
India's Sun Pharma to acquire Checkpoint Therapeutics
March 10 (Reuters) - India's Sun Pharmaceutical Industries (SUN.NS), opens new tab said on Monday that it will acquire Checkpoint Therapeutics (CKPT.O), opens new tab, a U.S.-based immunotherapy and targeted oncology company, in a deal valued at up to $355 million.

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Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Tesla seeks to block city of Austin from releasing records on robotaxi trial
June 6 (Reuters) - Tesla is trying to prevent the city of Austin, Texas, from releasing public records to Reuters involving the EV maker's planned launch of self-driving robotaxis in the city this month. The news agency in February requested communications between Tesla and Austin officials over the previous two years. The request followed CEO Elon Musk's announcement in January that Tesla would launch fare-collecting robotaxis on Austin public streets. Austin public-information officer Dan Davis told Reuters on April 1 that 'third parties' had asked the city to withhold the records to protect their 'privacy or property interests.' Austin officials on April 7 requested an opinion on the news agency's request from the Texas Attorney General's office, which handles public-records disputes. On April 16, an attorney for Tesla (TSLA.O), opens new tab wrote the AG objecting to the release of 'confidential, proprietary, competitively sensitive commercial, and/or trade secret information' contained in emails between Tesla and Austin officials. The Tesla attorney wrote that providing the documents to Reuters would reveal 'Tesla's deployment procedure, process, status and strategy' and 'irreparably harm Tesla.' Tesla and the Texas Attorney General's office did not respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Neal Falgoust, who oversees public records issues for Austin's Law Department, said the city "takes no position on the confidential nature of the information at issue" but is required to seek the Attorney General's opinion when "a third-party asserts that their information is proprietary and should not be released." Musk has staked Tesla's future on self-driving vehicles he has promised for a decade but hasn't delivered, making Austin's robotaxi launch closely watched as a potential milestone. Some analysts and investors attribute the majority of Tesla's stock market value to hopes for robotaxis and humanoid robots it has yet to deliver. Little is known about Tesla's plans in Austin. The company has said it aims to initially deploy between 10 and 20 driverless robotaxis in restricted geographic areas of Austin, which it has not publicly identified. In an April 23 response to Tesla's letter, a Reuters lawyer wrote that Tesla's intent to deploy the unproven technology on Texas roadways makes its plans 'an issue of enormous importance to Texas and the public at large' and underscored the public's right to know. Falgoust, the Austin law department official, did not respond to questions about whether the public was entitled to information about Tesla's driverless technology. Texas state law requires the Attorney General's office to decide within 45 business days, which would be next week.


