Glenmark arm gets approval for generic version of asthma drug in Germany

Glenmark Pharma's subsidiary has secured marketing authorisation in Germany for generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's Seretide Accuhaler, used to treat asthma.

"Fluticasone/Salmeterol DPI is a combination product for the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Glenmark will sell the product in Germany under the name 'Salflutin'," the company said in a BSE filing.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Executive Vice President and Business Head of Europe and Latin America, Achin Gupta, said that upon launch, generic Fluticasone/Salmeterol DPI will be Glenmark's first inhalation product available in Germany.

"There is huge potential for the product in Germany and we are optimistic that it will help enhance growth of the European business," he added.

Glenmark had entered into a strategic development and licensing agreement with Celon Pharma S.A. to develop and market a generic version of GlaxoSmithKline's Seretide Accuhaler product - Fluticasone/Salmeterol dry powder inhaler in 15 European countries.

Coca-Cola takes big step into coffee with $5.1 billion Costa deal

Coca-Cola Co has agreed to buy the world's second largest coffee chain Costa from Britain's Whitbread Plc for $5.1 billion including debt, opening a new front in its push into healthier markets.

The two companies said on Friday that Coke, one of the biggest soft drinks groups in the world, would buy Costa's almost 4,000 outlets across markets such as Britain, Europe and China after Whitbread's board unanimously backed the deal.

Whitbread shares jumped 19 per cent in early trading, with dealers saying the purchase price was more than 700 million pounds ($911 million) higher than expected.

The purchase of the biggest coffee chain behind Starbucks adds to Coca-Cola's drive to diversify away from fizzy drinks and expand its options for increasingly health-conscious consumers after countries started introducing sugar taxes.

German lawmakers elect weakened Angela Merkel for her fourth term

German lawmakers voted on Wednesday to re-elect Angela Merkel as chancellor for a fourth, and likely final, term that may prove her most challenging yet as she takes charge of a fragile coalition with her personal standing diminished.

Lawmakers voted by 364 to 315, with nine abstentions, in favour of re-electing Merkel, a humbling start as the coalition of her conservatives and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) has 399 votes in the Bundestag lower house of parliament.
"I accept the vote," a beaming Merkel, 63, told lawmakers.
In office since 2005, she has dominated Germany's political landscape and steered the European Union through economic crisis.

But her authority was dented by her decision in 2015 to commit Germany to an open-door policy on migration, resulting in an influx of more than one million people.

US should exclude EU from tariffs to defuse trade dispute: Angela Merkel

German Chancellor Angela Merkel today voiced concern over US President Donald Trump's decision to impose hefty tariffs on aluminium and steel imports, and called for talks to defuse the escalating row.
"We see with concern the tariff hikes for specific products," the leader of Europe's biggest economy said, adding that Germany backs the EU in "seeking dialogue with the United States, but also with countries that could be affected, like China."
She stressed that "no one can win in such a race to the bottom", adding that "it would be best if we could be exempted" from the tariffs.

Trade war fear, Italian election buffet world shares for fifth straight day

World shares slipped for the fifth straight day on Monday and emerging markets weakened sharply, hit by the prospect of a global trade war and political instability in Europe after Italy's inconclusive weekend election.

While most markets stabilised after sharp losses early in the day, assets considered low-risk - including gold, the yen and German bonds - remained in demand, with yields on the latter at the lowest in a month.

Recent events have again put equity markets, barely recovered from their February selloff, under a cloud.

The European Union, Canada and China are among those threatening to retaliate with tit-for-tat duties if US President Donald Trump proceeds with hefty tariffs on steel and aluminium imports.

Global stocks, dollar tumble as Trump sparks global trade war fears

The spectre of a global trade war sent world stocks tumbling towards a 2.5 percent weekly loss on Friday, and left bruised investors reaching for the traditional antidotes - government bonds, gold and the Japanese yen.

The falls came after U. S. President Donald Trump said the United States would impose tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on aluminium, sparking concerns of retaliatory moves from major trade partners China, Europe and neighbouring Canada.

Europe's STOXX 600 index fell over 1.5 percent led by a near 5 percent slump from world's biggest steelmaker ArcelorMittal SA and 2.5 - 6 percent drops from the region's carmakers worried that they might be next.

Top German court bans diesel cars affecting 12 mn vehicles across country

A top German court ruled on Tuesday in favour of allowing major cities to ban heavily polluting diesel cars, a move likely to hit the value of 12 million vehicles in Europe's largest car market and force carmakers to pay for costly modifications.
There has been a global backlash against diesel-engine cars since Volkswagen admitted in 2015 to cheating U.

