AstraZeneca warns of higher costs as drug sales slide

By Ben Hirschler

LONDON (Reuters) - British drugmaker AstraZeneca warned on Thursday of higher costs in 2013 as it invests through a slump in sales caused by a wave of patent expiries on key medicines.

The prediction that operating costs will now increase by a low-to-mid single digit percentage rate this year amounts to an effective cut in earnings guidance, analysts at Jefferies said.

Deutsche Bank said consensus full-year earnings forecasts could fall by a couple of percent.

New Chief Executive Pascal Soriot is striving to turn around the business after a series of setbacks in research and a wave of patent expiries. He has warned that fixing Britain's second-biggest drugmaker will take several years.

Sales in the second quarter fell by a slightly greater-than-expected 6 percent to $6.23 billion, while earnings tumbled by nearly a quarter due to a higher tax rate.

There were, however, some bright spots, with lung drug Symbicort doing well in the United States and demand picking up for new heart drug Brilinta.

Shares in the company slipped 0.7 percent by 0825 GMT (4.25 a.m. ET), underperforming a wider London benchmark index that was up 0.2 percent.

Soriot has set out a strategy of revamping research, accelerating certain development projects and striking deals, both to acquire smaller biotech companies and license in promising new medicines.

He added the latest asset to the company's pipeline on Wednesday through a tie-up with U.S. biotech firm FibroGen potentially worth more than $815 million for rights to an experimental anaemia drug.

Sales were hit in the latest quarter by falling revenue from off-patent antipsychotic drug Seroquel, as well as growing competition to top-selling cholesterol fighter Crestor, which has lost patent protection in some countries and faces pricing pressure in the United States.

Sales of Crestor in Canada, for example, were down 77 percent after loss of exclusivity there in April 2012, although overall sales of Crestor at $1.48 billion held up better than some analysts had feared.

$500 MLN PATENT HIT

Overall, the revenue impact from products which have recently lost exclusivity amounted to around $500 million.

The group reiterated its expectation for a mid-to-high single digit percentage fall in revenue this year but said operating costs are now seen increasing by a low-to-mid single digit rate, whereas previously it had forecast costs would only be "slightly higher" than 2012.

Earnings are expected to decline significantly more than revenue in 2013, it said.

Pre-tax profit on a "core" basis, which excludes certain items, fell 12 percent to $1.94 billion, generating earnings per share down 23 percent at $1.20 a share, AstraZeneca said.

Analysts had, on average, forecast sales of $6.25 billion and earnings pre share of $1.20, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Demand for Brilinta - a new heart drug for which AstraZeneca has high hopes - picked up to $65 million from $51 million in the first quarter of 2012.

Emerging markets sales were up 12 percent, with nearly half of the improvement coming from a 21 percent increase in China.

China has been a strong growth market for AstraZeneca for many years, although prospects for Western drug companies in the country have been clouded by a recent high-profile bribery scandal involving GlaxoSmithKline.

AstraZeneca said on July 22 that police in Shanghai were questioning one of its sales representatives in what it believed was a local case involving one individual.

(Editing by Kate Holton and Tom Pfeiffer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/astrazeneca-drug-sales-fall-patent-expiries-second-quarter-062314338.html

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EA loses ruling over 'NCAA Football' likenesses

A group of former college football players can sue Redwood City company Electronic Arts over the use of their images in video games, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

The company can't escape litigation by seeking protection under the First Amendment, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.

The 2-1 decision upheld a federal judge's ruling in a lawsuit filed by Danville native Sam Keller, who played football at Arizona State University and the University of Nebraska from 2003 to 2007.

The court said Electronic Arts' "NCAA Football" video game uses avatars that are exact replicas of real players, down to their jersey number, build, skin tone and hair color. The game does not use the players' names.

"EA's use does not qualify for First Amendment protection as a matter of law because it literally recreates Keller in the very setting in which he has received renown," Judge Jay Bybee said in the majority opinion. "Given that 'NCAA Football' realistically portrays college football players in the context of college football games, the district court was correct in concluding that EA cannot prevail as a matter of law."

Steve Berman, an attorney for Keller, said, "We expect that when we appear before the trial court again this fall, the defendants will have a very difficult time mounting a new defense for their blatant exploitation of student-athletes."

