Business briefs: Judge won’t toss FedEx drug indictment

SAN FRANCISCO – A judge on Thursday rejected FedEx’s attempt to toss out a federal drug indictment that accuses the company of knowingly shipping illegal prescription drugs.

U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer said the acts alleged by prosecutors do not fall under an exemption in federal drug law for transportation companies such as FedEx.

FedEx had argued that the exemption allowed it and other so-called common carriers to legally possess drugs in the normal course of its business. The Memphis, Tennessee-based shipping giant says it cannot reasonably be expected to police the millions of packages it ships each day.

Breyer, however, said FedEx is accused of engaging in a conspiracy to distribute illegal drugs, which isn’t covered by the exemption. If that behavior were covered, what would stop a drug dealer from becoming a common carrier to distribute drugs without fear of prosecution, he asked FedEx’s attorney.

Prosecutors have charged FedEx with multiple drug counts alleging it conspiring with two online pharmacies to ship powerful sleep aids, sedatives, painkillers and other drugs to customers it knew lacked valid prescriptions.

FedEx has pleaded not guilty.

Contact lens price law blocked by court

SALT LAKE CITY – A federal appeals court has halted a new Utah law banning price-fixing for contact lenses that could have wide-ranging implications for the industry.

Lens maker Alcon Laboratories cheered the order Thursday. Along with Johnson & Johnson and Bausch & Lomb, the company says the law is an unconstitutional overreach written to benefit Utah-based online discount retailer 1-800 Contacts.

The measure halted by the appeals court would allow 1-800 Contacts, one of the nation’s biggest lens suppliers, to disregard minimum prices set by the manufacturers and sell discount lenses across state lines, according to Steve DelBianco, executive director of the trade group NetChoice.

The order issued late Wednesday from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver puts the Utah law on hold as a legal challenge plays out. It reverses a lower court ruling from U.S. District Judge Dee Benson, who found the law is a legal antitrust measure and allowed it to take effect this week.

Utah’s attorney general declined to comment.

Asian tastes spur demand for geoduck

HARSTINE ISLAND, Wash. – A growing middle class in Asia is driving demand for an odd-shaped giant clam that thrives in the inland waters of the Pacific Northwest.

Last year, the U.S. exported $74 million, or about 11 million pounds, worth of live wild and farmed geoduck, mostly to China and Hong Kong. That’s double the volume and value exported in 2008.

That demand is prompting shellfish farmers to grow more of the clams along Washington’s private tidelands. Several new farms have been permitted in recent years, despite challenges from opponents concerned about potential environmental harm.

And now, backed by new research showing mostly short-lived, localized environmental effects from geoduck farming, the state is preparing for the first time to lease 15 acres of public tidelands for geoduck aquaculture.