S. exhaust tests, meant to limit emissions of particulate matter and nitrogen oxide (NOx), known to cause respiratory disease.
While other countries are also considering restrictions on diesel cars, a ban in the birthplace of the modern automobile is a new blow for the car industry, and an embarrassment for Chancellor Angela Merkel's government, which opposes bans.
The ruling by the country's highest federal administrative court came after German states had appealed against bans imposed by local courts in Stuttgart and Duesseldorf in cases brought by environmental group DUH over poor air quality.
Merkel's government, which has come under fire for its close ties to the car industry, had lobbied against a ban, fearing it could anger millions of drivers and disrupt traffic in cities, with public transport not in a position to take up the slack.

Germany may start free public transport as pollution exceeds EU limits

The German government has made a proposal to introduce free public transportation as a radical measure to lower nitrogen oxide pollution in cities.

At least 20 major German cities continue to record nitrogen oxide pollution levels that exceed the EU limits and would be unable to correct the circumstance before 2020 according to a new report, Xinhua news agency said.

With the announcement on Tuesday, Berlin attempted to prevent any legal action against it by the European Commission for continually failing to comply with European Union (EU) urban air quality regulations.

Several courts in Germany were also independently mulling imposing a driving ban on diesel vehicles in the worst-affected cities.

Kuka plans for robot domination in China and your garage

German industrial giant Kuka is the world’s largest producer of robots used to make automobiles, with its signature orange crane-like bots a fixture in automated car factories across the globe. So why is Chairman and Chief Executive Till Reuter worried?

The reason is simple enough: Growth in robots for all industries other than automotive is up more than 10 percent; that compares to just 3-5 percent for the car industry, he says. Kuka’s auto business has fallen from 80 percent of robot revenues, when he took over the company in 2009, to around 50 percent today, Reuter notes.  Now this 120-year-old company, which in January became just under 95 percent-owned by China’s Midea, the world’s largest appliance maker, is aiming to pull off a big transformation that, if successful, will take it into faster-growing robot markets.

That means smaller-sized and nimble robots for electronics manufacturing and logistics warehouses. Also on the drawing board are machines that could handle plugging in electric vehicles for owners, or even allow the elderly to live independently at home later in life, Reuter said in an interview in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou earlier this month.

“We want to keep number one in automotive [but] we see that the higher growth is coming out of other industries and other sectors.” For example, one large market that will become “even bigger in the future, will be the production of mobile phones, handhelds, and iPads,” he says. Reuter is referring to robots that have a payload of six kilograms or less — the maximum weight they can pick up and manipulate — and are capable of carrying out much more delicate assembly tasks.

China will be key to realising Kuka’s diversification strategy.  It’s the world’s largest and fastest-growing automation market. Sales of robots in China, which amount to about one-third of the global demand, grew by 27 percent last year, compared to just 12 percent in Europe and 8 percent in the Americas, according to the International Federation of Robotics.
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Berlin neighborhood evacuated after WWII bomb found during construction wor

Berlin police are evacuating a downtown area of the capital including the popular German Museum of Technology after a World War II bomb was found during construction work.

Police said today the area in the Kreuzberg district is being evacuated temporarily as a precaution while experts defuse and dispose of the 100-kilogram Russian bomb.

Even more than 70 years after the end of WWII such finds during construction work are common in Germany.
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ECB keeps policy, guidance unchanged

The European Central Bank reaffirmed its ultra-easy policy stance on Thursday, even keeping the door open to increasing bond purchases, dashing hopes it would formally signal its intent to claw back stimulus from next year.

The ECB kept rates at their record lows, confirmed that asset buys would continue at 60 billion euros ($71.76 billion) per month at least until December and said it could even increase or expand the asset purchases if needed, sticking with its long-held super easy stance.

The statement is likely to rattle some investors who expected the ECB to start laying the groundwork for a cut in monetary stimulus because growth is robust, the threat of deflation long gone and unemployment falling fast -- all supporting the case for removing at least some of the bank's extraordinary measures.

Investor attention now turns to ECB President Mario Draghi's 1230 GMT news conference, during which he may still offer at least some clues to the evolution of the bank's view on stimulus and will also detail new economic projections.

"If the outlook becomes less favourable...the Governing Council stands ready to increase the programme in terms of size and/or duration," the ECB said in a statement.

The euro remained roughly 0.5 percent higher against the dollar after the ECB's decision.
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Solid German growth gives Merkel election tailwind

Strong household and state spending consolidated Germany's role as the euro zone's growth engine in the second quarter, helping Chancellor Angela Merkel to burnish her economic credentials less than six weeks before an election.

Tuesday's data are the last major growth figures to be published before the Sept 24 vote, in which Merkel is seeking to win a fourth term.