Electronic Arts spokesman John Reseburg said the company was disappointed with the ruling and would "seek further court review."

Bybee dismissed Electronic Arts' assertions that it was protected by free speech in using publicly available biographical information about players, saying the company's case is "considerably weakened" by the fact that the games don't include players' names.

"EA can hardly be considered to be 'reporting' on Keller's career at Arizona State and Nebraska when it is not even using Keller's name," Bybee wrote.

Dissenting Judge Sidney Thomas said the ruling would jeopardize the creative use of historic figures in movies, books and sound recordings.

"Absent the use of actual footage, the motion picture 'Forrest Gump' might as well be just a box of chocolates," Thomas wrote. "Without its historical characters, 'Midnight in Paris' would be reduced to a pedestrian domestic squabble."

Source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/EA-loses-ruling-in-NCAA-Football-suit-4699346.php

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Pac-12 Media Day: USC coach Lane Kiffin staying in control of offense

USC players Hayes Pullard, Marqise Lee and Coach Lane Kiffin during Pac-12 media Day at Sony Studios July 26, 2013. (Brad Graverson/Los Angeles News Group)

USC coach Lane Kiffin said Friday he was unaware athletic director Pat Haden made a video where he announced he supported Kiffin, "100 percent."

Haden said, "I anticipate the media will ask me if our football coach is on the hot seat this year. ... he is not."

Later, Haden said, "He's a dynamic playcaller in my estimation. I firmly believe we'll bounce back strong."

Haden's video was a preemptive strike before Friday's Pac-12 media day at the Sony Pictures Studios Lot in Culver City. Haden did not attend media day because he is on vacation.

"I didn't know there was going to be a video," Kiffin said. "Obviously it's a positive, not a negative. I'm not surprised by it because I deal with Pat (and school president Max Nikias) on a daily basis."

Some noted in jest that Haden's announcement that he is 100 percent behind Kiffin is 50 percent less than last November when he said, "Lane is my head coach, 150 percent."

Kiffin to call plays

In a move that was anticipated, Kiffin said he decided to call plays this season. During spring practice, Kiffin said he would consider giving up those duties to pay more attention to the entire team.

But he decided to remain the Trojans' playcaller for the fourth straight season.

"I made a decision that it's in the best interest of our football team for me to continue to call plays," Kiffin said. "We have a unique relationship with the skilled guys, offensive guys, it's important because you're communicating with them so much and I think there's an impact in recruiting."

That means offensive coordinator Clay Helton will not call plays despite his new title. Helton was quarterbacks coach last season.

Two quarterbacks?

Kiffin said he might pick a starter in a week or a month but he also did not rule out playing two quarterbacks to start the season.

"It's not ideal," Kiffin said. "But all decisions are made in the best interest of the football team. Even though I don't like it. I'm not going to say it never happens."

Kiffin said he did not know if he would redshirt freshman Max Browne if Browne does not win the starting job.

Running is priority

One thing Kiffin did in the off season was study tapes of last year's games to determine what made USC finish with a 7-6 record.

"In critical situations, there was an inability to run the ball," Kiffin said. "That impacts the whole game. When you add that to the unbelievable amount of turnovers we had, it really hurts."

USC picked third

The Trojans were picked in the media poll to finish behind UCLA and Arizona State in the South Division. Oregon was picked to win the North Division and win the Pac-12 title game.

"It's a total difference," wide receiver Marqise Lee said of the lower expectations from a year ago, when USC was selected No. 1 in the nation. "We still have to play the games though. Last year Notre Dame started unranked but went to the championship game."

Source: http://www.dailybreeze.com/sports/ci_23741668/pac-12-media-day-usc-coach-lane-kiffin?source=rss

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Spanish unemployment drops after two year rise as business looks up

By Paul Day and Sarah White

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's unemployment rate fell for the first time in two years and some of the country's biggest firms said on Thursday business was looking up, boosting the government's claim the economy is climbing out of recession.

The dip in the jobless figures - to 26.3 percent in the second quarter from 27.2 percent in the first - nonetheless highlighted how far the country still needs to travel on the road to full recovery. Economy Minister Luis de Guindos called the size of the figures "totally unacceptable".

Spain is one of the euro zone's troubled economies, subject to a bank bail out after a housing bubble burst. But it is far stronger than others such as neighbor Portugal or Greece.

