Thursday newspaper round-up: British unis, Sage Group, cancer drugs

The value of commercial tie-ups between British universities and businesses has risen by more than 6 per cent to £4.2bn year-on-year, as higher education bodies seek out other ventures to compensate for leaner public funds. The Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce) released a range of statistics on Thursday covering the collaborations between universities and businesses in 2014-15 compared to the previous year. – Financial Times

Britain’s economy will slow down but should not go anywhere close to a recession, according to economists at credit ratings agency Moody’s, while growth in the rest of the world is also “stabilising.” Although markets dived on the referendum result in June, stock prices have recovered and now economists also believe the impact of the vote will be relatively modest, compared with some early fears. – Telegraph

The City of London police arrested a Sage Group employee at Heathrow airport on Wednesday on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, just two days after the FTSE 100 company revealed a data breach. The 32-year-old female's arrest follows Sage's announcement earlier this week that an internal login had been used to gain unauthorised access to around 280 customers personal details. – Telegraph

Drug companies are slashing the prices of new cancer medicines to avoid having them banned from NHS use, following the closure of the Cancer Drugs Fund. The manufacturers of four cancer drugs have dropped their prices followingclosure of the fund – a pot of money worth £340m a year to pay for drugs that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) did not find cost-effective. – Guardian

The Federal Reserve held off on raising interest rates in July due in large part to possible long-term risks related to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Minutes from the July meeting, which were released on Wednesday, mentioned Brexit 20 times. The economic uncertainty triggered by the referendum vote is one of a number of factors that have split the Fed’s board. – Guardian

The world’s largest sovereign wealth fund has cut the valuation of its UK property portfolio, which includes Regent Street in London, by 5 per cent after the Brexit vote. In a worrying sign for Britain’s commercial property sector, the oil-rich Norges Bank Investment Management said it had pre-emptively decided to mark down its portfolio after “considerable uncertainty” had hit the UK property sector following the referendum. – The Times

It has now been nearly two months since Britain voted to leave the European Union. The immediate reaction to the referendum on June 23 was fast and furious. The pound fell to levels not seen since 1985, world stocks lost $2 trillion, and the UK’s housebuilders lost 40 per cent of their value in two days. Economists and traders quickly slashed Britain’s growth prospects and jacked up inflation forecasts. Since then, it has been difficult to determine whether such revisions have been justified. The FTSE 100 is 10 per cent above its pre-Brexit result high and the more UK-focused FTSE 250 has recovered to be 2.5 per cent from its level before the referendum. Growth in the second quarter, before the Brexit decision, came in at a forecast-busting 0.6 per cent. – The Times