France's Sanofi said on Sunday that two late-stage Phase III clinical trials of its LixiLan diabetes drug had met their targets, readying it for approval in the United States in August and Europe early next year. LixiLan consists of a single-injection combination of Lyxumia, a drug developed with Danish drugmaker Zealand Pharma, and Sanofi's Lantus. It targets patients suffering from type 2 diabetes.
GE Asset Management had $115 billion in assets under management as of June 30, according to GE, and manages retirement plans for the vast majority of GE's 136,000 U.S. employees as well as assets for outside institutional investors including third-party retirement plans. The plan to unload the asset management arm comes after GE announced in April it would seek to sell some $200 billion worth of its GE Capital assets as it moves away from financial services and focuses more on manufacturing jet engines, power turbines and other big-ticket industrial equipment. GE Asset Management is separate from GE Capital.
Orix Corp and the leasing units of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc , Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc are among the bidders, the sources said. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, said the finance unit's assets are valued at about $5 billion. Officials at Orix, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings were not available for comment.
(Reuters) – Mobile chip and smart card maker Gemalto reported a 19 percent rise in first-quarter sales on constant exchange rates, its first release of results since finalizing the acquisition of U.S. data security company SafeNet in January. First quarter revenue rose to 686 million euros ($762.49 million) compared to 532 million euros in the previous year. The company beat analysts' expectations of 675 million euros in quarterly revenue. Gemalto, which makes smart chips for mobile phones, bank cards and biometric passports, said Payment & Identity segment's revenue was 369 million euros for the first quarter, an increase of 35 percent compared to the previous year, helped by the SafeNet acquisition.
By Anthony Deutsch, Costas Pitas and Sybille de La Hamaide AMSTERDAM/LONDON/PARIS (Reuters) – Bird flu was found on a duck farm in England on Monday days after it was discovered in Dutch chickens, forcing authorities to destroy poultry and restrict exports, although it was not a strain known to be deadly to humans. Health officials said the outbreak may have been brought to Europe by wild birds migrating from Asia where millions of South Korean farm birds have had to be destroyed. …