GTC Biotherapeutics gets FDA fast-track for ATryn

GTC Biotherapeutics Inc. has won fast-track designation from the Food and Drug Administratrion for ATryn, a protein produced in the milk of goats that has anticoagulant and anti-inflammatory properties. The Framingham company said fast-track designation allows for an accelerated review of ATryn as a treatment for patients with hereditary antithrombin deficiency who are at risk of developing deep vein thrombosis or thromboembolism while undergoing surgery or giving birth. (Chris Reidy)

Comcast Corp., the largest US cable-television provider, plans to reduce costs to install telephone service in millions of homes by having customers do it themselves. Comcast is testing do-it-yourself kits in San Francisco and will offer them in Boston, Denver, and Philadelphia in the next six months, said Cathy Avgiris, senior vice president and head of voice services. The plan may save Comcast a $200 to $300 service call to install phones, estimates RBC Capital Markets analyst Jonathan Atkin. The company, which has about 3 million phone customers, anticipates 11 million subscribers by 2010. It has hired 12,000 people in the past year and a half mostly to deal with surging demand for phone service. (Bloomberg)

Coca-Cola Co said it launched a 20-ounce plastic bottle for its cola drinks that uses 5 percent less plastic, a bid to please some critics of the beverage industry who claim that reliance on plastic increases global warming. The new bottles for Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, and Coke Zero, which also have ridges to make it easier to grip, will be available nationwide by early next year, Coke said. The world's largest beverage company has already lightened the weight of its Dasani water bottles. Rivals PepsiCo Inc. and Nestle have done the same with their respective water brands Aquafina and Poland Spring. (Reuters)

Home Depot Inc. said it expects to repurchase 289.6 million of its shares for $10.7 billion as a result of a tender offer, a little less than halfway to its goal of buying back $22.5 billion in stock. Preliminary results of the tender offer that ended Friday indicated the nation's biggest home improvement store chain expected to repurchase the shares at $37 per share, using about $8 billion in net proceeds from its sale of HD Supply and $2.7 billion in cash, said a spokeswoman. (AP)

A US appeals court in New Jersey ruled that antitrust claims brought by chip maker Broadcom Corp. against rival Qualcomm Inc. over Qualcomm's licensing practices can go forward. The ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit reversed a lower court's dismissal. The trial court had ruled that Qualcomm's alleged conduct did not constitute antitrust activity because an industry standards board oversaw the licensing activity. Broadcom's lawsuit accused Qualcomm of breaking a pledge to the standards board to be fair when licensing patents for technology it owned. That technology has been adopted as an industry standard to promote interoperability among handsets and carriers. (Reuters)

A home decor merchant has dropped a federal lawsuit attacking Google Inc.'s practice of connecting some online ads to trademarks, handing the Internet search leader its latest legal victory on the prickly issue. American Blind & Wallpaper Factory Inc. agreed to abandon the nearly four-year-old case without receiving any payment from Google, according to a settlement dated Aug. 31. The truce also stipulated that Google won't change its long-standing policy that let advertisers place ads tied to a rival's trademark. The settlement avoided a trial that was scheduled to begin Nov. 13 in San Jose, Calif. The two sides agreed to cover their own legal costs. (AP)

Thornburg Mortgage again sought a buffer from turmoil in the mortgage market, borrowing $1.44 billion and using a pool of home loans as collateral. The loan deal was made in tandem with Thornburg's $500 million sale last week of a special class of stock, which allowed the lender to resume financing home loans. That followed a $20.5 billion sale last month of the Santa Fe-based mortgage lender's most valuable investments, at a loss of $930 million. (AP)

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