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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Briefcase

KHQ, DISH agree on new contract

Spokane’s NBC TV affiliate signed a last-minute contract renewal this week with DISH Network, preventing a possible signal blackout during Sunday’s Super Bowl.

NBC is the TV network carrying the championship game this year. DISH Network signs retransmission contracts with local TV affiliates – in this case, KHQ.

A prolonged contract stalemate could have meant KHQ withdrawing its signal from DISH, which had more than 100,000 subscribers in the Spokane TV market as of December 2010.

KHQ was asking for an increase in the payments it gets from DISH. Terms of the renewal are confidential. KHQ General Manager Patricia McRae described the agreement as “a good and very fair deal” for both parties.

KHQ is owned by Cowles Co., which owns The Spokesman-Review.

Tom Sowa

Pfizer issues recall of birth control pills

A manufacturing mix-up by Pfizer Inc., the world’s largest drugmaker, led to some packets of birth control pills being distributed with the pills out of order. That means a patient could have unknowingly skipped a dose and raised the risk of an accidental pregnancy.

Pfizer has recalled about 1 million packets of Lo/Ovral-28 and its generic equivalent, but the company estimates that only about 30 packets were flawed. The pills were made and shipped last year.

Company spokeswoman Kristen Neese said the drugmaker learned about the problem when a customer called late last year to report finding a pink placebo tablet in the middle of her white birth control pills. The company found a manufacturing problem and fixed it immediately.

It issued a nationwide recall in late December asking pharmacies to pull the affected lots from their shelves. It then announced the recall Tuesday to consumers and the media after a request by the Food and Drug Administration.

The recall includes 14 lots of Lo/Ovral-28 tablets and 14 lots of the generic version. Both products are manufactured by Pfizer and sold in the U.S. by Akrimax Rx Products. A lot is a product batch or production run, made at one time and place and can include tens of thousands of individual packages, each with the same identification code for tracking.

Pfizer said the packets are pink with the drug’s brand name or generic name on it, along with the Akrimax name. Pfizer’s logo does not appear on it.

The affected packets have expiration dates ranging between July 31, 2013, and March 31, 2014.

Associated Press