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| New Boeing jets hold key to more than half of future sales Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 09:05 PM PDT  By Alwyn Scott SEATTLE (Reuters) - Boeing Co said it expects to finish flight testing its stretched 787-9 Dreamliner in the next two months and deliver it around mid-year, one of six new jets the world's biggest plane-maker aims to get into service by the end of the decade. Boeing will start fabricating parts for its 737MAX jetliner this year, keeping that new development program on course for final assembly to start by mid-2015 and service entry in 2017, company officials said in media briefings made public late on Wednesday. The three jets are part of a major overhaul of Boeing's product lines that is "harvesting" technology and lessons from the its original high-tech 787 Dreamliner and adding efficient new engines to make 737 and 777 models that burn less fuel, fly more easily and provide passengers with more comfort. "What we have in work today really is the future of Boeing Commercial Airplanes," he said. Full Story | Top |
| Toronto mayor Ford to 'get help' as new video surfaces: reports Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 07:23 PM PDT  Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, who gained global notoriety after admitting to smoking crack cocaine, will take a break to deal with substance abuse issues, his lawyer told Canadian media, as one newspaper reported a new video showed him using what appears to be drugs. The Globe and Mail newspaper said on Wednesday that two of its reporters had seen a new video of Ford taking a drag from a long copper-colored pipe. The story, citing a self-professed drug dealer, said the video was secretly filmed early Saturday morning. Ford's office and lawyer could not immediately be reached to comment on the report. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. resists pressure to give India worst offender rating in IP review Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 06:07 PM PDT  By Krista Hughes WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has resisted lobbying by U.S. businesses to take tougher trade action against India for its intellectual property policies, deciding against risking ties with a likely new government in New Delhi. The U.S. Trade Representative avoided labeling India with the worst offender tag in its annual scorecard on protecting U.S. patents, copyrights and other intellectual property (IP) rights. Instead, the United States kept India, which is in the midst of elections, on its Priority Watch List along with China and eight other countries. It would start a special review of India in the fall and "redouble" efforts to address concerns with the new government, the U.S. Trade Representative said. Full Story | Top |
| Botched Oklahoma execution comes as alternatives emerge from shadows Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 04:50 PM PDT  By Jon Herskovitz AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Firing squads, electric chairs and other methods of execution seen as cruel or antiquated could be getting a fresh look after Oklahoma botched a lethal injection, leaving the condemned inmate withering in apparent pain on its death chamber gurney. Lawmakers in several states this year have put forward legislation to revise alternative methods of capital punishment in the face of a shortage of drugs once used for executions as well as legal challenges to new lethal "cocktails." Oklahoma was among those states, and it had faced lawsuits to stop the execution of convicted rapist and murderer Clayton Lockett, who died on Tuesday night of an apparent heart attack minutes after a medical official on the scene called a halt to the botched process, saying something had gone wrong with the lethal injection. "As long as there are problems with lethal injection, and there have been and there will be, there will always be legislators determined to kill people with some other method," said Rick Halperin, director of the Embrey Human Rights Program at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Merck explores $15 billion-plus drug portfolio sale Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 03:50 PM PDT  By Soyoung Kim, Olivia Oran and Sophie Sassard NEW YORK/LONDON (Reuters) - Merck & Co Inc is considering selling a big portfolio of mature drugs that could fetch more than $15 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the U.S. drugmaker continues to streamline businesses to focus on high-growth areas. Merck, which is also in the process of selling its $14 billion consumer healthcare unit, is working with an investment bank on the potential sale of the off-patent drugs, which could draw interest from generic drugmakers, the people said. Merck's off-patent drugs are called "diversified brands" and many are sold in emerging markets. The sale processes underscore efforts by large drugmakers to shed smaller divisions they view as non-core so they can better focus on their mainstay products. Full Story | Top |
