Coca-Cola settles benzene case

The Coca-Cola Co. has agreed to offer replacements to people who purchased two soft drinks to settle lawsuits over ingredients that can form cancer-causing benzene, the plaintiffs said Monday.

As part of the settlement in the cases in New Jersey, Kansas and Florida, the world’s largest beverage maker agreed to offer replacement drinks to anyone who purchased Fanta Pineapple or Vault Zero before September 2006, according to a copy of the agreement.

Coca-Cola previously decided to voluntarily reformulate the two beverages in question, said Ray Crockett, a spokesman for the soft drink maker.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss their claims against Coca-Cola, Crockett said. Other soft-drink makers, including Purchase, N.Y.-based PepsiCo Inc., remain defendants in related lawsuits.

•The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider a patent dispute between biotech drug maker Amgen Inc. and two other companies involving Amgen’s blockbuster anemia drug Epogen.

Despite passing on this case, justices have shown a heightened interest in patent law recently, taking up a half-dozen cases in the past two years and issuing two high-profile decisions in April.

Amgen initiated the dispute in 1997 when it accused Aventis Pharmaceuticals Inc., a unit of Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis SA, and Shire Human Genetic Therapies Inc., a division of British drug developer Shire PLC, of infringing its patents on Epogen. Aventis was previously known as Hoechst Marion Roussel Corp.

A federal district court largely agreed with Amgen’s claims, but the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued a mixed decision last year, ruling that two of Amgen’s patents were valid while reversing the lower court’s findings on two others.

•A bankruptcy judge on Monday sealed a report that was expected to shed light on Northwest Airlines Corp.’s efforts to market itself to potential buyers.

The bankruptcy judge overseeing Northwest’s case had appointed examiner Richard Nevins to look into whether Northwest properly evaluated the value of its assets.

Nevins wrote in a court filing on Monday that he planned to file the report publicly, but that Northwest wants it sealed “as they believe the Report contains highly sensitive business information.”

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Allan Gropper in New York sealed the report but ordered Northwest to designate which parts disclose confidential information so the examiner can file a redacted version.