Business news in brief

A GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. unit sued Glenmark Generics Inc. alleging infringement of three U.S. patents for Malarone, a medicine used to protect against malaria. SmithKline Beecham Corp., Philadelphia, contends in a lawsuit filed Aug. 14 that Glenmark, Mahwah, N.J., intends to market copies of the drug in violation of patents awarded since 1999. Glenmark officials weren't immediately available to comment on the lawsuit. - Bloomberg News

CSL Behring said its Helixate FS, Antihemophilic Factor had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for routine prevention in children with hemophilia A who are 16 years old or younger and do not have preexisting joint damage. The King of Prussia company said the FDA had determined that Helixate FS was safe and effective at reducing the frequency of bleeding episodes and the risk of joint damage in children with hemophilia A. - Miriam Hill

Herley Industries Inc., Lancaster, said it had won a $16.6 million contract to supply radio frequency modules to the Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division in China Lake, Calif. The modules are complex microwave assemblies used in airborne threat simulators, Herley said. Herley designs, develops, and manufactures microwave technology for the defense, aerospace, and medical industries. It has seven manufacturing locations and about 1,000 employees. - Reid Kanaley

Commercial lender CIT Group Inc. said its offer to buy back outstanding debt at a discount - a crucial step to help stave off bankruptcy - was successful. The lender offered to buy $1 billion in debt that was set to mature yesterday. CIT warned that if not enough bondholders were willing to sell the debt back to the company, it would likely have to file for bankruptcy protection. The company said nearly 60 percent of the debt was tendered for purchase, barely topping the 58 percent minimum needed to complete the offer. CIT is paying $875 for every $1,000 tendered as part of the offer. CIT will pay off the remaining notes that matured yesterday but were not tendered for purchase as part of the offer. - AP

Foreign demand for long-term U.S. financial assets rebounded in June even though China and Russia trimmed their holdings. The Treasury Department said foreigners bought $90.7 billion more in long-term U.S. securities than they sold in June. That's a significant rebound from May when they sold $19.4 billion more than they purchased. "There is little evidence in recent [Treasury] reports to suggest that foreign investors are growing weary of buying U.S. securities," Jay Bryson, a global economist at Wells Fargo Securities, wrote in a note to clients. The increased appetite for Treasury securities was partly because their yields rose in early June, he added. The Treasury is auctioning record amounts of debt to cover what it estimates will be a $1.85 trillion budget deficit this year. If overseas buyers don't continue purchasing U.S. debt, some economists worry that would mean falling demand at Treasury debt auctions and rising interest rates. - AP

Credit-card lender JPMorgan Chase & Co. said defaults dropped in July for a second straight month, and some of its largest competitors reported similar declines that signaled the worst recession since the 1930s may be ending. JPMorgan's default rate fell to 7.92 percent from 8.04 percent in June, the bank said in a regulatory filing. Citigroup Inc., American Express Co., and Discover Financial Services also reported fewer soured loans. Credit-card charge-offs typically track the U.S. jobless rate, which fell last month to 9.4 percent, the first decline since the recession began in December 2007. Charge-offs reached a record 10.79 percent in June, fueled by rising unemployment and bankruptcies. - Bloomberg News

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against Charles Schwab Corp., contending the brokerage firm misled customers about the safety of auction-rate securities. The suit against Schwab is aimed at forcing the retail brokerage firm to repurchase the securities at face value from investors. Last month, Cuomo's office notified San Francisco-based Charles Schwab that it was planning to file a lawsuit. Early yesterday, Schwab released the letter it sent to Cuomo's office in response to last month's notification. In the letter, Schwab's outside counsel said the brokerage firm itself, like its customers, was misled by the underwriters of the securities. - AP

AT&T Inc. and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers have reached a tentative three-year agreement affecting 10,000 members. About 250 of the IBEW employees covered under the contracts work in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The majority - 9,000 employees - are in Illinois and northwestern Indiana, IBEW spokesman Tom Hopper said. The deal on core wireline contracts calls for wage and pension increases in all three years for most employees. The agreement also provides for continued health-insurance coverage, with some cost sharing. - AP

Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in yesterday's auction. The Treasury Department auctioned $31 billion in three-month bills at a discount rate of 0.180 percent, down from 0.185 percent last week. An additional $30 billion in six-month bills was auctioned at a discount rate of 0.270 percent, down from 0.285 percent last week. The discount rates reflect that the bills sell for less than face value. For a $10,000 bill, the three-month price was $9,995.45 while a six-month bill sold for $9,986.35. - AP

The Federal Reserve said yesterday that the average yield for one-year Treasury bills, a popular index for making changes in adjustable-rate mortgages, fell to 0.47 percent last week from 0.49 percent the previous week. - AP