Business
UK ‘difficult’ operating environment says Merck boss after £1bn London site axed
The UK boss of drugs giant Merck has said the UK operating environment for pharmaceutical firms is “difficult” and “needs to be addressed”, a week after it axed plans for a £1 billion site in London.
Ben Lucas, VP managing director UK and Ireland for MSD, Merck’s business in the UK and Europe, told MPs at the science, innovation and technology committee that its “ability to do end-to-end business” in the UK contributed to its decision.
Last week, MSD said it will move its life sciences operation to the US in a move that will impact around 125 British jobs.
It had been planning to open a research centre in London’s King’s Cross, which was already under construction and due to open in 2027.
Days later, rival AstraZeneca announced it paused plans to invest £200 million at a Cambridge research site in the latest major blow for the sector.
Bosses for both firms told MPs on Tuesday that there have been constructive talks with Government but that more is needed to address the environment for investment and innovation in the UK.
Mr Lucas said the withdrawal from the London plans had “has been a fair while in the making” and was linked to a wider group restructuring.
But he added that the operating environment in the UK was also a factor.
He said: “My research lab colleagues have made the decision that in terms of their early lab discovery research, they would no longer pursue what had been a long-in-the-making investment here in London and on that basis, we will see and put at risk nearly 125 of our scientists.
“Our plan had been to build up 200 scientists and occupy this new facility.
“But at this moment in time, the decision both strategically from a company perspective and where we find the UK in terms of just an ability to end-to-end business here, from a life sciences side of things, were both influential in this decision.”
The pharmaceuticals boss stressed that its decision was not simply driven by a current shake-up of the drugs sector in the US, with President Trump recently calling for European countries to pay more for medication.
“It would be unfortunate for any of these decisions to be explained away as simply a function of what’s going on in the US,” Mr Lucas said.
“The UK commercial operating environment does need to be addressed and we find that difficult.”
Meanwhile, Tom Keith-Roach, the UK president of drugs-maker AstraZeneca, told MPs the UK is an “increasingly challenging” environment for innovation.
Mr Keith-Roach said the company faces particular challenges in bringing innovation in medicine through the Nice (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) and into the NHS.
He added: “There have been an increasing number of site closures, research and development withdrawals and investments that are put on pause.
“I think that is simply a response to the economic gravity of reward for innovation in other jurisdictions compared with headwinds here.”
Gary Bettman, NHL commissioner, speaking on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Nov. 20, 2024.
CNBC
The 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan will mark the first time in 12 years that NHL players will return to the Games, something NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman is expecting to have a big effect on the league.
“Ultimately, in terms of balancing the pros and cons, we decided it was important to go back and be on what is one of the most visible platforms in the world,” Bettman said at CNBC Sport and Boardroom’s Game Plan conference in Santa Monica, California, on Tuesday.
Prior to Bettman being named commissioner in 1993, NHL players had not participated in the Olympics. After seeing firsthand the effect that Olympic player participation had on the NBA, Bettman said, the league and the NHL Players’ Association worked to have the players participate starting in 1998.
But that participation stopped after the 2014 Sochi Games, which Bettman said was a reflection of the evolution of the business of the league and the sports industry in general.
“It was a bit of a mixed bag,” Bettman said of the NHL’s participation in the Olympics. “Even though we were shut down for two weeks, our players were treated like invited guests,” he said, adding that the league and its teams “had no control over anything; we didn’t have the rights to promote ourselves.”
There were also competition challenges as well, given the number of players some teams were sending.
Part of what drove the NHL back to the Olympic ice was a shift in that relationship. The NHL and NHLPA’s new deal with the IOC changes some aspects of their commercial arrangement and also upgrades the players’ living conditions while at the Games.
But Bettman also noted it came down to the desire from the players to play best-on-best at a national level, something that was highlighted in the league’s successful 4 Nations Face-Off tournament earlier this year.
“It became clear to me that it was important to our players, who have a history and tradition of representing their countries,” he said.
The NHL will stop play for nearly two weeks this season, and Bettman said Olympic participation “won’t be without its difficulties.” The NHL has not yet formally guaranteed its players will participate in the 2030 Games.
