COMPANY NEWS IN BRIEF
Shell launches cost-cutting drive
Royal Dutch Shell is looking to slash up to 40% off the cost of producing oil and gas in a major drive to save cash so it can overhaul its business and focus more on renewable energy and power markets, sources told Reuters.
Shell's new cost-cutting review, known internally as Project Reshape and expected to be completed this year, will affect its three main divisions and any savings will come on top of a US$4 billion target set in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.
Reducing costs is vital for Shell's plans to move into the power sector and renewables where margins are relatively low. Competition is also likely to intensify with utilities and rival oil firms including BP and Total all battling for market share as economies around the world go green.
"We had a great model but is it right for the future? There will be differences, this is not just about structure but culture and about the type of company we want to be," said a senior Shell source, who declined to be named.
Shell is exploring ways to reduce spending on oil and gas production, its largest division known as upstream, by 30% to 40% through cuts in operating costs and capital spending on new projects, two sources involved with the review told Reuters. – Nampa/Reuters
Amgen drug shrinks tumors
An experimental Amgen Inc drug that targets a specific genetic mutation shrank tumors in 32% of advanced lung cancer patients and 7% of those with colon cancer, according to data from an early-stage trial presented on Sunday.
The median length of time that patients given the drug sotorasib lived before their disease worsened was 6.3 months for lung cancer patients and 4 months for colorectal cancer patients, the company said. Participants in the 129-patient study were followed for a median of 11.7 months.
Patients in the Phase I trial involving several types of cancer were treated with once daily sotorasib. The oral medication is designed to target a mutated form of a gene known as KRAS that occurs in about 13% of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer.
The KRAS mutation is also found in 1% to 3% of colorectal and other cancers. Sotorasib is part of a growing trend of precision medicines that target gene mutations driving cancer regardless of which organ the disease originated.
Out of 59 NSCLC patients, 32% had a partial response to the drug - tumor shrinkage by at least 30% - and 88% had either a lesser response or stable disease. For the 42 patients with colorectal cancer, 7% had tumor shrinkage and 74% had stable disease. – Nampa/Reuters
ByteDance seeks US$60 bln
China's ByteDance Ltd is seeking a valuation of US$60 billion for TikTok as Oracle Corp and Walmart Inc take stakes in the short-video app's business to address US security concerns, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.
Oracle will take a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global and store all its US user data in its cloud to comply with US national security requirements, the companies said on Saturday.
The two companies would pay a combined US$12 billion for their stakes if they agree to a US$60 billion asking price, Bloomberg reported. ByteDance, TikTok, Oracle and Walmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
The final valuation had not been set as the companies worked out the equity structure and measures for data security, the Bloomberg report added.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he supported a deal in principle would allow TikTok to continue to operate in the United States, even as it appeared to conflict with his earlier executive order for China's ByteDance to divest the video app. – Nampa/Reuters
Libyan oil facilities restart operations
Workers at Libya's major Sharara field have restarted operations, two engineers working there said, after National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced a partial lifting of force majeure.
They said flaring had restarted at the field and shared a video of it, and added that engineers had been returning to the area. It was unclear when production might restart and there was no immediate comment from the NOC.
Libya's oil sector has stood almost entirely quiet since January, when eastern-based forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar imposed a blockade on energy exports during their ultimately foiled assault on Tripoli.
Haftar said the blockade would be lifted but NOC has demanded that his forces and allied mercenaries that it says pose a danger to its staff must leave all oil facilities. -Nampa/Reuters
Moderna to make 20 mln doses
Moderna Inc said it expects to produce 20 million doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
The company continues to expect to make 500 million to 1 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021, Moderna said in a filing with the US securities regulator.
There are currently no Covid-19 vaccines approved by US regulators, although a handful are in late-stage trials to prove they are safe and effective.
Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine is among the furthest in development and the company had enrolled 25 296 participants out of a planned 30 000 in its late-stage study as of Wednesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention anticipates that 35 million to 45 million doses of vaccines from the first two companies to receive authorization will be available in the United States by the end of this year. Moderna has said it plans to seek emergency authorization for its vaccine's use in high-risk groups if it proves to be at least 70% effective. – Nampa/Reuters
Royal Dutch Shell is looking to slash up to 40% off the cost of producing oil and gas in a major drive to save cash so it can overhaul its business and focus more on renewable energy and power markets, sources told Reuters.
