>>> ICPT - CONTROL Trial shows Statin Therapy Reversed LDL increases to below ba

Potential read across for Genfit

CONTROL Trial shows Statin Therapy Reversed LDL increases to below baseline levels in NASH patients treated with OCA 
Announced results from CONTROL, a placebo-controlled trial to prospectively characterize the lipid metabolic effects of obeticholic acid (OCA) and concomitant statin administration in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) with fibrosis or cirrhosis. The CONTROL trial met its primary objective by showing that newly initiated treatment with atorvastatin rapidly reversed OCA-associated increases in LDL to below baseline levels. Most of the effect was observed four weeks after initiation of the lowest available dose of atorvastatin and was sustained throughout the study period. 

CONTROL is a 16-week double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging study of 84 NASH patients with fibrosis and compensated cirrhosis, followed by a two-year long term safety extension (LTSE) open label phase which is currently ongoing. Lipid changes were assessed every four weeks over the course of the double-blind phase. Details of the study design are as follows:
* Statin-naïve or washout patients were randomized to receive one of three doses of OCA (5 mg, 10 mg or 25 mg) or placebo.
* At week four, the lowest approved dose of atorvastatin (10 mg) was added in all patients.
* At week eight, patients were titrated to the next highest prescribed dose of atorvastatin (20 mg).
* At week 12, further titration of atorvastatin (up to 40 mg) was permitted at investigators’ discretion.

The study was designed to measure treatment differences within each group relative to baseline. The intent-to-treat (ITT) analysis is shown below and includes all patients who received at least one dose of study medication.
At week four, mean LDL levels increased in each of the OCA treatment groups, while remaining relatively unchanged in the placebo group. The addition of 10 mg of atorvastatin rapidly reversed mean LDL to below baseline levels in all OCA treatment groups at the first assessed time point (week eight), and this effect was sustained through week 16. The observed mean LDL reductions in the OCA groups were approximately 40 – 45 mg/dL while placebo was 48 mg/dL.

FT Lex : Tobacco: smoke signals

Tobacco: smoke signals
Nicotine regulation may never happen, while ecigarette news is positive

The Trump administration is making little legislative headway. But it can at least slash regulations with gusto. Surprising, then, that a government that has rolled back rules on power plant emissions should propose new ones on personal lung pollution.

Shares in Altria have fallen 9 per cent and British American Tobacco by 7 per cent since the Food and Drug Administration said it aimed to reduce nicotine in cigarettes to lessen their addictive properties, while supporting new safer alternatives.

The sell-off was not universal, however. Philip Morris International shares, after a brief dip in sympathy with the sector, ended up in positive territory on Friday. PMI, which sells Marlboro internationally after its spin-off from Altria in 2008, has an advantage; the Switzerland-based company can dodge the rules thanks to its focus outside the US. BAT, however, paid $49bn in January for the remaining stake in Reynolds American, maker of Newports and Camel.

Yet the US is not such a hostile place for Big Tobacco. Altria’s sell-off, which went as far as 19 per cent at one stage on Friday, looks exaggerated. Even as the number of smokers in the US has continued to fall, industry revenues have risen thanks to higher prices. Last year volume sales fell 2 per cent to 263.4bn cigarettes, while the value rose 1 per cent to $94.4bn, according to Euromonitor International. BAT’s bet is still good. 

Of course the industry remains vulnerable to government intervention. But there is a long way to go before any new restrictions are implemented. The permissive attitude to ecigarettes, the other side of the proposal, is more likely to stick. All should benefit — but none more so than PMI, which possesses one of the most promising ecigarettes. Even before Friday, Wells Fargo estimated it would be enough to reverse declining revenues and more than double earnings growth. Rather than bask in its remoteness from the US, it can seize the moment.

>>> EU Commission said to consider measures considering measures which would all

EU Commission said to consider measures considering measures which would allow them to temporarily stop people withdrawing money from their accounts to prevent bank runs - financial press 
- Move is aimed at helping rescue lenders that are deemed failing or likely to fail 
- Proposal comes less than two months after a run on deposits at Banco Popular contributed to the collapse of the Spanish lender

FT : JPMorgan develops robot to execute high-speed trades

JPMorgan develops robot to execute high-speed trades
Trial shows AI is more efficient than traditional methods of buying and selling

JPMorgan will soon be using a first-of-its-kind robot to execute trades across its global equities algorithms business, after a European trial of the bank’s new artificial intelligence (AI) programme showed it was much more efficient than traditional methods of buying and selling.

