Business News in Brief

IN THE REGION

Judge OKs Risperdal settlement

A Texas judge on Tuesday approved the first agreement in which Johnson & Johnson will pay to settle allegations that it illegally promoted its antipsychotic drug Risperdal through a state Medicaid program. The $158 million will be shared by the state of Texas (40 percent), the federal government (31 percent), whistleblower Allen Jones and his attorneys (13 and 16 percent, respectively). Jones, who uncovered the issue while working for the State of Pennsylvania, said he was pleased with the resolution. J&J, which has cases pending in other states, said in a statement: "This settlement represents a resolution to claims brought by the state in 2004 for alleged Medicaid overpayment during the years 1994-2008, and will circumvent potentially lengthy and costly appellate activities." - David Sell

Ark. wants J&J fined over drug

A lawyer for the State of Arkansas told jurors Tuesday in the first day of a trial that a subsidiary of pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson improperly marketed an anti-psychotic drug and lied to doctors for years about the risk of side effects. Arkansas wants Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. fined for each of the 250,000 Risperdal prescriptions issued to the state's Medicaid patients from November 2002 through June 2006. Janssen's attorney told jurors the company did not deceive doctors or release inaccurate information. . ?- David Sell

BP to lease acres near Marcellus Shale

The BP gas and fuel company says it has agreed to lease 84,000 acres of land in northeast Ohio for future oil and gas production. The land is in the Utica/Point Pleasant shale formation and lies below the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania, where oil companies have drilled thousands of wells in search of natural gas and, more recently, oil. BP signed the deal with the Associated Landowners of the Ohio Valley, which represents area mineral owners. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed. The shale, at a depth of about 6,000 feet, is estimated to have a potential to recover between 1.3 and 5.5 billion barrels of oil, BP said. Currently, BP actively drills across Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas. . - AP

$500,000 order for Met-Pro

Met-Pro Corp., based in Harleysville, Pa., announced Tuesday that the company's Environmental Air Solutions unit has received an order of approximately $500,000 to supply three Duall brand air pollution-control systems for a metals anodizing operation located in the Eastern U.S. The systems include Duall exhaust fans, ducting and packed bed scrubbers to reduce acid mist emissions. The packed bed scrubbers use Sethco recirculation pumps from the company's business unit. Met-Pro is a global provider of product recovery, pollution control, fluid handling and filtration solutions.. - Inquirer staff

ELSEWHERE

IPO expected for Michaels Stores

Michaels Stores, the arts and crafts retailer owned by the Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, plans to file to go public as soon as next week, according to people briefed on the matter. The initial public offering could be one of the biggest of the year. Blackstone and Bain have hired JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs to lead the company's initial public offering, said the sources. The timing of the stock sale has not yet been determined. Aside from Facebook, Michaels would be one of the most anticipated public offerings this year. Private equity firms look to sell their holdings to generate realized gains for themselves and their partners. . - N.Y. Times News Service

U.S. seeks to open up airwaves

The federal government wants to alleviate data congestion on smartphones and other mobile devices by asking the Defense Department, NASA and other agencies to switch to new locations on the airwaves or share their existing frequencies with commercial networks. The Commerce Department said Tuesday it has identified a band 95 megahertz wide that could be auctioned to wireless companies. That's enough to support at least two new national wireless data networks. The block is particularly desirable because it is near frequencies already available to cellphone companies. Freeing up the airwaves won't be easy, however. The military uses parts of that block for training and missile-guidance systems. Law enforcement agencies need it for video surveillance, and NASA and the Pentagon use it to operate unmanned aircraft. - AP

Earnings dip for Walgreen

Walgreen Co.'s fiscal second-quarter earnings fell almost 8 percent, knocked down largely by its exit from the Express Scripts pharmacy network, but the drugstore operator still topped analyst expectations, and its shares outperformed broader market indexes Tuesday. The nation's largest drugstore chain said its split with Express Scripts, a St. Louis-based pharmacy benefits manager, hurt results by about 7 cents per share in the quarter that ended Feb. 29. Express Scripts paid Walgreen to fill prescriptions, but the companies let a contract between them expire after months of talks failed to produce a new deal. Walgreen's net income dropped to $683 million, or 78 cents per share, in the three months that ended Feb. 29. That compares to $739 million, or 80 cents per share, a year ago. Revenue climbed less than 1 percent to $18.65 billion from $18.5 billion a year earlier. . - AP

Airline seeks to break union contracts

American Airlines is asking a bankruptcy judge to break its union contracts and impose cost-cutting terms on workers. American said it filed the request Tuesday in U.S. bankruptcy court in New York. The airline is making good on a threat last week to seek to throw out the labor contracts, if it couldn't negotiate concessions from unions for pilots, flight attendants and ground workers. American plans to cut 13,000 jobs and reduce wages to emerge from bankruptcy with lower costs. The company says its annual labor costs are hundreds of millions of dollars higher than those at rivals such as United Airlines and Delta Air Lines. CEO Thomas W. Horton said Tuesday the company was trying to speed the bankruptcy reorganization and avoid the chance American could be sold or broken up. - AP

Consumers focus on the positive

Americans are holding onto a rosier view of the U.S. economy as they focus on the good in a flood of mixed economic news. Gas prices are up, but the stock market is, too. Home prices are down, but so is unemployment. "The resilience suggests that jobs remain a more important concern for consumers than gasoline prices," said Mark Vitner, an economist at Wells Fargo Securities. Gas prices have risen almost every day this month, yet the Consumer Confidence Index for March held nearly steady at 70.2, according to the New York-based private research group The Conference Board. February's reading, revised upward to 71.6, was the highest it's been in a year. Consumer confidence is widely watched because consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of economic activity. Confidence has been fragile since the U.S. recession began in 2007. The measure is still significantly below the 90 reading that indicates a healthy economy - a level the index has not been near since the recession began in December 2007. But the current reading is a long climb from the 40 figure it hit last October. - AP