Payday for drug developers, Digicel travails, Smurfit in the wars, and green levy cuts

Right place, right time for pharma entrepreneur Séamus Mulligan and his team at Adapt Pharma. The Irish group, which makes a rescue drug to revive opioid overdose patients that is now widely used in the United States and Canada, has been sold for $635 million – with a further $100 million tied to future sales milestones.

More travails for Digicel as Denis O'Brien's Caribbean and south Pacific-focused telecoms group loses its chief financial officer, writes Joe Brennan. The value of its bonds also took a hit from another set of what were seen as weak quarterly earnings.

Also in the wars is Smurfit Kappa, whose Venezuela plant has been seized by a government battling the impact of hyperinflation. Joe Brennan reports that the Irish group has vowed to protect its interests in the south American state.

There's good news for energy users, as the regulator decides to slash in half the levy on energy bills to support peat and renewables. However, Barry O'Halloran reports that domestic users will see little impact as suppliers increase their prices.

Liberty aiming to merge with Spanish sister company by early 2019

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Trinity College plans to spend €170,000 on wine

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Digicel’s CFO shows he’s mobile

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Lidl plans more stores but not considering convenience formats for Dublin

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The debate over whether Ireland is in a boom or a bubble continues, with ratings agency DBRS opining that the State is not yet overheating - though it does add that the current environment is "not without risks". Joe Brennan has the details.

Permanent TSB unveiled a 33 per cent jump in first-half profits but chief executive Jeremy Masding still found himself addressing questions about possible mergers and capital adequacy ratios.

Lidl is back, with a new store at Fortunestown in Dublin, writes Ciarán Hancock. Its previous store was torn down and ransacked by looters during the winter storms in a widely publicised incident. Ciarán also talks to the retailer's property director Alan Barry in this week's Inside Business podcast.

In the week that soul legend Aretha Franklin is buried, one Royal College of Surgeons researcher is hoping to improve the currently very poor odds of survival for patients with pancreatic cancer. Olive Keogh has the details.

Everyone knows that cherished Silicon Valley truism – successful companies are founded by young men, ideally in their parents' garage. Right? Not so, apparently, says Karlin Lillington, and she has figures to back that up.