The AI — known internally as LOXM — has been used in the bank’s European equities algorithms business since the first quarter and will be launched across Asia and the US in the fourth quarter, Daniel Ciment, JPMorgan’s head of global equities electronic trading, told the Financial Times. 

LOXM’s job is to execute client orders with maximum speed at the best price, by using lessons it has learnt from billions of past trades — both real and simulated — to tackle problems such as how best to offload big equity stakes without moving market prices.

“Such customisation was previously implemented by humans, but now the AI machine is able to do it on a much larger and more efficient scale,” said David Fellah, of JPMorgan’s European Equity Quant Research team. Mr Ciment said that, so far, the European trials showed that the pricing achieved by LOXM was “significantly better” than its benchmark.

Investment banks have been trying to use AI, automation and robotics to help cut costs and eliminate time-consuming routine work. For example, UBS’s recent deployment of AI to deal with client post-trade allocation requests, which saves as much as 45 minutes of human labour per task. UBS has also brought in AI to help clients trade volatility.

JPMorgan, which is the world’s biggest investment bank by revenue, believes it is the first on Wall Street to use AI with trade execution and said it would take rivals 18 to 24 months and an investment of “multiple millions” to come up with similar technology. 

“Best execution is becoming more and more important to clients,” said Mr Ciment of JPMorgan’s decision to invest in the pioneering technology, adding that it could become part of the marketing pitch the bank makes to clients. 

The AI was developed using “Deep Reinforcement Learning” methods, which are able to learn from millions of historic scenarios. Mr Fellah said DRL has “many other potential uses in banking, such as in automatic hedging and market making”. 

One possible evolution of LOXM is teaching the machine how to get to know individual clients, so that it could consider the client’s behaviour and reaction as it decides how to trade. “Any customisation would only be if the client agrees to that,” Mr Ciment added.

Unlike the robo advisers offered by some private banks, JPMorgan’s AI has no decision-making capabilities around what is bought and sold, its role is solely to decide how things are bought and sold. 

The bank has had no risk management issues with the technology. “The machine is restricted in its trading behaviour, as it learns under, and operates within, our general electronic trading risk framework, which is overseen by internal control groups and validated by regulators,” Mr Fellah said. 

>>> Delivery- Hero - Announces strategic partnership with The Coca-Cola Company

Announces strategic partnership with The Coca-Cola Company Announced today that it has entered into a strategic partnership with The Coca-Cola Company. This will mark a new way of collaborating in the field of online food ordering and delivery services.

Delivery Hero will allow for easier ordering of Coca-Cola beverages with the meals its consumers are ordering. The pairings are endless with Delivery Hero's multiple restaurant choices and the vast choices of Coca-Cola products.

(TechCrunch) Snap’s lockup expiration could pose bad news for the stock

Snap’s lockup expiration could pose bad news for the stock

After months of watching Snap’s volatile ride on the stock market from the sidelines, some insiders will be allowed to sell their shares Monday.

Known as the “lockup period,” employees and early investors of companies are generally restricted from selling their shares during the initial months following an IPO. The duration of this period varies and in Snap’s case, 150 days post-IPO was determined to be the appropriate timeframe for the first wave of shares, with a second wave coming later in August.

The Snapchat parent’s stock has been trading down, partly in anticipation of this expiration date. But just because insiders can sell their shares, it doesn’t mean they will.

One analyst, Scott Devitt at Stifel Nicholas, believes this has all been overblown. Earlier this month, in a research note, Devitt said that investors have been “overreacting” and he predicted that many of the insiders will be reluctant to sell their shares. He upgraded the stock to a “buy” rating, whereas Morgan Stanley downgraded it to “equal weight.”

Like many newly public companies, Snap has had a tough time convincing investors that it will make a good long-term bet. Some investors think this could be the next Facebook, whereas others fear it could mimic Twitter’s volatile ride.

While Snap has built a social media platform that has amassed 166 million daily active users, Instagram’s “stories” clone quickly surpassed it.

Snap closed Friday at $13.81. When Snap went public in early March, it was priced at $17.

(ZH) "The Euro Crisis Is Not Over" Former ECB Chief Economist Urges "Greek Sabba

"The Euro Crisis Is Not Over" Former ECB Chief Economist Urges "Greek Sabbatical From EU"

Otmar Issing, former Chief Economist and Member of the Board of the European Central Bank and the German Bundesbank, brings back the specter of Grexit scenarios, demanding a Euro-sabbatical for Greece.
KeepTalkingGreece.com reports that, uin an interview with business news magazine Wirtschaftswoche, Issing warned of a new flare-up of the euro crisis.


“The euro crisis is not over yet,” said the economist, one of the architects of the Euro.
Issing called on a policy that would include EU treaties allowing the possibility of temporary withdrawal from the monetary union.


“States like Greece would do well with a Sabbatical outside the monetary union.However, it should be accompanied by massive aid from other countries and a growth-oriented economic policy. And one would have to make re-entry into the euro zone dependent on fundamental reforms, ” Issing said.
Issing no longer relies on the Stability and Growth Pact, a core element of the economic and monetary union. “I would not have considered the dimension of its dismantling by the governments”.
Otmar Issing lashed out at the Greek government saying “the government is still in an anti-growth policy.”
He also criticized Italy saying


“It also did not seize the opportunity. The country has saved tens of billions of interest without using the leeway. ”
The Wirtschaftswhoche article has the title “Economist demands Euro-sabbatical for Greece.”
I don’t know exactly what institutional role 81-year-old Otmar Issing currently has other than sitting at a dusty desk as president of the Center for Financial Studies (CFS) at the Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main since 2006. He is also Goldman Sachs adviser etc etc etc.
He has been calling for Grexit since 2010 saying Euro exit would be good for Greece at least once a year… Leaving the euro might help struggling Greece, German chief economist, euro architect and former European Central Bank (ECB) board member Otmar Issing told CNBC on Tuesday.


“The euro is irreversible – but if it is irreversible for every country has become an open question,” Issing told CNBC.
Then, Issing told CNBC in September 2015...


“For Greece, there are very good arguments that it would do well outside the euro area for some time to come, but it all depends on the Greek government’s reactions”
What he does not say it that the “massive aid from other countries” that will accompanie the Euro-Sabbatical or Grexit would be one more bailout.
If I remember well, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had estimated a total of at least 50 billion euros for a 5-year- euro sabbatical. Schaebule offered Varoufakis & Co a temporary Grexit plan in March 2015, as part of the European lenders blackmail towards Greece.

FT : Germany’s ‘silent’ boost from the ECB’s QE

The European Central Bank has been pumping stimulus into the eurozone economy for over two years. As part of their quantitative easing measures, the bank’s policymakers have promised to “reinvest” the money they make from maturing bonds back into the debt market.

Despite talk of “tapering” dominating markets, more and more bond redemptions are due over the coming years, and thus increasing reinvestment is on the cards. Analysis from Nordea shows these “silent” ECB measures will have one principle beneficiary: Germany.

With the ECB snapping up 2-year debt in March 2015, the first of its redemptions took place earlier this year and will steadily build in the months to come.

“As we approach the end of 2017 and heading into 2018, reinvestment will pick up markedly and consequently, it will become an increasingly important factor in the ECB’s policy stance”, notes Piet Philip Christiansen, rates strategist at Nordea.

He calculates that reinvestment flows will hit at least €120bn in 2018. Of this, around €42bn will be pumped back into the Bund market – a third of the total flows (see chart below).

That’s not altogether surprising. Germany is the biggest economy in the eurozone and receives the largest proportion of ECB bond-buying under the central bank’s “capital key” rules. Like its eurozone counterparts, German borrowing costs have been driven to record lows as the central bank has had an oversized presence in the eurozone debt markets.

Nordea’s numbers show the ECB will have bought €450bn of German bonds since March 2015 by the end of this year. Strikingly, that is nearly equal to the €471bn issued by the German debt office during the same period.

For all the persistent grumbling from Berlin’s economic establishment, the period of eurozone QE has coincided with record low unemployment in Germany and still robust economic growth. The German economy has only suffered four quarters of economic contraction since mid-2009.

But one country that is not expected to feel the reinvestment love is Italy. Nordea’s calculations show flows back into Italian bonds will be around €20bn – half that of German reinvestments.

“The reinvestment flow will mainly support the core countries, such as Germany and the Netherlands and not Italy (although this is likely higher on Draghi’s wish list), so spread widening is warranted”, adds Mr Christiansen.

He thinks that any announcement of tapering – which could come as early as September – would lead to an “initial knee-jerk reaction” in the bond market.

But ultimately, with the ECB taking a gradual approach to its wind down, and importantly maintaining its presence in the market through reinvestment, a massive market sell-off “is expected to be contained”, he adds.