Merkel's conservatives enjoy a comfortable lead over the Social Democrats (SPD), their current coalition partner; an INSA poll on Tuesday put their support at 37 per cent to the SPD's 25.

Yet while neither party wants another grand coalition, a fractured political landscape could make it hard to form another viable alliance.

In the second quarter, Germany's seasonally adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) was up 0.6 per cent from the previous quarter - just below the consensus forecast of 0.7 per cent in a Reuters poll, but still the 12th consecutive quarterly growth reading.
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Germany urges North Korea, Trump to scale down nuclear rhetoric

Germany on Wednesday urged North Korea and the United States to show "restraint" after apocalyptic threats from President Donald Trump and Pyongyang in their mounting war of words.

"We are watching the increasing rhetorical escalation regarding the Korean Peninsula with the greatest concern," foreign ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer told reporters.

"That is why we call on all sides to use restraint."

Schaefer said Berlin was convinced a "military option" could not be "the answer in the quest for a nuclear weapon- free Southeast Asia".

He urged the international community to "thoroughly implement" the latest round of sanctions against North Korea approved by the United Nations Security Council.

And he backed a call by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to resume talks with Pyongyang if it halts ballistic missile tests.
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German automakers agree to cut emissions, to update software in 5 mn cars

German carmakers agreed on Wednesday to update the software in 5.3 million diesel-powered cars to reduce emissions, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters.

He said the carmakers would also self-fund incentives aimed at encouraging consumers to trade in diesel cars that were 10 years old and older for newer models with lower emissions.

Dobrindt and Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks both said the German government would do all it could to avoid driving bans for diesel cars in German cities.
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Fake and cheap China-made spares used for indigenised Bofors guns: CBI

China-made parts camouflaged as 'Made in Germany' found their way to the production line of indigenised Bofors guns used by the army, prompting the CBI to file a case against a Delhi-based company.

Besides Sidh Sales Syndicate, the CBI also registered a case against unidentified officials of the Guns Carriage Factory (GCF), Jabalpur, under criminal conspiracy, cheating and forgery for supplying fake and cheap China-made spares passing off as Made in Germany for Dhanush guns, the FIR alleged.

Dhanush is the indigenised version of the Bofors artillery guns which performed exceedingly well during the Kargil conflict in 1999.

The CBI alleged that the supplier entered into criminal conspiracy with the unidentified GCF officials to supply duplicate spare parts (bearings) used in the manufacture of Dhanush guns.

"In furtherance of the said criminal conspiracy, unknown officials of GCF accepted the Chinese manufactured 'Wire Race Roller Bearings' supplied by Sidh Sales Syndicate which were embossed as 'CRB-Made in Germany'," the CBI said in the FIR.

The agency said production and performance of the Dhanush gun is extremely crucial for India's defence preparedness and "wire race roller bearing" is its vital component.

A tender was floated for the procurement of four such bearings according to the Rothe Erde drawing for 155 mm gun in which four firms had participated. The order was given to Sidh Sales Syndicate at the value of Rs 35.38 lakh in 2013, the FIR stated.
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Euro zone's June quarter deficit at decade low, Germany widens surplus

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The euro zonE public deficit dropped in the first quarter of the year to its lowest level in nearly a decade, driven by a widening surplus in Germany and despite France's increasing fiscal gap, data released on Thursday showed.

The figures, published by the European Union's statistics office Eurostat, confirmed the improving state of the bloc's public finances, although public debt increased in the first quarter driven by a further expansion of Italy's debt, the second largest in the 19-country currency bloc.

Eurostat said that government deficit in the euro zone dropped to 0.9 per cent of output in the first quarter of the year from 1.1 per cent in the previous quarter, confirming a long-lasting downward trend.

It was the lowest level of public deficit since the last quarter of 2007, when the global financial crisis began hitting euro zone's economies forcing higher public spending to prop up the financial sector.

The fall in the bloc's fiscal gap was helped by Germany's thrift, as the bloc's largest economy further expanded its surplus to 1.5 percent of output in the first quarter from 1.4 percent in the last quarter of 2016, and 0.7 percent in the third quarter of last year.

The widening of the surplus goes against calls on Germany from other euro zone countries and European Union institutions to increase spending and rise wages to help strengthen the bloc's recovery.
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Clinton as President would have made America weaker, Putin happier: Trump

US President Donald Trump has said that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin would have been happier if his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton would have won the last year's general elections, as this would have made America weaker.

In his first major interview after his last week's maiden meeting with Putin in Hamburg, Germany on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit, Trump said he and the Russian leader both are advocating interest of their respective countries. But there is scope for co-operation between the two at the global stage.

