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International News

China ends 2yr state custody of troubled Anbang Insurance

Authorities took control of the 2 trillion yuan ($285 billion) conglomerate in February 2018 after its former chairman Wu Xiaohui was arrested — and subsequently jailed — for fundraising fraud. They initially set themselves a 12-month timeline to raise cash by jettisoning non-core assets such as luxury hotels, preserve Anbang’s main insurance operations and find strategic investors. That deadline was later extended by a year to Feb. 22.

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How pharma firms are using Blockchain to track down counterfeit drugs

-“The current point-to-point systems infrastructure lacks the ability to keep data in sync across the healthcare supply chain, which ultimately increases the risk of counterfeit, diverted or otherwise illegitimate products,” David Vershure, head of channel and contract management for Roche’s Genentech unit, said in a statement.
-Among the 24 participating companies are Amgen Inc., FedEx Corp., GlaxoSmithKline Plc, Novartis, AmerisourceBergen Corp., Sanofi, Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. and Walmart Inc.

-The World Health Organization estimates that counterfeit medicines worth 73 billion euros ($79.26 billion) are traded annually.

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Coronavirus scare may erase $29 bn from global airlines’ revenue, says IATA

“These are challenging times for the global air transport industry. Stopping the spread of the virus is the top priority,” said Alexandre de Juniac, IATA’s Director General and CEO. “This will be a very tough year for airlines.” Analysts at Cowen, a US investment bank and financial services company, noted IATA might be underestimating the impact on Asia travel outside of China, noting the recent reports of dozens of cases in South Korea.

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