Reuters
5 hours ago
- Reuters
Instant view: US payrolls growth slows in May, unemployment rate steady
NEW YORK, June 5 (Reuters) - U.S. job growth slowed in May, while the unemployment rate held steady, potentially giving the Federal Reserve a buffer to delay the resumption of interest rate cuts. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 139,000 jobs last month after rising by a downwardly revised 147,000 in April, the Labor Department said on Friday. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast 130,000 jobs added last month after a previously reported 177,000 advance in April. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.2% and matched expectations. MARKET REACTION: STOCKS: S&P 500 E-minis added to gains and were up 51 points, or 0.86% BONDS: The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes rose 7.3 basis points to 4.468%, the two-year note yield climbed 7.3 basis points to 3.997% FOREX: The dollar index extended gains a loss and was up 0.47% to 99.14, while the euro was down 0.39% at $1.1399 COMMENTS: "The report itself is a positive report overall, in line with expectations, with the employment number a little bit stronger than expected. It shows the labor market is still intact." "There's one blemish there that stands out. The household-based employment number that's used in the calculation of the unemployment rate was down sharply. There was a big increase in both the household-based employment number and in the supply of Labor in April. We just reversed both by a large amount in such a way that the unemployment rate remains steady. We were afraid it would be going higher and the fact that it held steady is an encouraging sign." "The market is taking the jobs report as a sign the economy is still holding up well. It's not that we're powering ahead. Its moderate growth but there's little sign we're losing momentum from the jobs report mid-way through the second quarter." 'If you look at the trend, it looks like job growth actually bottomed mid/late next year, so the trend looks to be higher. As interesting as today's numbers were, the more interesting data were yesterday's – the unit labor costs and productivity. Productivity was lower and labor costs higher. That ultimately translates into higher inflation. "As long as job growth holds up, the employment data is positive. The other piece of this, in my mind, if you already have had more job openings than candidates, does it make sense to post another job? We cannot find qualified people, I keep hearing. The bottom line, is that the Fed is likely to stay on hold.' ART HOGAN, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AT B RILEY WEALTH "Things are slowing, but they're not collapsing and that's the good news. We're not seeing a serious degradation of the jobs market." 'The sell-off (in Treasuries) really reflects this idea that growth sentiment is heading in a bullish direction. We have yet another month of hard data resilience. There is positive progress on tariffs moderating, even if there's nothing final yet. And a lot of the doomsday scenarios people thought were always one month away - it just seems to be a less likelihood that it's coming. "There's relief, or bearish for bonds, that there are no signs of significant deterioration that people were expecting.' BRIAN JACOBSEN, CHIEF ECONOMIST, ANNEX WEALTH MANAGEMENT, MENOMONEE FALLS, WISCONSIN "The rise in payrolls was better than expected, but the previous months were revised significantly lower, taking some sheen off this report. The diffusion index for manufacturing was abysmally low, showing that payroll gains are concentrated while losses are widespread. On its face, this shows an economy that's holding up under the weight of a trade war, but the details show plenty of cracks forming." 'Payrolls came in a little higher than consensus and more than I was looking for, but basically with the exception of hourly wages, the report really doesn't indicate that the Fed would be ready to do anything to help out the labor market. 'In fact, the rise in hourly wages by 0.4% - I don't want to say significant, but it's noticeable. And so that you know just means that the Fed stays on hold and the labor market, although there are definitely signs that it's cooling and obviously that's attributed to the trade war because many people are not hiring due to the uncertainties. 'Bottom line, it's a report that's not going to move the markets very much and I would, I would classify this as a mediocre report.' JAMIE COX MANAGING PARTNER, HARRIS FINANCIAL GROUP, RICHMOND VIRGINIA "The labor market is strong, but cooling. I expect this report, with all its revisions to bring the Fed back into cutting mode in July. Wages are stable, for now, but that is likely to change in the coming months. "One of the biggest factors with labor is housing - the housing market is showing early signs of trouble, and a cooling labor market will make that worse."


Reuters
6 hours ago
- Reuters
Novo's Ozempic, Wegovy linked to rare cases of dangerous eye disorder, EMA says
June 6 (Reuters) - The European Medicines Agency's safety committee has concluded that the use of Novo Nordisk's ( opens new tab popular weight-loss drug Wegovy and its treatments for type 2 diabetes may cause rare occurrences of a potentially dangerous eye condition. Called non-arteritic anterior ischemic optic neuropathy (NAION), the condition may affect up to 1 in 10,000 people taking semaglutide, the active ingredient in Wegovy and Novo's diabetes drugs Ozempic and Rybelsus, the regulator said on Friday. The EMA, which started its review in December, said the use of the drugs is linked to about twofold increase in the risk of developing the condition compared to people not taking the medicine. NAION develops from insufficient blood flow to the optic nerve and causes sudden painless vision loss in one eye. It is the second most common cause of blindness due to optic nerve damage, after glaucoma. Studies have linked semaglutide to NAION in the past. But this is the first time a regulator has made the link. Semaglutide belongs to a class of drugs known as GLP-1 receptor agonists, which work by helping control blood sugar levels and triggering a feeling of fullness. A large study of nearly 350,000 diabetics published earlier this year had showed that the risk of developing NAION more than doubled after long-term use of semaglutide, compared to patients taking medicines from other classes. The EMA said it has reviewed all available data on NAION with semaglutide, including data from non-clinical studies, clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance. It has recommended the drugmaker to update prescribing information for medicines containing semaglutide to include NAION as a side effect with a frequency of "very rare". The U.S. Food and Drug Administration did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.