| UK lawmakers plan to probe Pfizer pursuit of AstraZeneca Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 03:34 PM PDT  By Kylie MacLellan and Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - British lawmakers intend to investigate U.S. drugmaker Pfizer's planned $100 billion takeover of British rival AstraZeneca in a bid to ensure scientific research and jobs are protected. "We will see how events pan out over the next few days, but clearly given the scale of the proposed merger it is important that we consider the impact not just on shareholders but also on employees and the wider interests of the UK." AstraZeneca, Britain's second-biggest drugmaker behind GlaxoSmithKline, is an important part of the life sciences sector and employs nearly 7,000 staff in the country. The committee's chairman Andrew Bailey said it would be looking to hold an inquiry "pretty quickly", and those called to give evidence were likely to include ministers such as Business Secretary Vince Cable and representatives from the Treasury. "In AstraZeneca we have a company that amounts to 2.3 percent of our total exports, is a world leader in research in pharmaceuticals and is very strategically positioned in this country." Committee member Katy Clark said Pfizer's management would also probably be among those called to any inquiry. Full Story | Top |
| MPs plan to probe Pfizer pursuit of AstraZeneca Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 03:33 PM PDT  By Kylie MacLellan and Ben Hirschler LONDON (Reuters) - MPs intend to investigate U.S. drugmaker Pfizer's planned $100 billion (59.2 billion pounds) takeover of British rival AstraZeneca in a bid to ensure scientific research and jobs are protected. "We will see how events pan out over the next few days, but clearly given the scale of the proposed merger it is important that we consider the impact not just on shareholders but also on employees and the wider interests of the UK." AstraZeneca, Britain's second-biggest drugmaker behind GlaxoSmithKline, is an important part of the life sciences sector and employs nearly 7,000 staff in the country. The committee's chairman Andrew Bailey said it would be looking to hold an inquiry "pretty quickly", and those called to give evidence were likely to include ministers such as Business Secretary Vince Cable and representatives from the Treasury. "In AstraZeneca we have a company that amounts to 2.3 percent of our total exports, is a world leader in research in pharmaceuticals and is very strategically positioned in this country." Committee member Katy Clark said Pfizer's management would also probably be among those called to any inquiry. Full Story | Top |
| Scientists urge government to save Britain's pharma industry Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 03:17 PM PDT  By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Leading British scientists called on the government on Wednesday to act now to save the nation's pharmaceutical industry from being swallowed up in a wave of consolidation driven by overseas rivals. In a statement prompted by a planned $100 billion (59.26 billion pounds) takeover of Britain's AstraZeneca by rival U.S. drugmaker Pfizer, leaders in pharmacology, biology, chemistry and biochemistry said the entire UK life sciences sector risked losing its lead. "The UK has been a world leader in medicines research and development, but recent closures and restructuring put this position under threat," they said. AstraZeneca, Britain's second-biggest drugmaker behind GlaxoSmithKline, is an important part of the sector and employs nearly 7,000 staff in the country. Full Story | Top |
| Obamacare puts a floor under U.S. economy in first quarter Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 02:08 PM PDT  Healthcare spending increased at its fastest pace in more than three decades. That surge is attributed to the implementation of President Barack Obama's signature healthcare law, the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. "GDP growth would have ... been negative were it not for healthcare spending," said Harm Bandholz, chief economist at UniCredit Research in New York. Healthcare spending increased at a 9.9 percent annual rate, the quickest since the third quarter of 1980, and it contributed 1.1 percentage points to GDP growth. Full Story | Top |
| Republican strategy memo focuses on Obamacare, not immigration Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 01:51 PM PDT  By David Lawder WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A memo outlining the legislative agenda for Republicans in the House of Representatives lists replacement of President Barack Obama's healthcare law as a priority for the coming weeks but does not mention plans to tackle immigration reform. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor sent the memo to fellow Republicans as they returned from a two-week recess, employing a regular tool to help keep the party unified on its political message in the run-up to congressional elections in November. Republicans have put criticisms of Obama's healthcare reform law at the center of their efforts to wrest control of the Senate from Democrats and to boost their majority in the House. Cantor said House Republicans would work to "reform our healthcare system by replacing Obamacare with policies that improve patient choice, access to doctors and hospitals and lower costs." The memo also said the Republican-controlled House would pass permanent extensions of six temporary business tax breaks, including a credit for research and development activities. Full Story | Top |
