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Business Digest
01:00 AM EDT on Tuesday, April 17, 2007
For nine straight weeks, gasoline prices in Rhode Island have risen. The average price yesterday was $2.799 a gallon for unleaded regular, according to a survey by AAA Southern New England. During that nine-week period, gasoline prices have risen 62 cents. The average of $2.799 yesterday was five cents more than the previous week. Back in the second week of February, prices were at the 2007 low point of $2.179. A year ago, the average price was $2.749. The range in prices in the latest AAA survey for unleaded regular is 16 cents, from a low of $2.739 a gallon to a high of $2.899 a gallon. The AAA survey also showed these average prices: self-serve, midgrade unleaded, $2.909; self-serve premium unleaded, $3.029; self-serve diesel, $2.899.
In Massachusetts, the average price for unleaded, regular gasoline was $2.749 a gallon, up six cents from the previous week. The prices in Massachusetts have risen 10 consecutive weeks and have risen a total of 59 cents during that time period. The price range was 26 cents, from a low of $2.639 to a high of $2.899.
Valero Energy and ConocoPhillips said yesterday their refineries in the Northeast were unaffected by a storm that caused heavy rain and flooding throughout the region. The ConocoPhillips refineries in Trainer, Pa., and Bayway, N.J., were “operating normally,” said Phil Blackburn. a company spokesman. “There are no production issues to report” at Valero Energy’s plants in Delaware City, Del., and Paulsboro, N.J., spokesman Bill Day said. A spokesman for Sunoco, which has two plants in Pennsylvania, did not return calls for comment. About 9.8 percent of U.S. refining capacity is located along the East Coast, from Maine to Virginia. Ship traffic into and out of New York Harbor was moving normally, Coast Guard spokeswoman Petty Officer Angelia Rorison said.
Ariad Pharmaceuticals Inc. has sued Amgen Inc., the world’s biggest biotechnology company, claiming infringement of a patent related to Amgen’s Enbrel and Kineret arthritis drugs. Enbrel is manufactured at Amgen’s plant in West Greenwich. The claim, also filed against Enbrel marketer Wyeth, is a response to a complaint filed a year ago by Amgen asking a federal judge in Delaware to rule that the company doesn’t infringe Ariad’s patent and that the patent, licensed from Harvard College and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is invalid. “Our assertion of an infringement claim against Amgen and Wyeth highlights our strong belief in the validity and enforceability” of the patent, Ariad chief executive officer Harvey J. Berger said in a statement. Amgen, based in Thousand Oaks, Calif., reported $14.2 billion in sales last year. Ariad, based in Cambridge, Mass., reported $900,000 in 2006 sales and a $61.9-million net loss. Douglas Petkus, a Wyeth spokesman, referred calls for comment to Amgen. “We maintain Ariad’s patent is invalid and that Enbrel and Kineret do not infringe,” Amgen spokesman David Polk said.
Gannett Co., the nation’s largest newspaper publisher, is selling 4 of its 90 U.S. dailies to New York-based GateHouse Media for $410 million. The four papers are the Norwich Bulletin, a 26,000-circulation daily in Connecticut; the Rockford Register Star, a 65,000-circulation daily in Illinois; the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, N.Y, a 43,000-circulation daily; and The Herald-Dispatch in Huntington, W.Va., a 30,000-circulation daily. The newspapers will be among the largest in the GateHouse chain, which includes 84 daily papers in 19 states. Gatehouse owns several newspapers in Massachusetts, including The Herald News, of Fall River; the Taunton Daily Gazette; The MetroWest Daily News, of Framingham; The Patriot Ledger, of Quincy; and The Enterprise, of Brockton; along with a string of weeklies that surround Boston. Last week, GateHouse (GHS:NYSE) closed on a $380-million acquisition of nine newspapers from Copley Press Inc. that had a combined circulation of 241,000.
CVS/Pharmacy, the Woonsocket-based retail pharmacy chain, has completed the national rollout of its new blue EasyRead prescription labels, which feature larger type, a change from yellow to blue highlighting for easier reading, and a cleaner layout. The labels also include a physical description of the medication prescribed to help customers identify their drugs. CVS said it made the changes to address the needs of seniors. A recent survey conducted by Synovate for CVS revealed that 56 percent of Americans age 50 and older take three or more prescriptions on a regular basis, and 21 percent take between five and nine. In addition, 13 percent of older Americans manage medications for their spouses. The survey also found that customers who had trouble reading pill bottle labels generally said it was due to small type size and cluttered wording.
Raytheon Co., of Waltham, Mass., has received two contract modifications totaling $13 million from the U.S. Army Aviation and Missile Command to continue to provide technical and material support of the Patriot Missile Field Surveillance program in the United States and overseas. The contract modifications, which include options for up to $12 million, call for Raytheon to provide technical personnel and material to support the processing of Patriot missile rounds and the operation of the Patriot missile facilities, missile assembly/disassembly facilities and the Patriot missile transmitter facility. The work will be performed at Raytheon’s Integrated Air Defense Center in Andover, Mass., Integrated Defense Systems in Tewksbury, Mass., and Raytheon Technical Services Co. of Burlington, Mass., as well as in Texarkana, Texas, and overseas locations.
The board of directors of Rite Aid Corp. has amended the company’s bylaws to adopt a majority vote standard for the election of directors. The new standard becomes effective upon the closing of the company’s pending acquisition of the Warwick-based Brooks and Eckerd drugstore chains from The Jean Coutu Group Inc. and will apply to all future uncontested elections of directors by stockholders. This new standard requires that a director nominated by the board receive a majority of the votes cast for that director’s election. If a candidate for director does not receive a majority vote, the company’s bylaws require that person to submit his or her resignation to the board, which must decide no later than 75 days after the date of the stockholders’ meeting at which the election occurred whether to accept it. Previously, all directors were elected under a plurality vote standard, meaning that candidates receiving the most votes would win whether or not those votes constituted a majority of the shares voting at the meeting.
… Best Buy, the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer, has begun construction at Silver City Galleria, Taunton, Mass. The 32,000-square-foot store is scheduled to open this fall and is on the mall’s lower level by the center court.
… Citizens Bank will offer free rides on all RIPTA buses from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. tomorrow. The free rides are part of a week’s free community activities in Rhode Island and Massachusetts sponsored by the bank to promote its services.
… The Blackstone Valley Tourism Council will host The Green Tourism Symposium – Rhode Island from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday, April 26, at the Blackstone Valley Visitor Center, 175 Main St., Pawtucket. The symposium is being presented by the Sustainable Tourism Planning & Development Laboratory. The cost is $30. To register online, go to www.tourblackstone.com.
… The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) will host the 2007 Northeast District Conference of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) Friday through Sunday. For more information, go to www.idsa.ned.org
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