors connecting Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan to Pakistan would bring significant benefits to businesses in K-P.
Improved regional connectivity, he added, would also help address challenges related to security, infrastructure and underdevelopment.
He noted that the upcoming National Industrial Policy would include comprehensive solutions to taxation issues and the broader concerns of the business community. Haroon Akhtar directed all stakeholders to submit concrete proposals for resolving their issues and formally included the Sarhad Chamber in various government committees.
The chamber delegation highlighted that Peshawar holds tremendous potential in sectors such as gemstones, pharmaceuticals and other emerging industries. However, they noted that inadequate finished product facilities and the lack of infrastructure were hindering the city’s export capabilities.
The chamber informed the PM assistant that although the Peshawar Expo Centre was nearing completion, the project had suffered delays and required urgent government intervention. They stressed that high taxation, rising utility costs and inadequate facilities pushed SMEs in Peshawar to the brink of collapse.
The supply chain risk designation of the artificial intelligence firm is a first for a US company.
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UniQure needs to run another study to prove that its gene therapy “actually helps people with Huntington’s disease,” a senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration official said on a call with reporters Thursday.
The official, who requested anonymity before discussing sensitive information, confirmed the agency has asked the company to run a placebo controlled trial of its treatment, which is administered directly into the brain. UniQure has said that type of study isn’t ethical because it would require putting people under general anesthesia for hours, a characterization the official disputed.
“So what is really going on? UniQure is the latest company to make a failed therapy for Huntington’s patients,” the official said. “They likely acknowledge or understand at some deep level that their trial failed years ago, and instead of doing the right thing and running the correct clinical study, UniQure is performing a distorted or manipulated comparison in the mind of FDA.”
The comments mark the latest development in a messy public spat between UniQure and the FDA, and as the agency comes under fire for a number of recent drug approval application rejections, including some where companies have accused it of going back on previous guidance. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick last week seemingly criticized UniQure’s gene therapy for Huntington’s disease. Makary didn’t name UniQure but described its treatment.
UniQure then accused the FDA of reversing its stance that the company’s clinical trial data would be sufficient to seek approval. UniQure’s study used an outside database to measure how patients with Huntington’s disease might decline without treatment, known as an external control. UniQure has said it wouldn’t be feasible to run a true randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study, considered the gold standard, because it wouldn’t be ethical to make people undergo a sham hours-long brain surgery.
The FDA official said the agency “never agreed to accept this distorted comparison” and the FDA “never makes such assurances.” Instead, the “FDA will always say, ‘Well, we have to see the data when we get it.'”
UniQure didn’t immediately comment.
The company’s stock rose more than 10% on Thursday and has fallen 58% this year as of Thursday afternoon.
Business
US mortgage rates rise to 6% after three-week slide as oil-driven bond yields climb – The Times of India
The average long-term US mortgage rate edged higher this week, ending a three-week decline as bond yields rose amid oil-price pressures linked to the war with Iran.The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 6% from 5.98% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said on Thursday. A year ago, the average rate stood at 6.63%, AP reported.The modest uptick breaks a three-week slide in borrowing costs, with mortgage rates having hovered close to the 6% mark for most of this year. Last week’s average had marked the first time the rate dipped below 6% since September 2022, reaching its lowest level in nearly three and a half years.Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate policy, investor expectations about inflation and economic growth, and movements in the bond market.They typically track the direction of the 10-year US Treasury yield, which lenders use as a benchmark for pricing home loans.The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.14% at midday Thursday, up from around 4% a week earlier.Treasury yields have moved higher in recent days as rising oil prices added fresh inflation concerns, potentially complicating the Federal Reserve’s plans to cut interest rates.
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