The UK government was forced to pay out £24mn to Atos in an out-of-court settlement after the French IT group challenged the award of an £850mn contract to develop a supercomputer for forecasting weather and climate change to US rival Microsoft.

The French company, which was the only other shortlisted bidder, filed a lawsuit in May last year alleging breaches in the government’s obligations under the public procurement regulations but it was settled before it went to court.

The new supercomputer, which will be managed by the Met Office, is expected to be one of the most advanced in the world for weather prediction and climate change analysis. The cost of the overall project is put at £1.2bn.

The terms of the settlement were not disclosed at the time but the latest annual report of the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy reveals there was a payout of £24mn to Atos without an admission of liability.

The opposition Labour party accused the government of wasting taxpayers’ money. “This is yet another example of the Conservatives failing to take care of public money. While families are counting every penny, the Tories are shelling out taxpayers’ cash to pay for their own mistakes,” said Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader.

The government said: “The proceedings regarding supercomputer procurement have been resolved with no admission of liability from any party. This settlement is in the best interest of taxpayers.” 

It added that an “independent review has assured that all procurement processes were followed and there were no failures associated with governance or lack of controls”.

In its lawsuit, Atos alleged the procurement process was not managed properly after its tender was non-compliant with technical specifications. The dispute centred on requirements to supply two test supercomputers and a development supercomputer in addition to the main supercomputer system, where the systems were all required to be “architecturally equivalent”.

Atos alleged that the government rejected its bid as “non compliant” on the basis that its proposal for a smaller development computer system used different processors in the main supercomputer, according to court documents.

The company claimed that the government made “obvious errors in the evaluation” of the bid and that the “Met Office has chosen a final tender which scored lower in quality, transferred more commercial risk to the Met Office and is more expensive”.

The Met Office and BEIS denied the allegations, and alleged that Atos proposed a non-compliant solution and that its offer was not “the most economically advantageous”.

Atos said in a statement that it was “pleased to have resolved this matter”.

The new computer is expected to be in the top 25 supercomputers in the world and will be used to more accurately predict storms as well as help select the most suitable locations for flood defences and predict changes to the global climate.

The new supercomputer will also provide detailed information for the energy sector to help it take action against potential blackouts and power surges.

Mumbai: Pandemic preparedness and supply chain alignment will be the priorities in 2023 for the domestic pharma sector as the threat of a new variant of coronavirus looms large for several countries, including India. Medicines, boosters and diagnostics — key ammo for fighting Covid — are in the spotlight once again.
Additionally, a focus on quality will dominate the agenda for pharma companies in the wake of recent deaths of children in Gambia and Uzbekistan, potentially due to adulterated cough syrups, industry experts told TOI.
The year 2022 had started with the country rolling out booster shots as the Omicron variant became dominant. Pharma companies prepared for the surge, built up huge stocks of key medicines, and launched oral antiviral pills. Thereafter, once the caseload reduced, they got back to boosting non-Covid portfolios and brand-building.
“Pandemic planning is back in the spotlight in the wake of global concerns around the spread of Covid in certain countries. Also, the China-plus-one strategy has become important with frequent disruptions, geopolitical issues and emphasis on self-reliance,” said Sujay Shetty, global health industries advisory leader at PwC India.
Zydus Lifesciences chairman Pankaj Patel told TOI, “The industry’s capabilities as a reliable supplier of drugs, resilience to deal with challenging healthcare situations and making breakthroughs with innovation were the highlights of 2022. Despite supply chain challenges due to the surge in demand of certain drugs multiple times in a short period, the industry was able to ensure consistent supplies. Also, vaccine development and supply for the mass vaccination programme proved India is ‘Atma Nirbhar’.”
Regarding the year ahead, Patel said, “In 2023, the industry is confident of tackling healthcare challenges, if the situation occurs again. It is by no means a small achievement that India today is the only country which has therapies approved for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), which are unmet healthcare needs. Also, there is work being done on rare and orphan diseases, which have no treatment as of today, globally. So, in 2023 and beyond, we should be seeing Indian innovation coming into its own.”
Quality and innovation will be a core topic for the industry. Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance’s secretary general Sudarshan Jain summed up the main themes as innovation, quality, expanding global reach to Japan, China & Latin America, and self-reliance. “A focus on quality and in particular USFDA requirements will also dominate the agenda for 2023,” Shetty added.
Additionally, acceleration in digital transformation, e-pharmacies, telemedicine and a focus on preventive care will also be important. Further, deal activity will be lively in the sector, with a spate of mergers & acquisitions expected in active pharmaceutical ingredients (raw materials), formulations and health-tech.

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Protesters in Victoria gathered as part of a nationwide rally to oppose the federal purchase of 88 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets.

The procurement, announced in a statement in March of last year, was planned after Lockheed Martin’s proposal was chosen from what the Canadian government called a “multi-step assessment process.”

With the aircraft slated to change hands as early as 2025, protesters are hoping to sway the minds of legislators with petitions, open letters and rallies.

Cory Greenless, who works with the Victoria Peace Coalition said the goals of the rally, which was held Jan. 7, were to raise awareness and educate the public about the planes, plans and possible consequences of buying the F-35 jets.

“These are aggressive war planes, they really can’t be considered defensive weapons,” Greenless said. “They have the capability of carrying nuclear bombs and the emissions are enormous, so at this time in the climate emergency, it seems so fool-hardy to be spending what has been estimated to be $77 billion for these new jets over their lifetime.”

Despite the $19 billion the Canadian government has earmarked for the planes, Greenless and the Victoria Peace Coalition believe costs associated with their upkeep will be much higher – to the tune of $77 billion. They cited repair and maintenance as “lifetime costs” for the planes, which Greenless said will beef up the overall price.

The cost, carbon emissions and capabilities of the aircraft are among her top concerns but she also said there are a number of humanitarian issues that would benefit from the funding allocated for the fighter jets and emphasized that carbon emissions from their use won’t help in the climate emergency or aid in the transition from a carbon-based economy.

“The drug crisis has taken an enormous toll, the pandemic itself, the whole housing issue, there are so many other things this money could be used for – to help refugees, to help students, to help artists, I mean all of the human needs that we have that deserve being taken care of,” Greenless said.

With concurrent protests organized as far as Halifax, this movement is far-reaching across Canada, all in the hope that voicing concerns could stall or end the purchase of the Lockheed Martin F-35 jets.

“I feel very strongly that this is a wrong decision by the government, a very dangerous decision and such a poor use of public money,” she said. “From a money point-of-view, from a weapons point-of-view, from a climate point-of-view, this is just the wrong path for Canada to go down.”

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Protesters from the Victoria Peace Coalition gathered Saturday (Jan. 7) on the corner of Government Street and Humboldt Street to protest against the federal purchase of 88 fighter jets. (Hollie Ferguson/News Staff)