Business news in brief

Zuckerberg fortune dips amid criticisms

Mark Zuckerberg's fortune has tumbled $17.4 billion so far this year as Facebook Inc. faces fresh criticism over its treatment of critics and continues to grapple with the fallout from its response to Russian election meddling.

Shares of the social media giant fell 3 percent Friday to $139.53, the lowest since April 2017. Zuckerberg, 34, who recently was the world's third-richest person, behind Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates, is now ranked sixth on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Zuckerberg's fortune, now at $55.3 billion, has tumbled more than $31 billion from its peak on July 25. Oracle Corp.'s Larry Ellison is close behind at No. 7 with $54.7 billion.

Zuckerberg faced renewed pressure Friday, with a group of Democratic senators demanding that he respond to news reports that the company used contractors to retaliate against critics of its privacy practices and efforts to thwart Russian propaganda on its network.

-- Bloomberg News

Airline logo gets fourth copyright review

American Airlines raised a stink over the U.S. government's refusal to give its logo copyright protection -- and that may get results.

The U.S. Copyright Office has repeatedly deemed the airline's flight symbol to be lacking in creativity, finally prompting the company to sue the head of the agency a month ago. A spokesman for the carrier said Friday the lawsuit has been dropped because the copyright application is now getting another review.

The logo was introduced in 2013 amid a major rebranding by the company. It depicts an abstract white eagle's head poking through a diagonal band with blue on top and red on the bottom. It was twice denied copyright protection and rejected a third time earlier this year when the airline sought reconsideration.

In its suit in Fort Worth, the airline accused the copyright agency of abusing its discretion, saying it routinely registers copyrights that are no more, "and in many cases less," creative than American's logo.

The agency declined to comment on the dismissal of the suit.

-- Bloomberg News

Animal-testing model to reduce deaths

Developing veterinary medicine for pets has often meant testing the experimental drugs on dogs -- with a sometimes morbid ending for the canines involved.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Friday that it plans to study a new model that will result in fewer animal deaths, and put about two dozen beagles up for adoption.

The FDA study will examine antiparasitic medicine for dogs -- such as a dewormer -- and will test it for effectiveness by taking a blood sample, FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said in a statement. In current practice, the dogs are killed and dissected to check their gastrointestinal tract.

The agency plans to use data generated from the tests to establish a benchmark for how drugs are absorbed in dogs' blood, potentially allowing makers of animal drugs to use models instead of experiments on live dogs that sometimes include euthanization.

The FDA's modeling test will be run on 27 beagles, according to a white paper describing the plan.

"The dogs will receive regular veterinary care, including vaccinations and other preventive care, so that they remain happy, well-socialized and healthy," Gottlieb said in the statement. "At the conclusion of the study, the dogs will be retired for adoption as pets."

-- Bloomberg News

Lung cancer drug trial fails to meet goal

AstraZeneca PLC's Mystic experiment that combined two of its drugs in lung cancer treatment failed to meet its main goal, ending an effort that would have brought one of the company's key drugs to a wider market.

The cocktail of Imfinzi and tremelimumab didn't improve patients' overall survival in non-small-cell lung cancer compared with standard chemotherapy alone, the company said Friday in a statement. The results didn't meet statistical significance, and the data support further analysis, Astra said.

Imfinzi is one of a number of new drugs, along with Lynparza for cancer and Farxiga for diabetes, Astra is looking to for growth in the coming years as it pares away fading blockbusters. The company had hoped combining Imfinzi with tremelimumab would help previously untreated patients with lung cancer, and would be added to standard chemotherapy.

-- Bloomberg News

Indictment: Texas hospital held patients

FORT WORTH -- A Texas corporation that runs behavioral health hospitals is accused of illegally holding four patients, two of whom were voluntary patients allegedly prohibited from leaving.

SAS Healthcare Inc. was indicted Wednesday on nine counts of violating the Texas Mental Health Code, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The indictment alleges the corporation known as Sundance Behavioral Healthcare System detained two patients involuntarily at its Arlington facility longer than the 48 hours allowed without a court order. It also accuses the company of not allowing two voluntary patients to leave.

The health care system offers inpatient and outpatient treatment specializing in mental health, chemical dependency and detoxification, according to its website.

-- Bloomberg News

Iraq resumes oil pumping in disputed city

BAGHDAD -- Iraq began piping oil from its fields around the disputed city of Kirkuk on Friday, more than a year after exports were halted over troubles with the autonomous Kurdish administration north of the country.

The region will export between 50,000 to 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day through a pipeline to Turkey, said Oil Ministry spokesman Assem Jihad after a deal was reached to break the deadlock between Iraq's capital Baghdad and the Kurdish Regional Government based in Irbil.

Federal forces seized Kirkuk and the surrounding oil fields in October 2017 after the regional government organized a symbolic but controversial referendum for Kurdish independence.

Exports were terminated in the wake of the takeover, costing both sides billions of dollars in revenue as they haggled over revenue and pipeline fees.

Baghdad maintains that the multi-ethnic city is not part of the country's autonomous Kurdish region.

The Turkey pipeline is the only one available to Kirkuk for exports. It runs through the Kurdish region.

Iraq exports close to 5 million barrels of crude daily, the vast majority through its southern Basra terminal.

-- The Associated Press

Business on 11/17/2018

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