Caraco Pharma
lays off 350 after FDA seizes drugs over quality problems The Detroit generic drug
maker Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories Ltd. said Monday it is laying
off its 350 production employees "in order to align its expenses
with the current voluntary cessation of its manufacturing operations
in connection with the recent action by the United States Food and Drug
Administration." Caraco said the date for resuming manufacturing
"in whole or in part, depends on the outcome of discussions with
the FDA ... The company may recall some employees to assist us in any
remedial action plan that is developed based on such discussions."
The FDA seized drugs and pharmaceutical ingredients June 25 made at
Caraco's Detroit, Farmington Hills and Wixom locations. The FDA said
the seizure was based on "the company's continued failure to meet
the FDA's current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) requirements."
More.
Rave
Computer moves to new, larger HQ A
contract computer manufacturer is moving to new and larger space in
Sterling Heights. Rave Computer Inc. will move from a building off 16
Mile Road near Van Dyke to a newer, larger building off 14 Mile Road
between Mound and Van Dyke. Company president Rick Darter says the new
location, at 7171 Sterling Ponds Court, offers more modern space and
more elbow room. It's 35,000 square feet in size. Previously, the company's
operations were split between two locations that totaled 27,000 square
feet. More.
Detroit
Medical Center
to partner with health info exchange
The Detroit Medical Center, with eight hospitals
and more than 3,000 physicians, Monday announced an agreement with Bingham
Farms-based my1HIE (My One Health Information Exchange) LLC. DMC hospitals
and affiliated physicians will now be a part of a growing network of
electronically connected healthcare professionals across southeast Michigan.
This relationship extends the integration of the electronic medical
records technology, already in use at the DMC. DMC is the first and
only Michigan hospital system with 100 percent doctors’ computerized
orders, 100 percent medication scanning and a fully implemented EMR
program. This partnership extends the DMC electronic reach to physicians
across the metropolitan region. More.
Altair gets
new reseller in UK Troy-based Altair Engineering
Inc. said Monday that the English engineering technology provider Intrinsys
has joined the Altair HyperWorks channel partner program to resell Altair's
CATIA V5 integrated optimization technology, HyperShape/CATIA, to the
United Kingdom design and engineering community. HyperShape/CATIA is
a direct integration between Dassault Systemes' CATIA V5 solution and
Altair's award-winning design optimization technology, OptiStruct. More.
ProQuest
to offer new, unified interface
Ann Arbor-based ProQuest Monday announced
it will roll out an entirely new interface platform. The company said
the new system will "redefine the search experience" with
single-point access to ProQuest content. Available in 2010, the new
platform will transform the company’s highly regarded platforms
into one unified search experience, providing access to a broad range
of resources, content, and services that only ProQuest offers. The ProQuest,
CSA Illumina and selected Chadwyck-Healey products will be available
on the new platform at launch, and all ProQuest products will migrate
to the new platform over time. More.
UM: Common
chemical in consumer products may cause early birth
A new study of expectant mothers
suggests that a group of common environmental contaminants called phthalates,
which are present in many industrial and consumer products including
everyday personal care items, may contribute to the country's alarming
rise in premature births. Researchers at the University of Michigan
School of Public Health found that women who deliver prematurely have,
on average, up to three times the phthalate level in their urine compared
to women who carry to term. More.
Michigan
economy: Better, but still bleak An improving Michigan economy
may be on the horizon, but the outlook is still grim for the rest of
this year and into 2010, say University of Michigan economists. "The
light at the end of Michigan's long economic tunnel, which residents
have been yearning to see, eludes us still as we encounter yet another
bend in the track -- the national recession that intensified at the
end of last summer, a corresponding collapse in motor vehicle sales
and the mushrooming troubles of the domestic automakers," said
George Fulton, director of UM's Research Seminar in Quantitative Economics.
"We do see some improvement, but it will continue to be slow and
difficult." More.
Teoma
standardizes on Ruckus Wireless 'Smart Wi-Fi' Troy-based Teoma Systems,
a leading voice, data and video solutions systems integrator, announced
Monday that it had standardized on Ruckus Wireless ZoneFlex Smart Wireless
LAN products and technology for all of its VoIP and next-generation
wireless LAN deployments. Teoma Systems will provide the Ruckus Smart
Wi-Fi equipment to its clients in the hospitality, education and manufacturing
arenas. Teoma's choice to exclusively offer Smart Wi-Fi to its clients
stems from the superior performance, ease of use and affordable price
of the Ruckus equipment. More.
David
Mielke is dean of the College
of Business at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti. After
working as an investment banker and a corporate treasurer for
six years, Mielke joined academia in 1980. During part of his19
years at Marquette University in Milwaukee, he served as dean
and started an international business program. He then served
as dean of the College of Business at Grand Valley State University
until 2004, when he moved to EMU. Mielke has been involved in
energy projects, economic development, and international partnerships
since the mid-1980s. He developed and funded the Michigan Alternative
and Renewable Energy Center in Muskegon, the first gold “LEED”
building in Michigan and the nation’s first to integrate
a fuel cell, photovoltaics, and a nickel metal hydride battery
storage system. While at GVSU, he brought the federal Small
Business Administration’s Small Business Development Center
state headquarters there. In the past two years, he has signed
10 partnership agreements with universities in Korea, China,
India, Pakistan, and Yemen to bring students to EMU supported
by scholarship programs. In addition, EMU has launched an undergraduate
degree in international business, a supply chain management
undergraduate major and minor, and the first online integrated
marketing communication graduate program at any business school
in the U.S. Read
more.
Do you know a business, professional or community leader whom you think deserves being honored as a Leader and Innovator?
Click here to nominate them.
