BUSINESS BRIEFS
Doctors leery of cholesterol drugs Vytorin, Zetia
Associated Press
CHICAGO — Leading doctors urged a return to older, tried-and-true treatments for high cholesterol after hearing full results yesterday of a failed trial of Vytorin.
Millions of Americans already take the drug or one of its components, Zetia. But doctors were stunned to learn that Vytorin failed to improve heart disease even though it worked as intended to reduce three key risk factors.
"People need to turn back to statins," said Yale University cardiologist Dr. Harlan Krum-holz, referring to Lipitor, Crestor and other widely used brands. "We know that statins are good drugs. We know that they reduce risks."
The study was closely watched because Zetia and Vytorin have racked up $5 billion in sales despite limited proof of benefit. Two congressional panels launched probes into why it took drugmakers nearly two years after the study's completion to release results.
Results were presented at an American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago yesterday and published on the Internet by the New England Journal of Medicine.
LEHMAN SUING TO RECOUP $350M
TOKYO — Lehman Brothers is accusing a Japanese trading company of perpetrating a massive fraud and plans to sue it for hundreds of millions of dollars, officials at the U.S. investment bank said yesterday.
Lehman is seeking to recoup $350 million in outstanding loans, which it provided to a unit of LTT Bio-Pharma, according to company officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the case.
The subsidiary, a medical consulting company, filed for bankruptcy March 19, leaving investors stuck with millions in outstanding loans.
Matthew Russell, a senior spokesman for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said that Japanese trading giant Marubeni Corp. secured the loans and should repay them. The company's Japanese unit, Lehman Brothers Japan Inc., will file a civil suit as early as today at the Tokyo District Court, Russell said.
YAHOO LAUNCHING SITE FOR WOMEN
NEW YORK — Yahoo Inc. is launching a new site for women between ages 25 and 54, calling it a key demographic underserved by current Yahoo properties.
Today's launch of Shine is aimed largely at giving the struggling Internet company additional opportunities to sell advertising targeted to the key decision-maker in many households. Yahoo said advertisers in consumer-packaged goods, retail and pharmaceuticals have requested more ways to reach those consumers.
Yahoo is entering a market already served by Glam Media Inc. and iVillage, a unit of General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal. It is Yahoo's first site aimed at a single demographic.
MAJOR ACTORS UNIONS SPLIT
HOLLYWOOD — Heightening fears of an actors strike this summer, one of Hollywood's two major performers unions voted late Saturday to break off its 27-year joint bargaining pact with its sister, the Screen Actors Guild, leaving each to negotiate separate new contracts with the major studios.
The 11th-hour move by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is the latest thunderclap in Hollywood's winter of discontent, which has seen the television industry upended by a 100-day strike by screenwriters.
It injects a new element of uncertainty in the television and movie industry by raising the possibility of an actors walkout this summer, just as some shows are returning to the air after a three-month absence and the movie industry is trying to get back on its feet.
The Screen Actors Guild has about 120,000 members and AFTRA has 70,000, including actors, singers and other types of performers. The two rosters include about 40,000 people who belong to both unions, entertainment attorney Jonathan Handel said.
