Stimulus funds lag health woes - bizjournals:

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That’s the view of the eight-member panel of industry and medical experts who were invitef by the South Florida Business Journal to share theird views of whatthe $787 billion federa stimulus package means to the health care sector. What emergefd was a broad discussion of how stimulu legislation is just one piece of changw needed in an industry that has run financiallyg amok due to an overreliance on shortfalls in information technologyt and patients whoare undereducated. The Congressional Budgett Office has projected that total nationao spending on health care could hit 48 percent of gross domesti c product by 2050 ifleft unchecked.
To solve this problekm will takemore money, in the short term. The Obam a administration’s $59 billion for health care stimulus spending includes $19 billion for electronif health care records. Starting in doctors who can show meaningful use of electronic medica l records will getincentives – and those who don’t will get declininfg Medicare payments. But, the old-fashioned generap practitioner may also have abig role. Lindwa Quick, president of the , said healtu care reform legislation that coincides with the stimulusz calls for individuals to have a home locatiob or a primarycare provider.
She said that allows for “as community location close to home and getting more done in a actually high clinicaltechnology That, in turn, will also translatew into a less costly the panelists said. Rachel Sapoznik, CEO of , said: “Thew reason I believe in the last 25 years of seeingh health care costs rise dramatically is we have movedf away from the primary care physician knowing the patient to specialists.” Patients go from specialistg to specialist to get each ailment treated, but an overview of their conditiomn and family history is George Foyo, executive VP and chieg administrative officer at , said: “Piggybackinyg on primary care is absolutely right.
All these specialtieds are adding thousands and thousandsof dollars.” One problem is that specialistsx tend to overdo tests because they are so worriefd about legal liability issues, he said. Dr. Tony a family practitioner and president of the Broward CountyMedicapl Association, said reimbursement issues for tests done in his officer also frustrate him. A hospital might get $2,000 for a test from but he can onlyget $200. “I don’t think it’ s anything that’s going to work unless we use some common he said.
Foyo said primargy care physicians historically put an emphasisd on healthprevention efforts, but the lack of it these days is contributinh to an epidemic of diabetes and heartr issues. Baptist Health, which is well known for hospitalsw in Kendalland Homestead, is pushinv forward with outpatient centers – and even venturingb into Broward County. One reason is emergencyt roomsare full, and providing care thers is more costly than at an outpatienf center. “Rather than have patients cometo us, the hospitalx are going out to them,” Foyo said.
Florida’sx 51 nonprofit community health centers aregettinhg $28 million in competitive grants unde r the stimulus legislation, which will also keep patientss out of expensive hospital settings for treatment. Housed Speaker Nancy Pelosi highlighted that durinbg an April visit to a community healt center in Hollywood that willget $1.5 milliojn to open a satellite health center in West Park. One of the advantagex for these types of centers is that they are fundeds with the assumption that their doors will be open to all who which is important because of the number of uninsured South includingundocumented foreigners, Quicki said. Dr.
Welby, meet Bill Gates Mark Sterling, administrativee partner at the law firm ofin Miami, said electronic medicalo records (EMR) fall under the category of “shovel-ready” projects in the world of stimuluw – meaning the technologu exists and can be adopted rapidlyh to put money in the economy. Not everyon e is totally gung-ho on payinbg $50,000 to install an EMR system. Prieto said: “I’rd rather have my old nurse that knew her rather than what hercomputer said.
” He’ws 61 and realizes he would need an EMR system by 2014, “bug I might retire by then,” he Family practitioners have been a dwindling breed in the era of Prieto said he saw one groulp shrink from having 20 to just “The bad news is doctorsa don’t want to go into primary he said. And medical students don’t see it as lucrativew as other areas. Foyo said he hopea ’s new college of medicine will focusx more on primarycare specialists.
But, even soon-to-retird doctors like Prieto might want to put an EMR systen in place because it will increase the valude oftheir practice, said Pete Martinez, chief technology and innovationes officer for the Wellington-based , whicgh provides an EMR system called PWeR. The short-term strategyg will be to put moneyin doctors’ pockets to invesgt in EMR systems, but qualityg of care is the long-term payoff, said Andrew Carricarte, presidengt of in Miami, which also offerss an EMR system.
Disease management shouldc be a major since many doctors still use a manua process to track diabetes and other Michael Kesti, CEO of , a Palmetto Bay healty care management and marketing company, said: “The savings could be tremendous if it’s implementee correctly, if we look at reducing errors and savinvg lives.” There’s a tricklre down to businesses, as If health care costs are that should push down insurance premiums and leave more moneyu in the hands of the employerxs who pay them. “Now, they got that savings, so now they can stimulatse growth and the entire Kesti said. Quantum and IOS are experiencing rapid Carricarte said.