Jobs have been the main issue. The unemployment rate has risen relentlessly since 2011, with some 3.8 million people joining the jobless lines since the first quarter of 2008, the year the global financial crisis erupted and property prices collapsed.

The real estate meltdown left the country's banks heavily exposed to soured assets and loans, which have since weighed on their balance sheets and soaked up 42 billion euros ($55.59 billion) of European Union aid.

On Thursday, three banks including bailed out lender Bankia, reported bad debts were still rising. But they also posted big jumps in first-half profits, on lower writedowns on property assets and trading gains.

Telecoms firms Telefonica and oil major Repsol - two heavyweight Spanish firms with more exposure to foreign economies - also gave encouraging trading updates.

Supported by a central bank report earlier this week showing Spain's economy came close to stabilizing in the second quarter, Thursday's run of encouraging news added weight to Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's belief the economy should exit its two-year recession as soon as the current quarter.

"Even seasonally adjusted (unemployment) data is better than we expected, which is in line with the economic improvements forecast by the Bank of Spain," Angel Laborda, economist at think tank Funcas, said.

De Guindos repeated the forecast for third quarter growth on Thursday and said he was convinced the worst was over for the economy, but Rajoy had no chance to share in his economy minister's cautious optimism.

The prime minister focused on a visit to his home province of Galicia to meet survivors of a train derailment late on Wednesday that killed least 78 people on the eve of the one of the country's biggest religious festivals.

WEAKEST LINK

Madrid passed a series of austerity measures last year to tame one of the euro zone's highest public deficits.

That hobbled already depressed domestic demand, but has also taken it further than some of its peers along the path of economic reforms mandated by Brussels to get the euro zone economy back on its feet.

Spain has also won tacit agreement this year from its euro zone partners to ease off on tax hikes and spending cuts.

"The Spanish government has undertaken a bitter battle to stabilize growing unemployment, and it seems to be gaining ground," Nancy Curtin, chief investment officer of Close Brothers Asset Management, said in a written note.

"But despite positive data in recent weeks, it's evident that Spain is still struggling to balance austerity with growth."

Despite government projections, many economists believe the country's second recession in three years is unlikely to end in 2013, and joblessness remains the weakest link.

Seasonal tourism accounted for most of the drop in the latest unemployment rate, and the sector is expected to be strong this year as cash-strapped Europeans look for budget vacation spots while avoiding Egypt and other Middle Eastern troublespots.

But Spain, along with Greece, still has a far greater share of its population out of work than other euro zone states.

Around half of Spain's near six million unemployed have not held a job for more than one year, while 1.8 million homes have no one in work, the data showed.

After a decade of above average economic growth, the long recession prompted hundreds of thousands to leave the country in 2012, including immigrants returning home and Spaniards in search of work elsewhere.

Telecoms leader Telefonica, which employs more than three-quarters of its 132,000-strong workforce abroad, said on Thursday it cut borrowings to under 50 billion euros ($66 billion) in the first half.

That put it on track to meet full-year targets even after the planned purchase of German mobile operator E-Plus, though earnings and revenues fell due to pressures in its home market.

Profits at oil major Repsol rose more than expected as strong production offset weak refining margins. New upstream projects have helped the company recover steadily from the nationalization of its majority stake in Argentine energy company YPF in May of 2012.

(Reporting By Paul Day and Sarah White; writing by John Stonestreet Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/spanish-unemployment-falls-first-time-two-years-075644020.html

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Military web restrictions to continue as House panel passes on amendment

The House Rules Committee passed on an amendment that would have stopped the military from filtering news websites on its bases.

Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Fla., added the change to the Defense Appropriations Bill last week after reading about the Army's restriction of The Guardian news site at the Presidio of Monterey and other installations.

"This was a decision by the Republican leadership, and the Republican leadership alone," Grayson said by email Wednesday. "I think it's unfortunate that the Republican leadership thinks that we need to keep our own soldiers in the dark, and prevent them from reading what every other American can learn about."

The 12-person committee ? eight Republicans and four Democrats ? pushed through five of Grayson's other amendments on Monday, including an anti-torture statute and increased funding for research of Gulf War illness.

An individual vote on amendments was not available because the committee voted on the bulk of additions carte blanche.