Shell's new cost-cutting review, known internally as Project Reshape and expected to be completed this year, will affect its three main divisions and any savings will come on top of a US$4 billion target set in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.
Reducing costs is vital for Shell's plans to move into the power sector and renewables where margins are relatively low. Competition is also likely to intensify with utilities and rival oil firms including BP and Total all battling for market share as economies around the world go green.
"We had a great model but is it right for the future? There will be differences, this is not just about structure but culture and about the type of company we want to be," said a senior Shell source, who declined to be named.
Shell is exploring ways to reduce spending on oil and gas production, its largest division known as upstream, by 30% to 40% through cuts in operating costs and capital spending on new projects, two sources involved with the review told Reuters. – Nampa/Reuters
Amgen drug shrinks tumors
An experimental Amgen Inc drug that targets a specific genetic mutation shrank tumors in 32% of advanced lung cancer patients and 7% of those with colon cancer, according to data from an early-stage trial presented on Sunday.
The median length of time that patients given the drug sotorasib lived before their disease worsened was 6.3 months for lung cancer patients and 4 months for colorectal cancer patients, the company said. Participants in the 129-patient study were followed for a median of 11.7 months.
Patients in the Phase I trial involving several types of cancer were treated with once daily sotorasib. The oral medication is designed to target a mutated form of a gene known as KRAS that occurs in about 13% of non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), the most common type of lung cancer.
The KRAS mutation is also found in 1% to 3% of colorectal and other cancers. Sotorasib is part of a growing trend of precision medicines that target gene mutations driving cancer regardless of which organ the disease originated.
Out of 59 NSCLC patients, 32% had a partial response to the drug - tumor shrinkage by at least 30% - and 88% had either a lesser response or stable disease. For the 42 patients with colorectal cancer, 7% had tumor shrinkage and 74% had stable disease. – Nampa/Reuters
ByteDance seeks US$60 bln
China's ByteDance Ltd is seeking a valuation of US$60 billion for TikTok as Oracle Corp and Walmart Inc take stakes in the short-video app's business to address US security concerns, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter.
Oracle will take a 12.5% stake in TikTok Global and store all its US user data in its cloud to comply with US national security requirements, the companies said on Saturday.
The two companies would pay a combined US$12 billion for their stakes if they agree to a US$60 billion asking price, Bloomberg reported. ByteDance, TikTok, Oracle and Walmart did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the report.
The final valuation had not been set as the companies worked out the equity structure and measures for data security, the Bloomberg report added.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he supported a deal in principle would allow TikTok to continue to operate in the United States, even as it appeared to conflict with his earlier executive order for China's ByteDance to divest the video app. – Nampa/Reuters
Libyan oil facilities restart operations
Workers at Libya's major Sharara field have restarted operations, two engineers working there said, after National Oil Corporation (NOC) announced a partial lifting of force majeure.
They said flaring had restarted at the field and shared a video of it, and added that engineers had been returning to the area. It was unclear when production might restart and there was no immediate comment from the NOC.
Libya's oil sector has stood almost entirely quiet since January, when eastern-based forces loyal to Khalifa Haftar imposed a blockade on energy exports during their ultimately foiled assault on Tripoli.
Haftar said the blockade would be lifted but NOC has demanded that his forces and allied mercenaries that it says pose a danger to its staff must leave all oil facilities. -Nampa/Reuters
Moderna to make 20 mln doses
Moderna Inc said it expects to produce 20 million doses of its experimental coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.
The company continues to expect to make 500 million to 1 billion doses of the vaccine in 2021, Moderna said in a filing with the US securities regulator.
There are currently no Covid-19 vaccines approved by US regulators, although a handful are in late-stage trials to prove they are safe and effective.
Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine is among the furthest in development and the company had enrolled 25 296 participants out of a planned 30 000 in its late-stage study as of Wednesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention anticipates that 35 million to 45 million doses of vaccines from the first two companies to receive authorization will be available in the United States by the end of this year. Moderna has said it plans to seek emergency authorization for its vaccine's use in high-risk groups if it proves to be at least 70% effective. – Nampa/Reuters
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