SUPREME COURT

DRUG RESEARCH RIGHTS BOLSTERED

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court gave drug companies more freedom to develop new disease-fighting therapies, ruling yesterday that rival firms’ patents do not bar them from starting research on competing medications.

The unanimous ruling set aside a lower-court ruling for patent holder Integra Life Sciences Holdings. It means that major pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly and Pfizer can start experiments sooner, leading to faster drug development, perhaps billions in savings, and lower costs for consumers.

Justice Scalia, writing for the court, said a lower court was wrong to automatically prohibit early stage research conducted to identify new drugs. Such experiments are okay so long as the drug could not feasibly be marketed until after a rival’s patent expired, he said.

– Associated Press

APPEALS TO PRESERVE FCC MEDIA OWNERSHIP RULES TURNED AWAY

WASHINGTON – Broadcast and newspaper groups suffered a setback yesterday when the Supreme Court declined to hear their appeals to restore federal rules easing local press ownership limits. Without comment, the justices let stand a lower court ruling that threw out the new Federal Communications Commission rules as unjustified. The agency will now take a new look at the subject, though no timetable was given.

The commission opted in January not to pursue its own appeal of the June 2004 decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia. The FCC also urged the justices to turn away press groups’ appeals.

The proposed changes would have allowed a single company to own TV stations and a paper in the same area, and to own more TV and radio stations in a single market.

– Associated Press

AIRLINES

NORTHWEST SHARES BATTERED BY FLURRY OF BAD NEWS MINNEAPOLIS – Shares of Northwest Airlines plunged nearly 12% yesterday as investors in the nation’s fourth-largest carrier were buffeted by several pieces of bad news.

A $50 each-way fare increase aimed at business travelers failed when other carriers failed to match it. Regulatory filings show that Northwest Chairman Gary L. Wilson has now sold nearly 60% of his stake in the company, based in Eagan, Minn. And the Wall Street Journal highlighted Northwest’s labor troubles in Monday’s editions and reported the airline could be close to bankruptcy. Northwest shares fell 75 cents, or 11.9%, to close at $5.58 on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

– Associated Press

AUTOMOTIVE

FORD’S HERTZ UNIT FILES FOR IPO Ford Motor’s Hertz rental-car unit plans an initial public offering of stock, as the automaker moves ahead with efforts announced in April to raise money through options including selling the business.

Hertz disclosed the plan in a filing yesterday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The unit said it would use proceeds to repay $1.19 billion in promissory notes issued to Ford on June 10. Hertz didn’t say when the sale might occur, how many shares it plans, to sell, or at what price.

– Bloomberg News