Six Wayne State teams chase entrepreneurial
dreams
What do six student groups plus six great entrepreneurial
ideas equal? Wayne State University officials think it may be a key
to boosting our economy and the start of great careers for their students.
With the launch of a new student program, E2Challenge,
WSU is supporting six student teams, with the help of funding from the
Michigan Initiative for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, in their
efforts to explore the potential of their own start-up company and prepare
their ideas for outside investment over the course of the summer.
Twenty-six student teams competed for six slots
to receive summer-long mentoring and support for their company ideas.
Each selected group is given the opportunity to pursue their own independent
start-up company over the summer at TechTown, while receiving substantial
guidance and assistance, with each team member receiving $7,500 over
the course of the program.
“It is important that we find creative ways
to inspire our student body to consider starting their own new ventures
as a viable career option,” said Eric Stief, director of Venture
Development and the E2Challenge program at WSU. “Typically our
graduates focus more on finding traditional employee roles, and do not
give new company formation much thought. Plus, many parents try to shy
their kids away from an entrepreneurial life right after college because
of the great difficulty to get a company off the ground. By giving students
a chance to consider an entrepreneurial path before they graduate, we
may be able to launch students into career paths they may not have considered
otherwise.”
WSU’s goal to retain talent in Michigan and
boost our economy may be aided through this extraordinary program. The
E2Challenge aims to identify solid entrepreneurial ideas that lead to
future startup companies for the State of Michigan and also aims to
foster the entrepreneurial spirit on campus.
Note: For
information on how you can sponsor content in the Blue Box, contact
Jeff Lasser at (248) 455-7319 or
jeff.lasser@cbsradio.com.
THE WORLD IN TECH
Social
Security numbering system cracked, report claims For all the concern about
identity theft, researchers say there's a surprisingly easy way for
the technology-savvy to figure out the precious nine digits of Americans'
Social Security numbers. "It's good that we found it before the
bad guys," Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie-Mellon University in
Pittsburgh said of the method for predicting the numbers. Acquisti and
Ralph Gross report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences that they were able to make the predictions using
data available in public records as well as information such as birthdates
cheerfully provided on social networks such as Facebook. More.
Microsoft
warns of serious computer security hole
Microsoft Corp. has taken the rare
step of warning about a serious computer security vulnerability it hasn't
fixed yet. The vulnerability disclosed Monday affects Internet Explorer
users whose computers run the Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 operating
software. It can allow hackers to remotely take control of victims'
machines. The victims don't need to do anything to get infected except
visit a Web site that's been hacked. Security experts say criminals
have been attacking the vulnerability for nearly a week. Thousands of
sites have been hacked to serve up malicious software that exploits
the vulnerability. People are drawn to these sites by clicking a link
in spam e-mail. More.
Popular
Tehran Bureau site covers Iran from Massachusetts The
updates shot quickly onto the Tehran Bureau Web site as postelection
chaos gripped Iran: angry street protests, random police beatings, a
defiant warning from the ayatollah of more violence to come. In a matter
of weeks, Kelly Golnoush Niknejad's news outlet became a must-read for
many who closely followed the disputed re-election of Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yet Niknejad is not operating from a clandestine
office in the Iranian capital, but from a laptop in the quaint living
room of Niknejad's parents' suburban Boston home. The sleep-deprived
42-year-old, who created the site to fill a void she saw in fair journalism
from and about her homeland, said she often works in wee hours of the
night to follow Iran in real time. She has no staff and feeds the English-language
site using Facebook updates, Flickr photos, reprinted material from
news agencies and dispatches from about 20 or so volunteer correspondents
in and near Iran, many risking their lives to send out what information
they can. More.
Senate to
post staff salaries, expenses on the Web
How your senators are spending their
multimillion-dollar budgets for staff salaries, travel and office expenses
may soon be just a computer mouse click away. The Senate is planning
to follow the House in posting office expenses on the Internet instead
of in volumes that must to be purchased or viewed in Capitol office
buildings. The idea, says Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., is to let people
see what their lawmakers are doing with their taxpayer-funded office
accounts -- and hold their feet to the fire for questionable expenses.
More.
Stocks:
Techs stumble as overall market frets about recovery
Stocks ended mostly lower Monday
as drops in prices for oil and other commodities had investors worrying
again that demand for basic materials may remain slack. The major market
indexes closed mixed but off of their lows for the day. The drop in
oil to a five-week low pushed energy and commodities stocks lower and
sent investors into safe-haven parts of the market, like consumer goods
producers. Back-and-forth trading Monday followed conflicting signs
about the economy. Oil skidded on fears of weak demand, while a trade
group's report found that activity in the services industry rose in
June to its best level in nine months. Investors have become more cautious
in recent weeks following a strong rally that began in March. Some traders
fear they might have been too optimistic about how soon the economy
might recover from a recession that began in December 2007 (but which
the government didn't admit existed until after the November 2008 election).
More.
The Nasdaq Composite Index (COMP)
fell 9.12 points or 0.5 percent to 1,787.4. The Dow Jones Industrial
Average ($INDU)
rose 44.13 points or 0.5 percent, to 8,324.87. The Philadelphia Semiconductor
Index ($SOX)
fell 3.57 points or 1.4 percent to 260.24. The Morgan Stanley High Tech
35 Index (MSH)
fell 2.45 points or 0.6 percent to 440.99. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical
Index (DRG)
rose 2.53 points or 1 percent to 260.05. The NYSE Arca Biotech Index
(BTK)
fell 5.15 points or 0.8 percent to 659.39. Finally, the Standard & Poor's
500 (SPX)
rose 2.3 points or 0.3 percent to 898.72.
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All Rights Reserved. Written and edited by Matt Roush, Technology Editor,
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