“But on balance, it should be worth it,” he said.
Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through 2036.
US President Donald Trump has said he will sue the New York Times for $15bn (£11bn) over what he called defamation and libel.
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on Monday.
He singled out the Times’ endorsement of Kamala Harris in the last presidential election in 2024, saying it had become a “mouthpiece for the Radical Left Democrat Party”.
A spokesperson for the newspaper said the suit was “an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting”, adding it “has no merit”.
“The New York Times will not be deterred by intimidation tactics,” the spokesperson added.
Trump said that his lawsuit was being launched in Florida, a Republican stronghold.
He has long expressed displeasure at what he bills left-leaning media outlets unfavourable to his presidency.
In a post late on Monday, Trump took issue at the Times’ endorsement of his election rival, saying: “Their Endorsement of Kamala Harris was actually put dead center on the front page of The New York Times, something heretofore UNHEARD OF!”
In the post he also accused other media outlets or TV programmes of “smearing” him through “a highly sophisticated system of document and visual alteration”.
ABC News and Paramount’s CBS News both agreed to multimillion-dollar payouts to Trump to settle lawsuits brought by the president in recent months.
He has also launched a case against the Wall Street Journal over its reporting on the Epstein scandal.
This is not the first time Trump has sought to sue the New York Times.
In 2023, a judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by him, then an ex-president, against the New York Times, saying the claims in the lawsuit “fail as a matter of constitutional law”.
The $100m (£79m) lawsuit accused the newspaper and Trump’s estranged niece, Mary Trump, of “an insidious plot” to obtain his tax records.
It was filed in 2021 and relates to a Pulitzer Prize-winning series on Trump’s financial affairs.
Trump also lost another defamation bid in 2023, when he sought in vain to sue CNN for allegedly likening him to Adolf Hitler. A federal judge later threw out the $475m (£369m) lawsuit.
Clarification: This story has been updated to include the lawsuits against ABC News and Paramount which ended with settlements in Trump’s favour.
Business
US Fed meeting begins: Trump aide Stephen Miran sworn in as governor, Jerome Powell under pressure as rate cut expected – The Times of India
The US Federal Reserve opened a key interest rate meeting on Tuesday, just hours after Donald Trump’s close aide Stephen Miran was sworn in as a governor of the central bank, while another top official, Lisa Cook, is fighting the president’s attempt to oust her.Miran, who has been a senior adviser to Trump, took the oath of office on Tuesday, the Fed said in a statement, as its rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) began a two-day policy gathering AFP reported. His arrival followed a narrow Senate vote on Monday night confirming him as one of the FOMC’s 12 voting members.Markets widely expect the Fed to announce its first interest rate cut of 2025 when the meeting concludes on Wednesday, as policymakers seek to shore up a weakening jobs market. But political pressure on the independent central bank has intensified, with Trump repeatedly urging Chair Jerome Powell to cut rates more aggressively.Miran’s appointment gives him a single vote on the FOMC, and it is unclear whether he will align with Trump’s calls for steeper reductions. On Tuesday, Trump told reporters that the Fed should “listen to smart people like me.”Before joining the Fed, Miran was serving as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. His decision to take a leave of absence from that role, rather than resign, drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers, particularly as his Fed term lasts just over four months. He is filling the unexpired term of Adriana Kugler, who stepped down before her stint was due to end in late January.The meeting is also overshadowed by Trump’s attempt to remove Cook, a Fed governor appointed by former president Joe Biden, over allegations of mortgage fraud. Cook has not been charged, and the alleged incidents predate her appointment. A federal appeals court ruled late Monday that she could remain in place while her legal challenge proceeds, but the Trump administration plans to take the case to the Supreme Court.White House spokesman Kush Desai told AFP that the president “lawfully removed Lisa Cook for cause,” which he said could mean malfeasance or dereliction of duty. He added: “The administration will appeal this decision and looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.”The Fed has held its benchmark lending rate between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent since December, monitoring the impact of Trump’s tariffs on the economy. Markets are betting on a 25-basis point cut this week, while looking for signals on the pace and scale of reductions in the months ahead.
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