The FDA had rejected the diet pill Qnexa in October 2010. Vivus has resubmitted the drug with additional follow-up information, hoping for a more favorable ruling. Two barges collide, spilling oil in river ADVERTISING LAPLACE, La. (AP) — An oil
Two barges collide, spilling oil in river
LAPLACE, La. (AP) — An oil tanker barge collided with another barge Friday on the Mississippi, spilling oil and leading officials to close a five-mile stretch of the river, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Officials said the collision happened around 2 a.m. about 50 miles upriver from New Orleans. The wreck tore a gash into the double-hulled tank of the tanker barge, which was being pushed by a tugboat.
Neither vessel sank and no one was hurt, Chief Petty Officer John Edwards said. He said the leak has been contained.
The tank contained about 148,000 gallons of oil, but the spill was substantially less than the tank’s contents, the Coast Guard said.
Dow closes 50 points from 13K
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow edged teasingly close to the 13,000 marker on Friday, a milestone it hasn’t reached since before the financial crisis brought the U.S. economy to its knees.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 45.79 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 12,949.87, its highest close for the year so far. That followed a 123-point surge the day before, when it also set a closing record for 2012.
The rest of the market struggled for direction on what turned out to be a quiet news day as traders prepared for the long Presidents’ Day weekend. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 3.19 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,361.23, also setting a record close for 2012. The Nasdaq composite, after surging Thursday, fell 8.07 points, or 0.3 percent, to 2,951.78. Greek debt talks idled and a key economic indicator, U.S. consumer prices, came in at about what analysts were expecting.
The Dow hasn’t closed above 13,000 since May 19, 2008, a time when the Bush administration was still in charge, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch still existed, and unemployment was just 5.4 percent, compared to the current 8.3 percent.
FDA worried about diet pill
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials say they still have safety concerns about an experimental diet pill from drugmaker Vivus Inc., as the company prepares to make a second attempt to convince experts of the drug’s safety next week.
Vivus, based in Mountain View, Calif., is one of three small drugmakers racing to bring the first new prescription weight loss drug to market in more than a decade. In the past two years the Food and Drug Administration has rejected pills from all three: Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc., Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. and Vivus. All three companies are in the process of resubmitting their products.
The FDA had rejected the diet pill Qnexa in October 2010. Vivus has resubmitted the drug with additional follow-up information, hoping for a more favorable ruling.
