Alzheimer’s Vaccine Trial
In Singapore, Today reported on Novartis plans to conduct trials of its Alzheimer’s vaccine in the city state, among other sites. Reporting from what was billed as the “Novartis Biotechnology Leadership Camp” here, the daily quoted officials as saying a vaccine could be available in perhaps five to seven years. That will probably be too late for Singapore’s current 22,000 Alzheimer’s sufferers, but not for the 187,000 this tiny republic is projected to have in 45 years. Paul Herrling, the pharma’s head of corporate research, explained the object of the exercise this way: “What we try to do is use the immune system to clear the brain of one little piece of protein that seems to be killing the nerve cells.”
BenQ Slides on More Bad News
BenQ, the consumer spin-off of Taiwan’s Acer Group, appears in deeper trouble. The Taipei Times reported the company’s share price slipped 4 percent, to 16.8 New Taiwan dollars ($0.507 cents) in Taipei, on news that Vodafone and T-Mobile would stop buying the company’s handsets. The mobile operators made their announcements after BenQ’s German affiliate—an operation absorbed after Siemens quit the business—went into bankruptcy protection and the Taiwanese announced they would stop making handsets in Germany. The decision to quit Germany had Siemens naturally wondering why it should keep paying BenQ subsidies for taking over the operation as originally agreed. So instead of paying BenQ, it diverted a scheduled €100-million payment into a trust account, where it will stay until Siemens’ legal obligations are sorted out. You could pretty much see trouble coming: Siemens agreed to pay BenQ €250 million to take over the German plant but the deal looked less interesting by the second. BenQ claims it lost €840 million on the operation in the year since taking it over.
Unlicensed Peeking in Vietnam
Britain’s Zeal TV, which licenses rights to air the Miss World pageant, threatened to sue Vietnam Television Cable (VTC) after it aired this year’s show siphoning images off Hong Kong-based Star TV. In a fax, Zeal warned it would “spare no legal expense” in seeking damages, Thanh Nien daily reported in Ho Chi Minh City, the old Saigon. Zeal had apparently licensed Australia’s TV Plus for Miss World programming in Vietnam, and the company passed the rights on to Vietnam Television (VTV), not VTC. Zeal wanted an answer Thursday midnight, threatening it would seek damages and push Vietnam’s regulators to revoke VTC’s cable license. The deadline passed as quietly as a Miss World runner-up, although VTC did admit broadcasting the program, claiming it was unaware of TV Plus arrangements. TV Plus officials said the infringement cost them 1 billion Vietnamese dong, which sounds like a lot but really downscopes fast to just $60,000—not an amount you want to spend a lot of lawyer time on, not at London prices anyway.
Digital Mush in Oz
Declaring digital TV “stuck in the mush,” the Australian quoted the Australian Broadcasting Corp warning that digital television viewers will continue to watch distorted "mush" in congested areas unless more spectrum is made available—one reason the network argues against Canberra allocating available spectrum for new services like mobile TV. The daily had earlier reported federal Communications Minister Helen Coonan announcing that two new digital licenses would be auctioned for unallocated spectrum for mobile TV services. In the country’s so-called mush areas, ABC said digital TV reception is no better than analog, which is to be phased out within a decade.
Contact the writer:JMcCormick@RedHerring.com
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