Medical marijuana pioneer launches new firm, Amazon takes the crown, and more top news

The news Canadian professionals are talking about now, curated by LinkedIn’s editors. Join the conversation by clicking the hashtags below.

The former head of CanniMed Therapeutics — Canada’s first licensed producer to grow and sell medical marijuana nearly two decades ago — has a new cannabis company. Brent Zettl’s Zyus Life Sciences intends to be licensed in Canada to buy cannabis from other growers and extract from the plant to make infused oils, capsules and topical creams for medical use.  Zyus wants to create a suite of cannabis products that would fall under Health Canada’s classification as a medical drug. The Saskatoon-based company raised $25 million in October. ? Here’s what people are saying.

For the first time in its history, Amazon has been crowned most valuable company in the U.S. After weeks of jockeying between tech titans, the e-retailer's share price rose 3.4% to close at $1,629.51 on Monday, giving it a market cap of around $795 billion. While Microsoft [LinkedIn's parent] finished 2018 as the most valuable business — supplanting Apple, which briefly surpassed a $1 trillion valuation — Amazon shares have surged 8.5% over the last week. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Also: The annual CES consumer electronics bonanza kicks off in Las Vegas today. Among the announcements so far: LG's roll-up TV will go on sale this year and MasterCard is dropping its name from the company's logo. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly is buying Loxo Oncology for USD$8 billion, in the second cancer drug-related acquisition in as many weeks; Bristol-Myers Squibb recently announced it’s buying Celgene for roughly $74 billion. Lilly is paying $235 per Loxo share — a 68% premium on its Friday closing price, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deal gives Lilly an arsenal of medicines that treat cancers caused by genetic mutations. ? Here’s what people are saying.

America’s biggest supermarket chain, Kroger, is testing so-called smart shelves that can guide shoppers to items on their list and employees to orders that have been made online. The cloud-based system, developed with Microsoft (LinkedIn's parent company), also displays ads and prices that have been tailored to individual customers — and aims to compete with Amazon’s foray into food shopping. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Tesla has "broken ground" with its first factory outside of the U.S., in Shanghai. The electric car maker expects to "produce approximately 3,000 Model 3 vehicles per week," bringing production up to 500,000 a year once the Gigafactory is fully operational. CEO Elon Musk has previously said the Chinese market is “critical” for his business; producing the cars locally will reduce tariff and transportation costs. ? Here’s what people are saying.

Idea of the Day: Modernizing clinical trials in medicine requires changing mindsets — a lesson that can apply to all sectors — says Takeda’s chief medical and scientific officer, Dr. Andrew Plump.

“The challenge that we're facing isn't the technology, the technology is there, it's changing standards of practice and ways of working it. It all comes down to culture.”

What's your take on today’s stories? Share your thoughts in the comments.  

— Carmel Melouney and Jessica Hartogs