FDA warns Guidant on cardiac unit
In another blow to troubled Guidant Corp., the Food and Drug Administration has warned the medical device maker that it has failed to resolve all of the problems the agency found earlier this year during an inspection at the company’s cardiac unit in St. Paul, Minn.
The Indianapolis-based company said Tuesday it received the FDA’s warning letter Dec. 23, about three months after it replied to a report by the agency on manufacturing and record-keeping problems it found during an August inspection of its St. Paul operations.
Guidant’s announcement of the letter came four days after the company said it would adjust fourth-quarter revenue estimates to well below Wall Street expectations as it tries to regain consumer confidence after months of product recalls and safety warnings. It also comes as Boston Scientific Corp. duels with Johnson & Johnson to pay more than $20 billion for the company.
The FDA’s letter states that it will not approve for sale certain Guidant devices made at its St. Paul operations until the problems are corrected. It also said it will not approve new requests for certificates that are needed before Guidant can market overseas devices made at the plant.
NYSE seat sells for record $3.75 million
New York
The New York Stock Exchange said Tuesday that a membership seat sold for $3.75 million, up $50,000 from the last sale Friday.
Seats on the 213-year-old stock exchange confer both trading rights and ownership.
In a press release Tuesday, the Big Board said the market for seats is now at a bid of $3.73 million and an offer of $3.8 million.
The latest sale comes about three weeks after the NYSE’s 1,366 members voted to approve the exchange’s acquisition of Archipelago Holdings Inc.
In the beginning of December, seat prices hit $4 million, well above the $1 million price tag for a seat in January. The Archipelago deal was first announced in April and is expected to close early next year.
Weyerhaeuser to take $25 million charge
Federal Way, Wash. Weyerhaeuser Co. said Tuesday it will take an after-tax charge of $25 million to settle legal actions relating to a 1999 antitrust allegation.
The litigation stems from antitrust lawsuits filed six years ago in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania that alleged that Weyerhaeuser and other companies conspired to fix or manipulate the price of linerboard. The lawsuits said that, in turn, affected the price of corrugated sheets and containers that are made from linerboard.
Weyerhaeuser settled the class action portion of two civil antitrust lawsuits in 2003, but some customers decided to opt out of the settlements and pursue separate litigation in the same federal court.