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The Aggregate: the B&F edit of the top stories from around the web 21.07.17

By Business & Finance
21 July 2017
Elon_Musk_Hyperloop
Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, Tesla and The Boring Company

Elon Musk gets verbal approval for Hyperloop, big banks focus on fintech and pharma distribution in China is about to get overhauled.

TRANSPORT: LOOP THE LOOP

Elon Musk tweeted yesterday that he had “Just received verbal govt approval for The Boring Company to build an underground NY-Phil-Balt-DC Hyperloop. NY-DC in 29 mins.

“The founder of SpaceX and Tesla is accustomed to flashy enterprises and larger-than-life dreams (that all seem to be coming to fruition), and now, he’s turning his attention to a simple problem that plagues all of us: traffic. Because why shouldn’t it take us 29 minutes to get from New York to D.C.? With Musk’s Boring Company, this could be our new reality.”

Read the full story on Digital Trends.


FINTECH: THE BANK OF YOUR PHONE

“The most important real estate in the world for banks is on your mobile phone—physical branches are closing down, and more investment is being made in digital wallets. This week, JPMorgan launched a partnership with PayPal, bolstering both companies’ digital payment networks.

The most recent round of bank earnings provides a window into the shift to mobile services. Bank of America and JPMorgan both expanded their mobile customer bases by double-digit percentages versus a year ago.”

Read the full story on Quartz.


PHARMA: DISTRIBUTION OVERHAUL IN CHINA

U.S. Cardinal Health looks to divest its $1.5 billion China business as an overhaul of their healthcare distribution system is in the pipeline.

“Under the new mechanism, which is expected to be fully implemented in 2018, drug manufacturers can only work with a single distributor which directly supplies products to healthcare facilities such as hospitals.

The overhaul is expected by industry insiders and analysts to reshape China’s drug distribution landscape, with distributors that lack links to strong manufacturers and healthcare facilities liable to be cut out of the supply chain.”

Read more on Reuters.