"We are the most powerful country in the world and we are getting more and more powerful because I'm a big military person. As an example, if Hillary had won, our military would be decimated. Our energy would be much more expensive. That's what Putin doesn't like about me," Trump told Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in an interview.

"And that's why I say, why would he want me? Because from day one I wanted a strong military, he doesn't want to see that," he said, according to the excerpts of the interview released by CBN.

"From day one I want fracking and everything else to get energy prices low and to create tremendous energy. We're going to be self-supporting, we just about are now. We're going to be exporting energy - he doesn't want that.

"He would like Hillary where she wants to have windmills. He would much rather have that because energy prices would go up and Russia as you know relies very much on energy," he continued.
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Trump's friendly meeting with Putin further blurs US-Russia relations

It emerged early this morning: a few seconds of grainy footage showing U.S. President Donald Trump shaking hands with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

Trump, the taller man, stoops to meet Putin on equal terms. He pats him repeatedly on the elbow, and then on the back.

Later, as they sat side-by-side in matching cream-colored chairs, Trump called it “an honor” to meet Putin. The Russian president noted that they had talked on the telephone several times, but that talking on the telephone is never enough. An interesting choice of words, given Putin’s disconcerting habit of leaking the private conversations of foreign leaders.

So what can we learn about their relationship and the future of U.S.-Russia relations from this single meeting?

Hidden planning

They talked for more than two hours, far longer than the scheduled half hour. According to a briefing given later in the afternoon by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, they discussed Syria, Ukraine, terrorism and cybersecurity, including “interference in the democratic processes” of the U.S. and other countries. And Tillerson announced that the U.S., Russia and Jordan have agreed to a ceasefire in Southwest Syria between the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and opposition forces.

This was a substantial agenda, made to seem more impressive by clever expectations setting and misdirection undertaken by administration officials in advance of the meeting.

The official announcement of the ceasefire was held back so that the meeting would have a “deliverable.” However, the Associated Press gave the game away by reporting the deal while Trump and Putin were still talking.
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G20 Summit 2017: Trump's confusion on key issues stumps Merkel, Trudeau

During a difficult visit to Europe Donald Trump appeared out of sync with traditional allies, struggling to show that unorthodox strategies toward rival powers Russia and China can deliver results.

At one point Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and German Chancellor Angela Merkel exchanged a knowing glance as the US president veered off on another tangent.

What were to be remarks about women entrepreneurs had become a Trumpian soliloquy on his daughter Ivanka's merits and his paternal failings.

"If she weren't my daughter it would be so much easier for her," Trump said. "It might be the only bad thing going for her."

A few feet away, Merkel and Trudeau's nervy laughs were corporal acknowledgment that Trump's political peers are still unsure how to take the mercurial 71-year-old.

Throughout the meeting there was a sense the president of the United States, leader of the so-called "indispensable nation," has shifted positions, leaving everyone else struggling to correct.

In Warsaw, on the first stop of his four-day trip, Trump sought to reassert his claim to lead the free world.

Like a king riding along the cavalry frontline, he sounded the charge against terrorism and bureaucracy, which he painted as threats to Christian civilisation.

He embraced allies by affirming his commitment to NATO's mutual defense clause, satisfying long-standing demands to be clearer about the alliance.
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How Angela Merkel remains one of world's most successful political leaders

There are very few political leaders who have perfected the art of having their political cake and eating it too. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is one of these.

Internationally, she is renowned as the leader of Europe who seemingly single-handedly rehabilitated Germany’s international reputation by welcoming refugees with the catchphrase “we can do it”. With electoral pressure building, however, she publicly distanced herself from this stance as the CDU/CSU party faithful sent back the message that they were not so sure.

Now, by accepting their demand for a Bundestag vote, she has outflanked Martin Schulz’s Social Democrats by securing the passage of marriage equality as one of her government’s achievements, despite openly voting against it herself. The issue has been effectively neutralised.

Before marriage equality had arisen as an issue, Merkel had also done the same with immigration and the hot-button issue of asylum seekers. As one report put it, Merkel’s “summer of welcome” that saw asylum seekers march across Europe to reach the safe-haven of Germany has been followed by a long winter of conservative base-pleasing changes to the country’s political asylum laws. These have made it much tougher to successfully claim refugee status and much easier for unsuccessful asylum seekers to be deported to countries such as Afghanistan.

Pushed by circumstances to the centre, Merkel’s CDU/CSU coalition has now steered back to the right on refugees. Given her 2010 statement that multiculturalism has “utterly failed”, this seems to be where she would prefer it to stay.

Merkel, who has been German chancellor for a remarkable 12 years, is facing an election in September. Electorally, her right-ward shift on migration has largely defused the threat from Germany’s rabidly anti-immigration, far-right “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) party, which has also been hit hard by internal divisions.
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