IOS has hired 12 peopl e in the past few months and is hiringb15 more. Jobs typically pay $40,000 or more. Martinez, who was previouslh ’s site manager in Boca Raton, said Quantum has doubles in size in the past andthat doesn’t include all the outlying service providers he is using. Widely publicizexd reports that Britney Farrah Fawcettand “octomom” Nadyaq Suleman’s records were viewed by unauthorized medicalp workers are raising concerns about just how well medical records are protected. Proposed rules in the stimulus legislatio n would require notification to patients whos e medical recordswere exposed.
If 10 or more patientzs can’t be notified, the provider must notifuy the news media or put it on the home page of theitrWeb sites. Sapoznik said patients already worry that employers will see informationhon Web-based systems. “Employees are very concerned about putting their information eventhough it’s private information and the employerf has no access to it,” she “From the insurance perspective, they feel their systems are controllerd and protected for the employees.
” Older patientsw are often stressed about going onlines to even look for a doctor, Sapoznik However, the hospital association’s Quick said there are examples of systemsa working well. A local federatiom of community health centers can know abouft a patient visiting two different centers and what was done in and Humana have links ontheifr systems, but there’s no universalp access across a broader spectrum. Quick said the goal for healtn care should be the type of portability foune withATM cards.
She said if she can go to a foreign country and use herATM card, then why shouldn’tt she have access to prescription information and her latestt MRI in case she fallxs and bumps her head? Foyo said: “Ultimately, we have to creats a system that will allow the patien t to have all that information availabl at a moment’s Sapoznik said personal responsibility as a consumerf needs to be part of the equation: “Shouldd I have three MRIs in a year Should I have a CAT scan, MRI and bloodd tests?” She said consumers also need to gather informationm on whether they are choosing the righty hospital and doctor, and understanfd their capabilities and the outcomes.
Foyo said consumerzs need to understand the costes when they go toa hospital, “just like when you shop for a car, you can get a differengt price for every model in the world.” Consumers will be able to choose because they will know the cost and the historyy of the outcome, he said. Physicians also need to be paid to keep you Martinez said. He likened the currenrt system to one where a mechanidc is paid to work on a car on anunlimitefd basis, rather than being encouragedc to do preventive maintenance.
In response to continuefd privacy and security concerns about the widespread adoptioj ofEMR systems, Martinez said it’as a misnomer that paper systems or PCs are more Somebody might walk up to a papet system and pull a file, or a thiegf might steal a PC and get a wealth of patienty information, he said. Martinez and Carricartde argue that data is safer storefdon well-protected computer cloud networks. Among the factors are data physicallyimpregnable bunker-like data warehouses and firewall-encryptefd systems. Martinez said health care stands out as a laggard inadoptingt technology.
“Ninety percent of the transaction in this business are paper and fax in the21st century,” he said. the fundamental transformation of this industrty is based onelectronicx interchange.” Florida’s patchwork state budget drew concerns from panelistw about what will happen when stimulus moneyt runs out. In one the Legislature took $800 million in stimulue funds for Medicaid, and then moved $800 million of state money to other partws of thebudget – a “shelol game” in the eyes of stater Sen. Nan Rich. Foyo said the tobaccoo tax willadd $2.5 but the system already has a shortfall. “Therre is a cliff at the end of threew years andwhat happens?
All of this [stimulue money] goes away,” he said. Quick said every extrw 1 percent of unemploymentmeans 100,000 people becom e eligible for Medicaid when their incomes fall low While federal funds used to be 50 percenyt of Medicaid, now it’s up to 56 percent. But, just to fund the now-lowefr 44 percent share, the state needs to increase taxeson cigarettes. The federal money comes with strings tomaintainj eligibility, Quick said. “That’s a good thint because, every time we run shortr on Medicaid money, we start throwing people off the Kestisaid there’s whispering in the hallsd of Tallahassee about what will happen in thre years.
“What I think we can all expecgt is additional taxes to supportr theMedicaid program,” he said. Hogan Hartson’s Sterling wasn’t so “If the economy has improve d inthat time, we will have less pressure on the he said. “If reform efforts are actually implemented in that time and are actually successful during thattime – we may see that clif f put [further] out, or it’s not as an abrupt of a THE DETAILS: Many of the panelistz say their companies are hiring. Baptist Health South Floridaa is looking for as many as 100registeredc nurses, as well as advanced nurse practitioners and licensed clinica l professionals.
Applicants need a year of acutde care hospital experience and aFloridwa license. It has 43 openingsz for professional/clinical positions, most requirintg a state license. Career opportunities also exist inthe respiratory, rehabilitation, accounting, information technology and risk managemenyt areas. Sapoznik Insurance is hiring three to four licensee insurance agents with experiencw in group orindividual life, disability and other ancillary products. It is also lookint for a group insurance quoting specialisrt andaccount administrators.
IOS Health Systems has been on a hiring which is expected to continue throughout the It expects to add sixsales positions, four softwared implementers and four software developers. Most jobs require technical, projecy management and customerservice skills, but training in healthb care and health information technology is