The House approved a $598.3 billion appropriations bill Wednesday. The overall bill must still be voted on by the Senate.

Presidio employees were the first to tell The Herald last month that the news website for The Guardian, which recently broke stories on data collection by the National Security Agency, was being restricted.

It later turned out the filtering, which Army officials described as preventive "network hygiene," was Armywide.

In an interview on Monday, the commander of the Presidio of Monterey and its language school addressed the restriction for the first time.

Col. Danial Pick said the decision was made outside of the Presidio, but that "all sorts of businesses manage their networks for their employees, and the Department of Defense is no different."

The NSA debate was front and center in a vote on the appropriations bill on Wednesday as the House narrowly defeated an amendment by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., to stop the agency's collection of so-called telephone "metadata."

Rep. Sam Farr, D-Carmel, joined many Democrats who voted for the amendment in opposition to the wishes of the Obama administration.

Phillip Molnar can be reached at 646-4487 or pmolnar@montereyherald.com.

Source: http://www.montereyherald.com/localnews/ci_23726480/defense-bill-wont-have-amendment-restricted-web-access?source=rss

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Southern California Pot Campaign Nets 21-Year Sentence

A California man who owned nine marijuana dispensaries has been sentenced to more than 21 years in federal prison.

The sentence, handed down on Monday by U.S. District Judge James Selna in Santa Ana, was among the largest obtained by the U.S. Justice Department in its crackdown on marijuana operations in Southern California.

Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles indicted John Melvin Walker, 57, on October 16 on charges that he masterminded a drug trafficking operation using marijuana stores located throughout Los Angeles and Orange counties. The indictment charged 13 additional people ? most of them store operators.

"Defendant was the kingpin of a large, organized criminal enterprise awash in narcotics, firearms, and, most of all, money," assistant U.S. Attorney Christine Bautista wrote in a July 8 sentencing document. "Defendant knowingly and willfully led a criminal enterprise that involved selling massive amounts of marijuana under the guise of 'compassionate health,' distributing marijuana near schools, recruiting others to manage his stores, and paying others to transport drugs for him, count his money, and deliver millions of dollars in drug profits to him."

Walker's attorney, Katherine Corrigan of Corrigan & Welbourn in Newport Beach, Calif., did not return a call for comment.

According to a plea deal he reached on March 2, Walker, also known as "Pops," admitted making $25 million in profits from sales of marijuana over six years at the stores, which were located in cities including Long Beach and Santa Ana. He also admitted possessing firearms, including an AK-47 assault rifle.

Walker, who has previous convictions on drug trafficking charges, pleaded guilty to two felony counts: Tax evasion and conspiring to distribute more than a ton of marijuana while also maintaining premises that involved illegal drugs.

In a July 1 sentencing brief, Walker, who is married and has two daughters, sought 15 years in prison. Prosecutors asked for 21 years and 10 months.

In addition to the prison term, Walker must pay more than $2.4 million to the Internal Revenue Service and $1.8 million to the California State Board of Equalization. He agreed to forfeit to the U.S. government $25 million in illegal income, including more than $500,000 cash seized by law enforcement authorities, and numerous assets, including his gated house in San Clemente, Calif., which features a large pool and a view of the Pacific Ocean; several mobile homes in the ski resort town of Mammoth Lakes, Calif.; and interests in two strip clubs.

"Defendant lived a luxurious life where neither he nor his spouse had to work in a legitimate job, his family could reside in?an opulent mansion, and he could send his children to an exclusive private school," Bautista wrote. "Defendant is a charming, manipulative, smart, and greedy man. He was given many opportunities to lead a law-abiding life, and was supported by a loving family. Yet, he chose to build an empire that destroyed not only his life, but the lives of others."

Contact Amanda Bronstad at abronstad@alm.com.

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Source: http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202612297167&rss=rss_nlj

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Goodell should nix 18-game slate for reputation, NFL

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Source: sportsillustrated.cnn.com --- Tuesday, July 23, 2013
It's time for Roger Goodell to put an end to talk of an 18-game schedule. Not just for the sake of the commish's legacy, but for the good of the NFL and its players, writes Don Banks. ...

Source: http://mmqb.si.com/2013/07/23/roger-goodell-18-games/?xid=si_topstories

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