Your commercial news round-up: UK drug sector, US inflation, heatwaves, Snapchat

Reading time: four minutes

US pharmaceutical giant Merck has abandoned its £1 billion UK expansion and John Lewis has reported significant losses in the first half of the year. Meanwhile, a groundbreaking climate study has directly linked emissions from fossil fuel companies to deadly heatwaves and, in the digital realm, Snapchat is under fire after a Danish watchdog exposed widespread drug dealing on its platform. Read on to discover the trending commercial news stories this week!

• US drugmaker Merck has scrapped its £1 billion UK expansion, with plans to relocate its life sciences research to the US and cut UK jobs. The company blamed successive UK governments for undervaluing innovative medicines and failing to invest enough in the life sciences sector. The move halts construction of Merck’s planned King's Cross site and ends its presence at the London Bioscience Innovation Centre and the Francis Crick Institute. The latter will result in 125 job cuts. Former regius professor of medicine at the University of Oxford, Sir John Bell, highlighted declining NHS spending on medicines and the UK’s reduced competitiveness: "The large companies do have to work in a system where they can sell their products, and if they can't sell their products here, they'll go and do their business somewhere else." Meanwhile, head of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry Richard Torbett called the move “an incredible blow” and a “wake up call to try and understand what is driving companies to make these difficult decisions”. Merck’s withdrawal follows similar decisions by companies such as AstraZeneca and a broader trend of pharmaceutical companies investing in the US following pressure from President Donald Trump’s tariffs on drug imports.
   
• John Lewis has reported a sharp rise in pre-tax losses to £88 million for the first half of the year, nearly triple the £30 million loss from the same period last year. The increase was driven by £29 million in added costs from the Extended Producer Responsibility packaging levy and employer National Insurance payments. John Lewis Partnership Chair Jason Tarry cited “subdued” consumer confidence ahead of the November budget but the firm expressed optimism for a profitable full-year outcome, banking on strong Christmas sales. The company expects festive demand for items like wearable tech and Jellycat soft toys to boost performance. However, staff bonuses remain uncertain, with no payouts in the past three years.
   
• A new study has directly linked carbon emissions from major fossil fuel companies to dozens of deadly heatwaves. The research, published in the journal Nature, found that emissions from any of the 14 largest firms were by themselves enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves. According to the research, US-based oil and gas company ExxonMobil made 51 heatwaves at least 10,000 times more likely than in an unheated world. In addition, the findings revealed that emissions from the 180 “carbon major” companies caused about half the increase in heatwave intensity. The study also revealed that, between 2010 and 2019, the 213 heatwaves examined became on average 200 times more likely due to the escalating impact of the climate crisis. A research director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, Dr Davide Faranda, commented on the research: “This study adds a crucial new step: it connects the dots between specific climate disasters and the companies whose emissions made them possible. This bridge could become a cornerstone for legal and policy action to hold polluters accountable.”
   
• Elsewhere, Danish research organisation Digitalt Ansvar has accused Snapchat of allowing drug dealers to operate openly on its platform, exposing children to illicit substances. The study highlighted the social media platform’s failure to moderate drug-related language in usernames. Of the 40 reported accounts by the researchers, Snapchat initially removed only 10, although it later disabled all. Researchers also discovered that Snapchat’s recommendation system promoted drug-dealing accounts, even to users with no prior interaction with such content. Digitalt Ansvar CEO Ask Hesby Holm said: “Snapchat itself says they proactively use technology to filter out profiles that sell drugs on the platform. Our investigation shows this is not true.” A spokesperson from Snapchat commented: “We have zero tolerance for drug sales on Snapchat. Even though the accounts flagged in the study were not all reported in-app, more than 75% of those accounts had already been disabled by our teams before we were made aware of this report, and all accounts now have been.”

Check the News every Thursday for this weekly commercial news round-up. Prefer to listen to your commercial news? Why not check out our Commercial Connect podcast?

Follow LawCareers.Net on X, LinkedIn, and Instagram for regular business news updates.