| Are nail salon UV lamps a skin cancer risk? Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 01:18 PM PDT By Andrew M. Seaman NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The ultraviolet lamps used in some nail salons to dry and cure nail polish deliver the same hazardous rays as tanning beds, but it would take many manicures to actually cause damage, suggests a new study. After testing 17 different lamps in nail salons, researchers calculated that it would take between eight and 208 visits - depending on the machine - to damage skin cells in a way that raises cancer risk. "I wouldn't tell a patient to stop going unless they were going multiple times a month," lead author Dr. Lyndsay Shipp from Georgia Regents University in Augusta told Reuters Health. Exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation is a risk factor for most skin cancers, according to the American Cancer Society. Full Story | Top |
| Oklahoma examines what went wrong in botched execution Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 01:17 PM PDT By Heide Brandes OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - The autopsy of an inmate who died, apparently of a heart attack, during a botched execution was begun on Wednesday in Oklahoma, while Governor Mary Fallin called for an investigation into what went wrong in the death chamber. Convicted murderer and rapist Clayton Lockett died on Tuesday minutes after a doctor had called a halt to the procedure because of problems with the lethal injection, raising questions about new death penalty cocktails used by Oklahoma and other states. The autopsy will examine the injection sites on Lockett's arms and the toxicology of the drugs in his system that were administered in the lethal injection, according to medical examiner's spokeswoman Amy Elliott said. The governor told a news conference she had called for investigations not only into Lockett's cause of death, but into whether the Department of Corrections followed execution protocols and even the protocols themselves. Full Story | Top |
| Exclusive: Curbing tax-driven business moves abroad a priority - U.S. Treasury Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 01:15 PM PDT  The Obama administration is seeking ways to curb tax-dodging by U.S. businesses that reincorporate overseas, a U.S. Treasury official told Reuters on Wednesday, highlighting growing concern about deals known as "inversions." "Cracking down on companies that reincorporate overseas to reduce their U.S. taxes is a priority for the administration," the official said in an email responding to questions about a pending administration proposal and recent events. U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc said on Monday it has made takeover bids for UK rival AstraZeneca Plc in a possible deal to merge the two into a UK holding company with a UK tax domicile. President Barack Obama's 2015 budget, introduced in early March, includes a proposal to crack down on inversions by making them more difficult to do with higher minimum levels of foreign ownership required. Another vehicle for tightening the inversion rules as Obama proposes could be measures moving through Congress to renew dozens of unrelated temporary tax laws known as "extenders," though analysts said this was only a remote possibility. Full Story | Top |
| New treatment regenerates muscle lost in traumatic injury Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 01:10 PM PDT  By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. doctors said on Wednesday they have succeeded in coaxing the regeneration of muscle tissue lost in people who suffered traumatic injuries, including wartime bomb wounds, with a new type of treatment that uses material from a pig's bladder. Implanting the pig material at the wound site enticed the patient's own stem cells - master cells that can transform into various kinds of cells in the body - to become muscle cells and regenerate tissue that had been lost, the researchers said. The research was backed by $3 million in funding over five years from the U.S. Defense Department, said Dr. Stephen Badylak of the University of Pittsburgh, who led the study. Thousands of American troops have been left with serious physical impairments after sustaining wounds involving major loss of muscle tissue in roadside bombings and other incidents since 2001 in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Full Story | Top |
| GE's Alstom bid shows limits of French state intervention Wednesday, Apr 30, 2014 12:01 PM PDT  By Julien Ponthus and Mark John PARIS (Reuters) - General Electric's overtures to the power business of France's former industrial beacon Alstom have shown again how the French state, for all its interventionist zeal, has limited room for maneuver against big business. Citing "patriotic concern" over loss of jobs and control of a group with a history stretching back 86 years, President Francois Hollande's government leapt into action to find ways of countering the offer after news of it emerged last week. While Germany's Siemens - billed by Paris as a possible white knight - still has a month to make its intentions clear, Alstom's decision to review GE's $16.9-billion bid makes the U.S. giant the clear favorite to secure the turbine and grid assets that make up the bulk of Alstom revenues. If GE succeeds, it will mark the latest climb-down for a two-year-old government which has already ended up on the losing side of public stand-offs in the telecom and steel industries. Full Story | Top |
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