The Food and Drug Administration has rejected three weight loss pills in the last two years, including Vivus‘ pill Qnexa, due to safety concerns. Experts agree new weight loss drugs are needed to treat an estimated 75 million obese adults in the U.S., but the string of rejections has raised questions of whether any pharmaceutical treatment is safe enough to win approval.
At a public meeting Wednesday, an FDA panel of outside physicians voted 20-2 in favor of the weight loss drug from Vivus, setting the stage for a potential comeback for a drug that has been plagued by safety questions since it was first submitted to the agency in 2010.
Nearly all the panelists backed the drug due to its impressive weight loss results, with most patients losing nearly 10 percent of their overall weight after a year on the drug. But the group stressed that the drugmaker must be required to conduct a large, follow-up study of the pill’s effects on the heart. Studies of Qnexa show it raises heart rate and causes heart palpitations, a longtime concern with diet pills over the years. The group of experts said it is still unclear if those side effects lead to heart attack and more serious cardiovascular problems.
“The potential benefits of this medication seem to trump the side effects, but in truth, only time will tell,” said Dr. Kenneth Burman of the Washington Hospital Center.
The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its panels, though it
]]>Whitman described a company in transition Thursday, but she identified goals, which include improving internal procedures and reducing costs to free up money for investments in growing areas. She said HP sees opportunities in security services, information management and Internet-based systems known as cloud computing.
HP’s sales to consumers fared the worst in the latest period, dipping 23 percent worldwide from a year earlier. HP is the world’s largest maker of PCs, but it’s been performing poorly as buyers in the developed world turn their attention to Apple’s iPads and Macs. Meanwhile, the company has been unable to properly capitalize on the growing appetite for PCs in emerging markets.
Whitman said HP also had to battle cautious spending by some business customers in the U.S. Worldwide, revenue in the company’s commercial businesses fell 4 percent.
The company said it remained guarded about prospects in Europe, although some of the markets elsewhere in the world appear to be stabilizing.
Net income was $1.47 billion, or 73 cents per share, in the three months that ended Jan. 31. A year earlier, it was $2.6 billion, or $1.17 a share. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned 92 cents per share, above the 87 cents expected by analysts surveyed by FactSet.
Revenue was $30 billion, down from $32.3 billion and slightly below expectations of $30.7 billion.
The revenue drop was even steeper, 8 percent, when taking out the effect of changes in currency exchange rates. It was the fastest revenue decline for the company since the recession hit 2009 results.
HP blamed flooding in Thailand for more than half of its
]]>American said two weeks ago that it planned to cut 500 flight attendants because it’s flying less than it did a year ago.
The company and the Association of Professional Flight Attendants said Wednesday that the furloughs won’t be needed because so many workers signed up for job-sharing and voluntary leave.
The union called it “tremendous news for all of our members.”
The good news is temporary, however. The furloughs were to be on top of 13,000 jobs that American still wants to eliminate under a bankruptcy reorganization plan.
American and parent AMR Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection in November. CEO Thomas Horton has said the airline will shrink modestly while it reorganizes. Passenger-carrying capacity was down 2.1 percent in January compared with January 2011, with most of the reduction on routes within the U.S.
Company spokeswoman Missy Cousino said that with some flight attendants volunteering to share jobs or take leaves, American officials “hope to have the appropriate staffing levels to manage the current schedule and avoid furloughing flight attendants on April 1.”
American has said it will increase flying by 20 percent at its five U.S. hubs over the next five years after emerging from bankruptcy protection with lower costs.
]]>Speaking ahead of a Group of 20 meeting in Mexico, Treasury’s under secretary for international affairs, Lael Brainard, said Europe’s debt remains the most serious threat to global growth and specified Europe must do more before more aid from the International Monetary Fund is discussed.
Her remarks came just a day after euro zone finance ministers approved a $172.13 billion (130 billion euro) bailout package for Greece after lengthy negotiations.
Brainard praised “very significant commitments in recent days” made by Greece and its lenders and said that, if met, they will reduce Greek debt loads to levels that officials expect will avert default.
“When you put these things together, they suggest that the path forward for Greece, if it is able to deliver on the commitments, will be a sustainable path,” Brainard said. Greece agreed to punishing spending cuts to secure a second bailout, which has led to mass protests but wards off a default that could have come as early as next month.
Brainard cited several signs of progress.
“Europe has made important strides over past days and
]]>Despite stronger employment data and hints of firmer inflation, Federal Reserve policymakers are not ruling out another round of monetary easing in the months ahead.
