Washington, D.C.

Avandia side effects reports rise after study

In the month after a surprising analysis revealed possible heart risks from the blockbuster diabetes drug Avandia, reports of side effects to federal regulators tripled.

The sudden spike is a sign that doctors probably were unaware of the drug's possible role in their patients' heart problems and therefore may not have reported many such cases in the past, several experts said.

It also shows the flaws of the safety tracking system and suggests that a better one might have detected a potential problem before the drug had been on the market for eight years.

Avandia is used to control blood sugar, helping more than 6 million people worldwide manage Type 2 diabetes, the kind that is linked to obesity.

These people already are at higher risk for heart attacks, so news that the drug might raise this risk by 43 percent was especially disturbing.

In the 35 days after May 21, when the New England Journal of Medicine published the analysis on the Internet, reports of heart attacks, deaths and hospitalizations leaped. The sharp rise in reports of heart problems appears in data obtained by the Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request to the federal Food and Drug Administration.

Only five heart attacks were reported in the 35 days before the study, compared with 90 in the same period afterward. Heart-related hospitalizations went from 11 to 126. The reports involve rosiglitazone, sold as Avandia and Avandamet.

Trade deficit soars 2.3 % on crude prices

America's trade deficit rose to its second-highest level of the year as the price of imported crude oil jumped and demand for Chinese products remained strong despite recalls of tainted products.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the deficit for May rose to $60.04 billion, 2.3 percent more than in April. Most of the deterioration in the trade balance reflected a big increase in the foreign oil bill, which swamped record sales of U.S. products abroad.

The Bush administration said the continued rise in exports validated President Bush's campaign for free trade deals and his opposition to raising import barrier.

The administration is working to get Congress to approve free trade deals with South Korea, Peru, Colombia and Panama.

The president also wants lawmakers to extend his power to seal trade agreements without congressional intervention. Such authority expired at the end of July.

That effort faces much resistance because of unhappiness over the trade deficits and the loss of 3 million U.S. manufacturing jobs since 2000.

California

Harry Potter' movie sets box office record

LOS ANGELES — The boy wizard still has a magic touch at the box office.

"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" took in $44.8 million in its first day, the best single-day gross ever for a movie on a Wednesday.

That included $12 million from screenings that started at midnight Tuesday.

The sequel from Time Warner Inc. unit Warner Bros. topped the previous Wednesday record of $40.4 million for 2004's "Spider-Man 2," according to box office tracker Media By Numbers.

"Order of the Phoenix," the fifth installment of the movie franchise based on J.K. Rowling's fantasy best-sellers, has teen wizard Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) teaching classmates magic spells to defend themselves against the coming battle with the forces of dark Lord Voldemort.

Connecticut

GE, Abbott call off diagnostic units deal

FAIRFIELD — General Electric will not go through with a deal to buy two Abbott Laboratories diagnostic units for $8.1 billion in cash, the two companies said Wednesday.

The deal, announced in January, had been seen as part of GE's strategy to increase its business in clinical diagnostics, which Jeffrey R. Immelt, GE's chief, had identified as an area for growth.

The companies offered no specific reasons except to say that they had failed to agree on final terms and conditions of the proposed sale.

The terminated deal was one of the larger in a flurry of recent acquisitions by General Electric, based in Fairfield, Conn. The acquisitions strategy is seen as an effort to expand in high-growth businesses — including oil and gas, aerospace control and bioengineering.

A spokesman, Russell Wilkerson, said GE's plan to invest in diagnostics had not changed. "About 70 percent of resources are applied to treating disease," he said. "Our goal is to shift the focus on the front end, i.e., an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure' approach. Diagnostics is a key part of that."

— From wire reports