Wednesday’s business headlines

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Jane King is in with the latest business headlines.

Eli Lilly

Eli Lilly and Astrazeneca dropped two late-stage trials of an experimental Alzheimer’s drugs they were co-developing. 

The companies said the treatment wasn’t working as well as they had hoped and that ending the trials wasn’t a result of any safety conerns.

An Astrazenecas spokesman said the two will continue to jointly pursue an early-stage trial of another experimental Alzheimer’s drug. Lilly separately has other Alzheimer’s compounds in clinical trials, according to a company spokeswoman.

Interest rates

The era of easy money is over.

The Federal Reserve is poised to raise interest rates Wednesday for the second time this year.

The hike will hit short-term loans first, like credit cars and car loans.

AT&T merger

AT&T won approval to buy time Warner in an $85 billion deal.

The Department of Justice had argued it would hurt competition.

The judge didn’t agree as consumers have lots of options for media now with streaming companies.

Tesla

Tesla is laying off nine percent of its workforce in what CEO Elon Musk calls a difficult, but necessary move.

The layoffs will “almost entirely” affect salaried employees and no production employees are included as the Silicon Valley car maker focuses on increasing Model 3 production.