That’s because many of them see plenty of risks that could derail the tepid pace of recovery that officials are projecting for this year and next.
A worsening of Europe’s banking crisis and geopolitical tensions in the Middle East are two of the most obvious risks. But there are also domestic problems, including weak consumer demand and a job market that remains a shadow of its prerecession self.
A rapid decline in the jobless rate in recent months, to a three-year low of 8.3 percent in January from 9.1 percent in August, has surprised economists within and outside the Fed given the broader economy’s relatively soft performance.
U.S. gross domestic product grew just 1.7 percent in 2011.
“We are seeing the unemployment rate doing something very different than we are seeing in the other indicators,” John Williams, the San Francisco Fed president, told reporters earlier this month.
The Fed’s forecasting record hasn’t
]]>The president’s plan to lower the corporate tax rate to 28 percent came on the same day Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney called for a 20 percent across-the-board cut in personal income tax rates, underscoring the potency of taxes as a political issue, especially during a modest economic recovery.
Obama has not laid out a plan for overhauling personal income taxes. But he has called for Bush era tax cuts to end on individuals making more than $200,000, thus increasing their taxes, and for a 30 percent minimum tax on taxpayers who make $1 million or more.
Obama decried the current corporate tax system as outdated, unfair and inefficient. “It’s not right and it needs to change,” he said in a statement.
The president would reduce the current 35 percent corporate tax, which is the highest in the world after Japan but which many corporations avoid by taking advantage of deductions, credits and exemptions. Under his plan, manufacturers would receive incentives so that they would pay an even lower effective tax rate of 25 percent.
His plan would eliminate corporate tax benefits like oil and gas industry subsidies and special breaks for the purchase of private jets — two provisions that Obama has long targeted — and do away with certain corporate tax shelters.
In addition, Obama also would impose a minimum tax on foreign earnings, a move opposed by multinational corporations and perhaps the most contentious provision in the president’s plan.
“It’s a framework that
]]>GREEK WEEK: Some investors worried about the details of a debt deal reached for Greece this week. Mostly, analysts said, investors were in a holding pattern after seeing the market hit an important psychological mark.
NARROW-MINDED: The Dow traded in a range of just 63 points on lighter-than-average volume. Over the past year, it has had smaller trading ranges on only nine other days. The average daily range over that time has been 181 points.
]]>Here are details about Iranian oil.
— OIL PRODUCTION: Nearly 4 million barrels per day, or 4 percent of the world’s production.
— BIGGEST BUYERS: China, Japan, India, Italy, South Korea.
— IMPACT: Since tensions with Iran began escalating in November, benchmark oil prices have risen 11 percent.
]]>France has been locked in a mobile price war since mid-January, when Iliad launched its ultra low-cost mobile offers, leading France Telecom to lose 201,000 customers to date.
In addition, borrowing has become more expensive, especially after France lost its prized top credit rating, and the economic outlook is darker than a year ago, Chief Executive Stephane Richard told Reuters in an interview.
“The priority is to secure cash, especially since the European debt markets have been basically closed for the past six months,” said Richard.
As a result, Richard predicted a “calm” year on the acquisition front, a shift from recent years when the company spent to expand in high-growth Middle Eastern and African markets.
“The economic and competitive environment does not lend itself to major transactions,” he added.
The new focus on hoarding cash also means France Telecom will not buy back shares in 2012 as it had promised investors it would after selling its Swiss unit to a private equity fund for $1.5 billion in December.
]]>
U.S. banks were the SP 500′s worst performing sector. Investors feared that weak euro zone growth would hamper countries dealing with heavy debt loads and the banks exposed to those debts.
“We’re very concerned around the markedly deteriorating credit fundamentals in Europe,” said Steven Baffico, chief executive officer at Four Wood Capital Partners in New York.
Data showing weakness in the euro zone services and manufacturing sectors overshadowed the day-old deal to bail out Greece.
After touching a near 7-month high on Tuesday, the KBW bank index fell 2 percent. A key European bank index declined 2.5 percent.
The SP 500 index failed again to hold above 1,360, the high reached last May and a key resistance point that could spark further gains if broken. The benchmark index is up about 8 percent for the year and gained more than 20 percent from its October lows.
The Dow Jones industrial average lost 27.02 points, or 0.21 percent, to 12,938.67. The SP 500 Index dropped 4.55 points, or 0.33 percent, to 1,357.66. The Nasdaq Composite fell 15.40 points, or 0.52 percent, to
]]>