Cheaper HSE drugs, and are women in your workplace earning less?

Ireland’s health system saves about €239 million annually by using cheaper copies of expensive biological drugs, according to one pharma executive. However, Diane DiGangi Trench, country head and general manager for Swiss drug company Sandoz’s UK and Ireland division, says that greater use of so-called biosimilars could unlock almost another €150 million in savings for the HSE. Eoin Burke-Kennedy reports.

By the end of November, all employers with more than 50 employees must publish data about their gender pay gap to a new public gender pay gap portal. Joanne Hunt writes that the data will lift the lid on gaps in pay and equip you to find out whether women in your workplace are earning less than men.

When developers say that a project isn’t ‘viable’, are they saying it is not profitable or just that another project would be even more profitable? Viability and profitability are not the same thing, writes John McManus in his latest column. Grasping the difference is the key to understanding why developers are pulling resources from Dublin’s office market and pumping them into hotels.

Sticking with commercial property, Irish retail property investor Signature Capital is looking to dispose of two flagship Avoca premises that it acquired for €22 million in 2017 from the retailer’s owner, Aramark. Ronald Quinlan has the details.

Anyone planning to put their money to work through the Government’s new tax-efficient investment account scheme will still pay stamp duty of 1 per cent, Joe Brennan reports, if they want to invest directly in Irish public companies with market caps of more than €1 billion. Currently, there are 11 companies on the Euronext Dublin above the threshold, but it also applies to large Irish companies listed overseas like CRH.

Joe also has the story that Pepper Advantage is planning a rebrand. The UK-headquartered business, which is used by firms that acquired problem Irish loans after the property crash, will become Continuum Credit Group in January, while its Irish loan servicing business will be renamed Engage Credit Ireland.

Microsoft president Brad Smith: Ireland is “well-positioned for future of AI”

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After their initial plans were rebuffed, a company owned by the family of veteran developer Paddy Kelly has scaled back its plans for a housing development on the site of two cottages in south county Dublin. Stephen Conneely has the story.

Paddy Power owner Flutter will cut 240 jobs from its Irish head office as it grapples with rising British betting taxes, Barry O’Halloran writes. The group said on Tuesday that it planned to cut about 1,400 jobs in its UK and Ireland division to counter the impact of British government tax rises set to cost it $540 million (€480 million).

Meanwhile, Conor Pope reports on stark new figures from the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland, which reveal that almost half of young adults have been approached to use their bank account to transfer money for so-called money-muling purposes. Some €7 million was laundered through Irish accounts in this fashion in the 12 months to the end of June.

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