Tag: Yahoo Finance

TD, CIBC Earnings Misses Cap Hard Quarter for Canadian Banks

(Bloomberg) -- Earnings disappointments at Toronto-Dominion Bank and Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce capped a tough quarter for Canada’s six largest lenders, with the industry sideswiped by rising provisions for soured loans and slumping capital markets.Both Toronto-Dominion and CIBC reported fiscal fourth quarter results that missed analysts’ estimates Thursday, after setting aside more money for loan losses and posting declining profits in capital markets and Canadian banking. Toronto-Dominion also was affected by a C$154 million ($117 million) restructuring charge, with the majority covering severance packages, echoing measures taken by Bank of Montreal earlier in the week that marked the industry’s biggest job cuts in years.“We took some restructuring charges as we continue to accelerate our ongoing efforts to modernize our operations and improve our efficiency,” Toronto-Dominion Chief Financial Officer Riaz Ahmed said Thursday in a phone interview, declining to give a number for the job reductions. “Because it’s broadly distributed, it’s...

UPDATE 1-Novartis R&D boss says doesn't see big opportunity in oral SMA therapy

Novartis research head Jay Bradner said on Thursday the Swiss drugmaker is focusing efforts against spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) on gene therapy Zolgensma and retreating from oral therapy like its molecule LMI070, also called branaplam. Bradner's comment to an investor conference in London comes as cross-town rival Roche has won the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's accelerated priority review for its oral SMA therapy that could result in a decision by May 2020. Analysts as well as Roche have pegged risdiplam as a potential blockbuster with more than $1 billion in annual sales, as it competes with Biogen's Spinraza and Zolgensma, the $2.1 million-per-patient gene therapy for which Novartis won approval last May....