KKR Mulls Acquisition of Health-Care Technology Firm GPI
The US private equity firm has been speaking with advisers in recent weeks as it considers a potential deal to take Trent-based GPI private, the people said, asking not to be identified as the matter is private. Shares of GPI have risen 24% in Milan trading this year, giving the company a market value of about €377 million ($438 million).
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BAE Systems develops weaponised drone to counter unmanned threat
By Sarah Young WARTON, England (Reuters) -BAE Systems said on Wednesday it was developing a new weaponised drone, aiming to offer military customers a lower-cost option for countering unmanned aircraft that have come to dominate the battlefield in Ukraine. Britain's BAE launched its solution to the threat from kamikaze attack drones, which explode when they hit targets, by fitting its Malloy T-150 drone with APKWS laser-guidance kit that fires 70-millimeter rockets, and used the combination to shoot down another drone in trials. "We've had multiple inquiries from agencies in the U.S., from agencies in Europe, from the UK," said Anthony Gregory, business development director of BAE Systems' FalconWorks unit. Given the growing military interest as countries see what is happening in Ukraine, and also Iran's deployment of drones against Israel, BAE said it wanted to supply an alternative to Raytheon Technologies Patriot mobile surface-to-air system. "Those type of munitions are probably in four or five figure sums, whereas a Patriot missile, or things that you see being used on the news to do the same thing, are in six figure sums," Gregory said. The weapon system can be removed from the drone within an hour, enabling the drone to be repurposed to supply cargo or to perform reconnaissance. It is already used by the U.S. Marines and Britain's Royal Navy to move equipment between ships at sea, replacing some helicopter lifts. BAE acquired England-based Malloy Aeronautics, a specialist heavy-lift drone company, last year. The trial of the drone with the APKWS kits produced by BAE's U.S. business, and usually found on F-16s and Apache helicopters, took place last month in Utah, Gregory said. Given anticipated demand from Western militaries, BAE said it was aiming to start manufacturing the electric motors that power the drone in Britain, instead of buying them from China. "We're trying to what we would call onshore, or friend shore, all elements in the value chain of the supply chain," Gregory said. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
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Starmer to host Merz in chancellor's first official visit to UK
Sir Keir Starmer will host German chancellor Friedrich Merz on his first official visit to the UK on Thursday as the Prime Minister seeks to boost ties on defence and tackling people smuggling operations. Berlin agreed last year to make facilitating the smuggling of migrants to the UK a criminal offence in a move that will give law enforcements more powers to investigate the supply and storage of small boats to be used for Channel crossings. Mr Merz is expected to commit to adopting the law change by the end of the year. 'Chancellor Merz's commitment to make necessary changes to German law to disrupt the supply lines of the dangerous vessels which carry illegal migrants across the Channel is hugely welcome,' Sir Keir said. 'As the closest of allies, we will continue to work closely together to deliver on the priorities that Brits and Germans share.' The Prime Minister has been seeking to strengthen ties with EU countries, including to bring down small boat crossings, and last week secured a migrant return agreement with France. The UK and Germany, two of the biggest providers of support to Ukraine, signed a defence pact last year with the aim of closer co-operation in the face of a growing threat from Russia. During Mr Merz's visit, the leaders are expected to unveil an agreement to jointly produce defence exports such as Boxer armoured vehicles and Typhoon jets and commit to developing their deep precision strike missile in the next decade, with a range of more than 2,000 kilometres. The chancellor and Sir Keir will also sign a bilateral friendship and cooperation treaty that includes plans to set up a new UK-Germany Business Forum. Sir Keir said: 'The Treaty we will sign today, the first of its kind, will bring the UK and Germany closer than ever. It not only marks the progress we have already made and the history we share. 'It is the foundation on which we go further to tackle shared problems and invest in shared strengths.' A series of commercial investments are being announced to coincide with the visit, worth more than £200 million and will create more than 600 new jobs. These include defence tech company Stark setting up a production facility in Swindon, its first outside Germany, and conversational AI firm Cognigy investing £50 million and expanding its UK team from 13 to 150.
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21 minutes ago
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Healthy babies born in Britain after scientists used DNA from three people to avoid genetic disease
Eight healthy babies were born in Britain with the help of an experimental technique that uses DNA from three people to help mothers avoid passing devastating rare diseases to their children, researchers reported Wednesday. Most DNA is found in the nucleus of our cells, and it's that genetic material — some inherited from mom, some from dad — that makes us who we are. But there's also some DNA outside of the cell's nucleus, in structures called mitochondria. Dangerous mutations there can cause a range of diseases in children that can lead to muscle weakness, seizures, developmental delays, major organ failure and death. Testing during the in vitro fertilization process can usually identify whether these mutations are present. But in rare cases, it's not clear. Researchers have been developing a technique that tries to avoid the problem by using the healthy mitochondria from a donor egg. They reported in 2023 that the first babies had been born using this method, where scientists take genetic material from the mother's egg or embryo, which is then transferred into a donor egg or embryo that has healthy mitochondria but the rest of its key DNA removed. The latest research 'marks an important milestone,' said Dr. Zev Williams, who directs the Columbia University Fertility Center and was not involved in the work. 'Expanding the range of reproductive options … will empower more couples to pursue safe and healthy pregnancies.' Using this method means the embryo has DNA from three people — from the mother's egg, the father's sperm and the donor's mitochondria — and it required a 2016 U.K. law change to approve it. It is also allowed in Australia but not in many other countries, including the U.S. Experts at Britain's Newcastle University and Monash University in Australia reported in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday that they performed the new technique in fertilized embryos from 22 patients, which resulted in eight babies that appear to be free of mitochondrial diseases. One woman is still pregnant. One of the eight babies born had slightly higher than expected levels of abnormal mitochondria, said Robin Lovell-Badge, a stem cell and developmental genetics scientist at the Francis Crick Institute who was not involved in the research. He said it was still not considered a high enough level to cause disease, but should be monitored as the baby develops. Dr. Andy Greenfield, a reproductive health expert at the University of Oxford, called the work 'a triumph of scientific innovation,' and said the method of exchanging mitochondria would only be used for a small number of women for whom other ways of avoiding passing on genetic diseases, like testing embryos at an early stage, was not effective. Lovell-Badge said the amount of DNA from the donor is insignificant, noting that any resulting child would have no traits from the woman who donated the healthy mitochondria. The genetic material from the donated egg makes up less than 1% of the baby born after this technique. 'If you had a bone marrow transplant from a donor … you will have much more DNA from another person,' he said. In the U.K., every couple seeking a baby born through donated mitochondria must be approved by the country's fertility regulator. As of this month, 35 patients have been authorized to undergo the technique. Critics have previously raised concerns, warning that it's impossible to know the impact these sorts of novel techniques might have on future generations. 'Currently, pronuclear transfer is not permitted for clinical use in the U.S., largely due to regulatory restrictions on techniques that result in heritable changes to the embryo,' Williams, of Columbia, said in an email. 'Whether that will change remains uncertain and will depend on evolving scientific, ethical, and policy discussions.' For about a decade, Congress has included provisions in annual funding bills banning the Food and Drug Administration from accepting applications for clinical research involving techniques, 'in which a human embryo is intentionally created or modified to include a heritable genetic modification.' But in countries where the technique is allowed, advocates say it could provide a promising alternative for some families. Liz Curtis, whose daughter Lily died of a mitochondrial disease in 2006, now works with other families affected by them. She said it was devastating to be told there was no treatment for her eight-month-old baby and that death was inevitable. She said the diagnosis 'turned our world upside down, and yet nobody could tell us very much about it, what it was or how it was going to affect Lily.' Curtis later founded the Lily Foundation in her daughter's name to raise awareness and support research into the disease, including the latest work done at Newcastle University. 'It's super exciting for families that don't have much hope in their lives,' Curtis said.
