Business Desk

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

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NATIONAL


PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY CONSIDERING HIGH-TECH TAGS


Big American pharmaceutical companies are testing new tracking technology they hope will help them spot counterfeit drugs before they reach consumers’ medicine cabinets. By putting tags that transmit radio waves on medicine bottles sent to drug stores, company officials think they will be able to detect fake drugs that aren’t moving through usual supply chains.


The drug companies’ concern about counterfeiting has aroused skepticism among some who see the issue as a way to scare Americans away from buying cheaper drugs from foreign countries. Still, efforts to implement radio frequency identification technology, or RFID for short, are gaining momentum.


The $3 million project includes drug makers such as New Jersey’s Johnson & Johnson, Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc., Merck & Co., and Wyeth. Distributors, such as Cardinal Health Inc. and McKesson Corp., and retailers, such as CVS Corp. and Rite Aid Corp., are also participating.


The RFID tags look like ordinary labels but are really computer chips with antennas wrapped around them. Sensors at distribution centers use radio waves to activate the tags, which are electronically read and stamped with a record of where they have been.


Since pharmacies receive drugs through specific distribution centers, alarms would be raised when an incomplete or incorrect set of locations is listed on a tag.


– Associated Press


INTERNATIONAL


ALITALIA PLANS TO CUT 5,000 JOBS, REPORTS AND SOURCE SAY


Italy’s flagship air carrier Alitalia plans to cut 5,000 jobs as part of restructuring efforts aimed at avoiding collapse, news reports and an industry source said yesterday. The cuts would be almost a fourth of Alitalia’s 22,000-strong workforce.


The Italian news agency ANSA and other reports cited union sources. An industry source confirmed the reports, but did not elaborate.


Alitalia met with nine union leaders at the company’s headquarters in Rome to discuss the restructuring plan and persuade reluctant unions to go along with the efforts. The approval of the recovery plan is crucial to the company’s survival as it would allow Alitalia to access a $488 million loan approved by the Italian government and the European Union.


Without the loan, Alitalia says it has enough liquidity to pay salaries only until the end of this month. Union leaders said they would meet today to discuss the plan, and called for further negotiations with the company. But early reaction to the proposed plan was negative.


Alitalia, which is 62% owned by the state, is facing one of its worst times ever. Still reeling from the massive crisis that hit the airline industry after the September 11 attacks, Alitalia has been struggling amid cutthroat competition from discount carriers and consolidation among established players. In late April and May, the company was hit by a series of strikes that grounded some 1,500 flights.


The company has posted an annual profit only four times in the last 16 years. Its debt stood at $2 billion at the end of June, up $265 million since the end of 2003.


– Associated Press


GERMAN FACTORY ORDERS RISE FOR THIRD MONTH IN FOUR


Manufacturing orders in Germany rose for a third month in four in July led by rising foreign demand for goods such as machinery.


Orders gained 3% from June, when they dropped 3.3%, the Economics and Labor Ministry in Berlin said.


Exports drove German growth in the first half as the domestic economy shrank. Slowing expansion in America and Japan in the second quarter raised concern that demand from abroad may be insufficient to sustain growth, and rising unemployment is dimming the prospects of a recovery in consumer spending. Germany’s economy accounts for one-third of the 12 nations sharing the euro.


Orders from abroad for so-called investment goods such as factory machinery rose 7.6%, adjusted for inflation and seasonal swings, yesterday’s report showed. Foreign demand for consumer goods increased 4.9%.


– Bloomberg News

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NEW YORK SUN CONTRIBUTOR

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.


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