Utah consumers may be eligible to take part in a $36 million nationwide settlement with the maker of the antidepressant Remeron. Attorney General Mark Shurtleff announced today that a preliminary settlement has been reached after a ten-month investigation into Organon USA Inc. and its parent company Akzo Nobel N.V. If the proposed settlement is approved by a federal judge, the money will go to state agencies and thousands of consumers.

"What this drug company did was wrong. Now it’s time for Organon to pay up for deceiving the government and preventing consumers from getting lower-cost drugs," says Shurtleff.

Organon allegedly misled the Food and Drug Administration about the scope of a new "combination therapy" patent in order to extend its monopoly for the drug. The drug company also allegedly delayed listing the patent with the FDA in another effort to delay the availability of lower-cost generic substitutes. This resulted in higher prices to those who paid for the drug. With annual sales in excess of $400 million at its peak, Remeron is Organon’s top-selling drug.

Utah consumers will be among consumers nationwide who can submit claims for reimbursement. If the settlement is approved, a claims process will be set up for consumers who purchased Remeron or its generic equivalents between June 15, 2001 and the present. Utah will also receive money to compensate state agencies that purchased Remeron or its generic equivalent. Assistant Attorney General Ronald Ockey represented Utah during settlement discussions.

10:58:14 AM    

Salt Lake City – For the second year in a row, Utah is ranked as the top entrepreneurial state in the nation per capita. That’s according to the 23rd annual Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies compiled by Inc. magazine. According to the special issue that will hit newsstands on October 26, Utah has the highest number of Inc. 500 companies per capita in the U.S with 6.8 per million residents. Virginia is a distant second with 3.9 per million residents.

"Utah has a healthy business environment and well-educated workforce and we are proud of the entrepreneurial spirit of our companies," said Utah Gov. Olene Walker.

Sixteen Utah companies made this year’s list, compared to 14 companies in 2003 and four companies in 2002. The Inc. 500 ranks privately held companies according to averaged year-over-year sales growth over the past four years. Orem-based uSight, a company that sells do-it-yourself software programs to small and medium-sized businesses, ranked second on the list of the top 10 companies. It had an average annual sales growth of 3,283 percent and revenue in 2003 was $27.6 million.

"Placing second on the Inc. 500 is a great honor," said Brandt Andersen, CEO of uSight. "This could not have been achieved without hard work from everyone employed at uSight."

"We are honored to be ranked 189th on the prestigious Inc. 500 listing this year," said FatPipe Network's President and CEO, Ragula Bhaskar, Ph.D "The efforts of our talented staff, the response of our loyal, happy customers, and FatPipe's dynamic company culture have resulted in consistent growth in terms of market position, company size and revenue."

Utah companies making the list this year include: uSight, Orem, 2nd; Edge Products, Ogden, 30th; Hobbytron.com, Orem, 45th; iBoats Inc., Draper, 48th; USA Lending Group, Salt Lake City, 70th; Backcountry.com, Heber, 93rd; Summit Energy, Park City, 96th; Ibahn (STSN Inc.), Midvale, 104th; Ikano Communications, Salt Lake City, 132nd; FatPipe Networks Inc., Salt Lake City, 189th; Pro Look Sports Corp., Provo, 199th; DieCuts with a View, