Dive Brief:
Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., launched an investigation into the global tax practices of AbbVie, asserting that the pharmaceutical company used the 2017 changes in federal taxation and overseas havens to reduce its tax rate from 20% in 2016 to a 9.5% average from 2018 to 2020.
The committee probe will focus on how the 2017 law, passed with overwhelming Republican support, allowed AbbVie “to further abuse tax havens and avoid paying taxes on U.S. prescription drug sales.”
“Instead of using the massive tax cuts given to AbbVie by the 2017 tax law to reduce drug prices for American families, AbbVie has instead chosen to provide a $10 billion windfall to investors by substantially increasing the amount of money it spent buying back its own stock,” Wyden said in a June 2 letter to AbbVie CEO Richard Gonzalez.
JOHOR BARU: Some 82 compound notices amounting to RM210,500 have been issued statewide during the first two days of lockdown here.
Johor police chief Comm Datuk Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay said that a total of 470 standard operating procedure (SOP) monitoring teams involving 1,598 policemen have been assigned to check on SOP compliance during the lockdown. Some 17,512 premises have been checked during the first two days of the lockdown. This includes malls, commercial, industrial, recreational and educational centres, restaurants, transport terminals, business premises and places of worship. As of June 2, the compliance rate towards the SOP stands at 97%, he said in a statement Thursday (June 3).