FDA APPROVES HIGHLY ANTICIPATED WEIGHT-LOSS PILL: WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a new weight loss drug from Vivus Inc. that many doctors consider the most effective therapy in a new generation of anti-obesity pills designed to help patients safely shed pounds.
The agency cleared the pill Qsymia for adults who are obese or overweight and have at least one weight-related condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes or high cholesterol.
Patients taking Qsymia for a year lost 6.7 percent of their body weight in one study and 8.9 percent in another study, the FDA said. That was more than two other weight loss pill recently reviewed by the FDA.
Despite its impressive performance in clinical trials, Qsymia is not exactly a scientific breakthrough, and its development underscores the slow pace of research for obesity treatments.
YAHOO'S 2Q EARNINGS, REVENUE REMAIN FLAT : SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Yahoo turned in another lackluster performance in the second quarter.
The results announced Tuesday underscore the challenges facing Yahoo's newly hired CEO Marissa Mayer as she tries to turn around the Internet company after a 13-year career as a top Google executive.
Mayer, 37, will attempt to reverse years of financial lethargy that has plagued Yahoo while rivals such as Google and Facebook Inc. have prospered as advertisers spent more money promoting their wares on the Internet.
Yahoo struggled through its latest quarter under two different CEOs, Scott Thompson and Ross Levinsohn. After Thompson stepped aside in mid-May amid an uproar over misleading information on his biography, Levinsohn began filling in as interim CEO. Mayer defected from Google in a surprise move announced Monday and took the helm at Yahoo Tuesday.
Yahoo earned $227 million for the three months ending in June. That was down 4 percent from net income of $237 million a year ago.
INTEL 2Q EARNINGS FALL, SEES ECONOMIC HEADWINDS : NEW YORK (AP) — Intel Corp., the world's largest chipmaker, said Tuesday that the weak global economy is slowing its growth, and revenue for the current quarter is likely to come in below Wall Street forecasts.
Intel's second-quarter net income was $2.83 billion, or 54 cents per share. That was down 4.3 percent from $2.95 billion, or 54 cents per share, a year earlier, as operating expenses rose faster than revenue. Intel has been buying back shares, accounting for the flat earnings per share.
Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings of 52 cents per share for the latest quarter.
Revenue rose 3.6 percent to $13.5 billion. Analysts were expecting $13.54 billion.
COSTCO TURNS AGAINST TIGHT SOW PENS: MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Costco Wholesale Corp. on Tuesday joined a growing list of retailers and restaurants in asking suppliers to phase out the use of small pens for pregnant sows, as an animal welfare group prepared to release an undercover video showing conditions at one of its suppliers.
Gestation stalls have been a major target of groups like Mercy for Animals and the Humane Society of the United States, which say they're inhumane because they keep sows so tightly confined that they can spend most of their lives and multiple pregnancies with too little space to turn around or even sleep on their sides.
Mercy for Animals' video was shot by one of its investigators in a sow barn at Minnesota-based Christensen Farms, which describes itself as the country's third-largest pork producer. The group made the video available to The Associated Press before its public release Wednesday. But on Tuesday, Costco gave the group a letter it was sending to pork suppliers urging a phase-out of the crates by 2022. Mercy for Animals' director of investigations, Matt Rice, supplied the letter to The Associated Press.