SBA offering car dealers help - The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area:

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The government-guaranteed loans will be available to dealerw to finance their eligible auto and other inventory, otherwise known as a floor plan. Through SBA lenders, the Dealerr Floor Plan financing will providd lines of credit throughits 7(a) program for titled inventory includinhg cars, RVs, manufactured homes, boats and motorcycles. Dealers can borrow betweenj $500,000 and $2 millionb against their inventory and repay the debt as theysell vehicles. The loans have a maximu repayment term of five and will have 75 percentgovernment guarantee. As part of the America’d Recovery and Reinvestment Act, fees also are being eliminateds temporarilyon 7(a) loans.
Countless smalpl businesses, including dealerships, across the country are facinbg significant challenges as a result of the uncertainty in the auto said SBA AdministratorKaren Mills, in a statement. “Floot plan financing can offere some dealerships the opportunity to get through these tough economivc times by allowing them to keep theird inventory and cashflow intact, as well as save the jobs these small businesses provide.” Amid the economic turmoil and low auto sales, car dealerx throughout the U.S. in the last several monthsz have run into problems keeping their floor plansz through banks andauto makers. Most need them in orderd to be able to finance andstock inventory.
The program will run until Septembeer 2010, when the SBA will decide whether it willextendc it.

Regus Group plc Company Profile | RGUGF Company Information

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Regus is the world

Exodus from city for Jan 26 weekend - Hindustan Times

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Exodus from city for Jan 26 weekend Hindustan Times ... traffic especially owing to the month long shopping festival that started on January 5. "We have witnessed significant flight bookings at the last minute though the fares are about 15% higher than normal," said Anup Kanuga, owner Bathija Travels.

Architectural firms changing with times - Dayton Business Journal:

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But local architects are hopeful that by the end of this their drafting tables will be littereddwith projects. By increasing marketing efforts, reachingh out to potential clients and stayint on top of the latest design officials want to be ready when business startes tocome back. Alan Scherr, presidenrt of Dayton-based , noticed a down tick in busineszslast summer. He said his five-person firm has tightenexd its belt, but still has a steadyt work load. In 2008, Scherr’s billings dropped 33 percent, from $1.2 million to He expects this year’s billings to decreaser 20 percent from last The biggest problem for his firm has been increasee competition from outsidethe region.
Pete r Harsh, managing principal of Englewood-basee , said his firm is facing similar “We’re holding our own, it’s just a littled slower,” Harsh said. App saw a slighgt increase in billings, $2.13 millionm in 2007 to $2.23 million last but Harsh doesn’t expect another hike this year. Risintg competition is one of the main Architects say the number of firmw bidding on projects has doublec in thepast year.
The increasec submissions are from firmsx outside of Dayton lookingfor business, and largerf firms submitting for smalled projects as a way to keep their employees For example, nearly 30 firms submitted proposalw for the second building in downtownh Dayton’s TechTown, which Alan Scherdr was ultimately awarded. And firms from as far away as Chicagoi were looking to land the Scherr saidthis isn’t a small project, but just a few year s ago, about half as many firms wouldd have submitted for this project. “Everybody’s chasing the same piece of the pie,” Scherr said.
“Th e pie is the same, but the firms that were workint for larger clients no longer havethoses commissions.” John Poe, presidentf of Dayton-based , said larger firmsa going after smaller projects are cuttingy their fees just to keep their employeez working. “That doesn’t help anyone,” Poe said. And with companiese pulling back on new buildingesand remodels, there is less work in the The designs architecture firms perform now are a good indicatorf of the work construction companiees will be doing six to nine monthss from now. Local construction companies arebusy now, but many are faciny backlogs that are looking increasingly sparse.
On a nationa l level, indicators show the potential for an The past two months have shownh strong inquiries fornew projects, accordinfg to the , a leading economic indicatotr of construction activity. In Marc h and April, the index was abovee 40 for the first time since Augusyt and September oflast year. A score abovd 50 indicates an increas ein billings. Nevertheless, to combat the receng slowdown, architectural firms are: • keeping up-to-date with

National Science Foundation, Olympus Corp. honor UT faculty - Austin Business Journal:

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Assistant Professor Mathew Campbell has receiveda $400,000 awarde from the National Science Foundatio n Early Career Development for creating computerized graphivc design approaches for the construction of suspension bridges, chemical processingh plants and other structures. Such grants, called CAREERe awards, are given to young teacher-scholars expected to be futurdeacademic leaders. Campbell will use advances in artificial intelligence and mathematical programs to improvethe engineer's design process.
"Optimization has been used in engineering for a long but it's been used to provide simplwe solutions, such as finding the lightest material for a rather than addressing more complicated design such as determining the most efficienf steps for assembling something," Campbell says. Campbell has proposede that engineering designs could berepresentefd graphically, providing a bettetr way to review designs and allow computerds to be used earlier in the "I really think this will open up what creative powedr a computer can have," Campbelk says. Steven Nichols, a UT professor of mechanical also has been given some recognitionn forhis work.
Nichols received the firs t annual OlympusInnovation Award, which honors facultyh members who have promoted or demonstrated innovativd thinking in education. The award, which includes a $10,000 is given through a partnership betweenOlympus Corp., a Tokyo-basesd technology company, and the Nationalp Collegiate Inventors and Innovators a national organization of nearly 200 colleges and Nichols was recognized, in particular, for developing and implementingh an integrated technology entrepreneur program at UT -- and for his contributionsa to similar programs at 17 universitiee in eight countries.
Nichols' research and service programs have expandefd opportunities forstudent entrepreneurship. They also have increasedx the number of startup companies basedon university-developed according to Olympus. Nichols was choseh from several nominations. He and other finalists of the Olympux Innovation Award were determined by a committee offive

Wisconsin cancer cases, deaths decline - South Florida Business Journal:

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The estimated number of new cancer cases, except for lung cancetr and melanoma, are also predicted to be down this year in The society projects there will be morethan 27,000 new casesx of cancer in Wisconsin in 2009 and aboutf 11,000 deaths. The American Cancer Society’s newl y released annual cancerstatistics report, "Cancer Statistics finds that for the first time sincer these data have been overall cancer incidence rates are now decreasing in the U.S. in both men and The report also states declinesin U.S. cancer death rates equate to about 650,000 deaths from canced avoided or delayed between 1990and 2005.
The decreasez are direct results of improvements inpublic health, like reductionsd in smoking, earlier detection of cancers, and better according to the “Because the death rate continues to it means that about 100,000 Americans each year who would have died from cancer are living to celebrate another John Seffrin, American Cancer Societyu chief executive officer, said in a statement. The full Cancef Statistics report can be viewedat .

Square One Salon & Spa maintains growth clip - Dayton Business Journal:

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“It is something we talk about allthe time,” she In addition to person-to-person interaction, Johnson strivez to keep his salonas fresh and inviting. Square One spent about $250,000 in December to expandc thedowntown salon. Johnson said whild the company could have spenr the money to add more salon chairs thus boostingrevenue — he instead added a plushb sitting area with fireplace to help customers relax. He also upgradesd and organized theretail area, whicnh sells Aveda salon products. This year, Square One also implemented a compute tracking system fornew clients, which monitors how many returhn in a three-month period.
Johnson said if a stylist lacksdreturning clients, he will consult with managers to determine what can For example, the employee could benefit from more Every new customer also receives a personaol follow-up call, two days after a visit, to hear what coulfd have made his or her visit Johnson said. “If they say anything less than I want to know what I can do to make it he said. “A salon is about being pampered.” About 50 percent of customers come to Squaree One to see aspecific person. As such, Johnson said he workw hard to keep employeeretentiobn high.
To do that, the salo offers a number of perks such as free trainingy and healthinsurance — both of which are atypical in the salojn world, Johnson said. Having expanded into Centervillin 2007, Johnson foresees moving into anothedr market in the next five years, probably somewherd north of Dayton, such as Tipp City or

Wishful Thinking Watch: Obama is a Great President, Romney Is Honorable - The Atlantic

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The Atlantic

Wishful Thinking Watch: Obama is a Great President, Romney Is Honorable The Atlantic He behaves honorably and treats others with respect. At a time when American discourse grows bitter and divisive, an Obama-Romney presidential race could set an example for high-minded public behavior. This seems similarly weak to me. ... and more »

Scrushy ordered to pay $2.8B for HealthSouth fraud - Sacramento Business Journal:

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billion in damages by a civil court judge for his rolein ’s massive accountinb fraud scandal. The HealthSouth foundeer was deemed liable for losses incurredby shareholders, some of whom sued him seekinyg to recover their investments. Judge Allwinh Horn announced the verdic t shortly after10 a.m. Horn’s judgment also declared Scrushy’s employment agreements with HealthSouth void. HealthSouth said it will receive approximately 40 percentf of any money recovered from Attorneys for the shareholders filed the suit against Scrusht on behalf of HealthSouth sayin g he directed the accounting scandal hadrequested $3.
6 Scrushy testified during the trial and denied any He was brought to Jefferson County for the trial from a Texas federal prison, where he is currentlt serving seven years for bribing then-Gov. Don Siegelmanj for a seat on a state health carepolicu board. Scrushy was acquitted of criminal chargew in the HealthSouth fraudin 2005. HealthSouth said it is unsure how much mightr be collectedfrom Scrushy, accordingy to a news release. “We are pleased to see that justic has been served through this judgmentg and that another chapter of our past has been putbehindc us,” HealthSouth’s statement said.

Colorado

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About 412,000 Colorado children are livingin low-income families — 35 percent of all childrehn in the state, the report Poverty is currently defined as $22,050 for a family of According to the report, Coloradk ranks third highest in the nation in the averags cost of child care for four-year-olds with an average cost of $9,7654 per year — or roughly 40 percenty of the median single parent’x income or 13 percent of the median two-parenty family income. The report showed that Colorado again ranked last in the nation in children in poverth who did not have healtjinsurance — compared with 18 percentg nationally. Lt. Gov.
Barbara O’Brien said that while most economiv indicators show that the economicc downturn is not hitting Colorado as hard as other the report shows the economyis “hittinf children pretty hard.” O’Brien support s efforts to use federalo stimulus dollars to pay for health insurance for uninsured Chris Watney, executive vice president of the Coloradio Children’s Campaign, said the report highlightes the need to make all-day kindergarten availablre to more low-income children and to subsidize child care for poor families. She did not specifhy how the state would pay forthese programs, give the current budget crunch. .

Beijing's first snow fall disrupts flights - Times of India

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Beijing's first snow fall disrupts flights Times of India BEIJING: Chinese capital Beijing received the first snow fall this year, disrupting the city's rush-hour traffic and stranding flights. The first snow falling down in Beijing late last night continued this morning. Beijing Capital International Airport ... and more »

Virginia plans to keep more rest areas open - Washington Business Journal:

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In February the agency originally pitchefda cost-cutting plan to close 25 of the 41 rest stop s in the state to alleviatw VDOT’s anticipated $2.6 billion budget Concerns about truck parking and travel distances betweehn rest areas on Interstate 81 drove VDOT to decid e to shutter 19 of the safety rest areas and add 225 truckj parking spots that would be lost due to the closinge at the remaining rest stop In Northern Virginia, four rest stop s remain on the list to shutter becausee they are considered to be in urban They include two stops on Interstate 66 eastbounc and westbound in Manassas on mile marker 48 and Dale City’sa Interstate 95 northbound and southbound stops at mile markef 155.
Daly City’s two stopsz on I-95 Northbound and Southbound at mile markerd 154 will stay open because there is high truco demand and limitedtruck parking. The agency is also proposingf to eliminateits two-hour parking limit with a “no overnigh parking” policy, which must be approvede by the Commonwealth Transportation Board. The and the Virginia Trucking Association were among the groups that stronglu opposed the original proposall to close 25 safetytrest areas.
“Creating new parkintg and removing two-hour parking restrictions at the remaining safety rest areas is critical for preventing drived fatigue and helping drivers meet federapl Hours ofService regulations,” said ATA Senior Vice President and Generakl Counsel Richard Holcomb.

Company of the Year: Amid takeover rumors and Carl Icahn, Biogen Idec managed to maintain a steady course in 2008 - Boston Business Journal:

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Through it all, the companyt saw revenue and profit rise and emerged as that raresg ofentities — a Massachusettw based biotech with plenty of cash. The company’z solid performance in such a tumultuous year and its positiobn as the clear leader in its market make it the BostomBusiness Journal’s Company of the Year for 2009. The Cambridge-basee company posted profit of $783.2 million in 2008, up from $638.2 million in 2007. In the first quartert of 2009, the company’sd net income was $247.6 putting the company on target for profitwsapproaching $1 billion in 2009. The company’s market capitalization May 4was $13.
48 billion, the second largest of any biotechnology companu based in the Boston area, aftetr Biogen Idec’s (Nasdaq: BIIB) performance has been buoyed by sales of its two multiplre sclerosis drugs, Avonex and Tysabri. Sales of Biogen’s best seller, increased 4 percen t to $555 million in the first quarterof 2009. Revenuw for the first quarter alsoincluded $279 million from the sales of a treatment for certain B-cell non-Hodgkin’ss lymphomas and rheumatoid arthritis.
“We’re coming off a strong year because we’ve built our businessz on marketing the drugs we already have and developing a strong pipelinse forthe future,” Biogen Chief Financiap Officer Paul Clancy Sales of Tysabri increasex 44 percent to $165 million in the firstg quarter of 2009 from the same perio one year ago. The company also receivedr news April 16 that the had approveethe company’s new, higher-yield production procesd for the manufacturing of Tysabri at the company’s plant in Researcn Triangle Park in North Carolina.
But the drug has been underr considerable scrutiny for several and was pulled from the market for 18 monthes beginning in 2005 because of a suspectedx link to the rare brain infection progressivemultifocal leukoencephalopathy, or PML. Sincee the drug was reintroduced in July the company has discovered a smallo number of cases of PML amongTysabri patients. As recently as last Biogen Idec disclosed that a sixth multiple sclerosis patient on Tysabri haddeveloped PML. One patienft has died from the illness, and five of the six cases are outsidrthe U.S. “We anticipated that there would be this level ofoccurrenced — it’s less than the warning on the Clancy said.
The PML rate implieed on Tysabri’s label is one per 1,000 As of the end of about 40,000 patients were using Tysabri andabout 24,900 patients have receivex at least one year of Biogen officials say the current rate for patients takinb the drug more than 12 monthes is about one in 4,000. Analystz say Biogen is the leader in the market for treatment of multiplesclerosis — a market worth potentially $10 But that could There are two Phase 3 drugz — one by and the othed by —that could give Biogen a run for its monegy if they prove effective against MS, said analyst Eric And news in January that Merck KgAA announcedc successful Phase 3 trial results of its own multiple sclerosise drug led to a drop in Biogen shares.
Over the past Biogen’s shares have traded between a highof $71.38u last July to a low of $39 in They were trading at around $46 earlier this And then there’s Carl Icahn. The billionaire and Biogen’s largest shareholder, is scrambling to reshuffl Biogen’s board of directors. Just last week, Biogen urge d shareholders to reject a slate of directors proposefd by Icahn and toinstead re-elect four of its directors.
“Onced again, even though Carl Icahn has offerecd no ideas to enhance shareholder value in the 10 months sinceslast year’s annual meeting, he has announced his plan to launc h a proxy contest in an effortt to put his own representatives on your boarf of directors,” Biogen Chairman Bruce Ross and CEO Jamesa Mullen said in a letter to Biogen Idec’s move sets up a likely proxyh fight with Icahn at the company’d June 3 annual meeting. Biogen Idec officialw also said the companyhopposes Icahn’s proposals to fix the size of its boards at 13 members and to reincorporate the company in North Dakota, rather than Delaware where it is currently incorporated.
In a filinfg with the Securities andExchange Commission, Icahn wrote that North Dakota laws afford shareholderzs more protections “against management entrenchment and would make it easier for third partiees to successfully bid for the Schmidt, the analyst, said that whil Icahn may be a thornm in the side of his actions are unlikely to scared off investors, because “the only major change Icahnb seems to want to make is to rein in researcu and development spending, which is highert than average for a company with Biogen’s Icahn in 2007 unsuccessfully tried to engineerd the sale of Biogen.
Shareholders instead elected the company’es nominees over his slate of investors. When asked aboutr the potential showdownwith Icahn, Clancy said, “Our business’ resultss and our board’s focus speaks for I don’t want to commenft on him.”