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** 12 August 2021
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** UK
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** PMI given 5PM deadline for Vectura bid before board decides between it and Carlyle (#1)
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** Philip Morris takeover will kill the company, charities warn Vectura (#2)
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** Duty-free alcohol and cigarette sales fly as international travel recovers (#3)
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** Campaigners call for junk food promotion ban to go ahead in Scotland (#4)
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** International
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** Smoking may impair mRNA vaccine response, according to study (#5)
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** UK
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** Vectura’s board has given PMI until 5pm today (12th August) to return with an advance on its 165p-a-share bid before issuing a statement. However, investors do not expect PMI to increase its bid. Shares in Vectura dipped by 5.5% last night (11th August) and slipped further this morning (12th August) as the prospect of a bidding war between PMI and rival Carlyle abated.
PMI, however, could take its offer directly to Vectura’s shareholders if it fails to win a board recommendation. Meanwhile, The European Respiratory Society has warned that a deal with PMI could hurt Vectura financially because health professionals will avoid prescribing drugs from a company that enriches the smoking industry.
Source: Evening Standard, 11 August 2021
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** Public health charities and Labour shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth have urged the board of Vectura not to recommend PMI’s takeover bid to shareholders.
Nicholas Hopkinson, Chair of ASH, said that Vectura’s board “should reject the Philip Morris bid” and added that “it will kill the company.” Ashworth called on Vectura’s board, led by Bruno Angelici, to “exercise their duty of care to all stakeholders, resist Philip Morris, and say they don’t want to be bought by big tobacco”.
Malcolm Clark, senior cancer prevention policy manager at Cancer Research UK, said that “accepting the bid from Philip Morris International is not in the best interest of public health or the company’s strategic objectives. Not only is it unethical for Big Tobacco to be allowed to profit from treating diseases made far more prevalent because of its products, but becoming tobacco-owned would also threaten the vital work done by Vectura.”
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive of Asthma UK and of the British Lung Foundation, noted that ownership by Philip Morris “would prevent Vectura being involved in key scientific networks and associations, making it harder to conduct vital research on behalf of people with lung conditions”.
Vectura, which is being advised by JP Morgan Cazenove and Rothschild, said that it intended to make an announcement after the deadline, “or, if sooner, following any announcement by Philip Morris of a revised offer or an announcement that its offer will not be increased further”.
One City source said that Vectura’s board was obliged to give its views to shareholders on both offers but was not necessarily obliged to make a recommendation. On Friday, Vectura said that it “may be better positioned under Carlyle ownership to meet both the company’s existing strategy, and the interests of a number of its current stakeholders”.
Source: The Times, 12 August 2021
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** Duty-free giant Dufry AG has said in its half-year trading update that sales of duty-free alcohol and tobacco have risen 50% to 100% in recent days as British holidaymakers have made the most of relaxations in travel restrictions.
Double-jabbed travellers arriving from France are no longer required to isolate for 10 days as of Sunday while rules for arrivals from other countries have also been relaxed. India, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have moved from red to amber while Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Romania and Norway were move to green.
Source: City A.M., 11 August 2021
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** Obesity campaigners have urged the Scottish Government to press ahead with a bill to ban multi-buy offers on junk food. Ministers had paused promised legislation to ban cut-price offers on high-sugar high-fat food with little nutritional value last June after the coronavirus crisis hit.
A YouGov poll commissioned by Cancer Research UK (CRUK) indicates eight in 10 people think “buy one get one free” deals make people more likely to fill their baskets with junk food. Results were based on an online survey of 1,002 adults in Scotland between July 26 and 30, with the figures weighted and representative of all Scottish adults.
Behavioural scientist professor Linda Bauld, the charity’s cancer prevention expert, said the Government has a “significant role here, to protect the health of future generations by supporting people to choose healthier options in their weekly food shop. Any hold-up in introducing these measures will be at the expense of our nation’s life chances, as well as adding to the ever-growing burden on the NHS.”
CRUK said that being overweight or obese was the second biggest preventable cause of cancer in Scotland after smoking and is responsible for around 2,200 cases annually. Almost two-thirds of people in Scotland are overweight or obese, according to Food Standards Scotland.
Source: The Press and Journal, 12 August 2021
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** International
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** Japanese researchers have found that current smokers may be at risk of lower immune responses to some COVID-19 vaccines but say that further research is needed before firm conclusions can be drawn.
The research involved a preliminary study of 378 healthcare workers ages 32 to 54 in which researchers analysed levels of protective antibodies induced by the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer and Biotech. The researchers used blood samples obtained roughly three months after the second dose.
After taking age into account, the researchers found that the only risk factors for lower antibody levels were male sex and smoking. Researchers say that the sex difference may be because smoking rates are twice as high in men as in women. The paper was posted on Saturday 7th August in the journal medRxiv ahead of peer review.
Source: Reuters, 11 August 2021
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