News Headlines - 15 May 2019

▽Novartis gets approval to sell Kymriah in Japan for $306,000 - Reuters

A Japanese government panel approved on Wednesday a price of 33.5 million yen ($305,800) for Novartis’ cancer treatment Kymriah, allowing the Swiss drugmaker to press ahead with a campaign to kick-start sluggish sales of the treatment.
The one-time, personalized therapy, which was approved in Japan in March, will be available in the country for young people with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and adult patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
The so-called CAR-T therapy, which Novartis believes could treat up to 216 Japanese patients a year, potentially generating annual sales of 7.2 billion yen ($65.7 million), has been a hailed as a revolutionary, last-ditch hope for people whose cancer advanced after previous treatment.

▽Nissan forecasts profit will drop to 11-year low - The Japan News

Nissan Motor Co. forecast a 28 percent plunge in its annual operating profit, setting it up for the weakest earnings in 11 years and underscoring its struggle to turn the page after the ouster of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn... The automaker reported an operating profit of ￥318 billion in the year just ended, down 45 percent from a year earlier. It also booked ￥4.4 billion in expenses to reflect previous misstatements involving Ghosn’s compensation.
Sluggish profitability would likely result in a 30 percent cut to full-year dividend to ￥40 per share, Nissan said.

▽Duterte allies crush opposition in Philippine midterm elections - Nikkei Asian Review

Senate candidates backed by President Rodrigo Duterte are on track to take over most of the 12 seats contested in the Philippines' midterm elections, resulting in a crushing defeat for the country's opposition... With 94.26% of votes tallied as of 10:26 a.m. local time on Tuesday, nine of the 12 candidates with the most votes were allied with Duterte or with a coalition supportive of his administration, according to data from the Commission on Elections' transparency server. The commission is scheduled to begin the official count on Tuesday.

▽eSwatini king did not order men to have two or more wives, or face jail | IOL News

The government of eSwatini on Tuesday angrily denied viral online reports that King Mswati III, Africa's last absolute monarch who has 14 wives, had ordered men to have at least two marriages or face jail.
The story, carried by the Zambian Observer and picked up by several other online publications, said that Swazi men would have to marry several wives starting from June.

▽Germany mulls 'mosque tax' to cut out foreign funding - The Local

Support is growing in Germany for a "mosque tax" to make Islamic institutions less dependent on potentially anti-democratic or "radical" foreign funding sources, a media report said on Sunday.
The federal government sees it as "a possible path", according to an answer to a parliamentary query, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported.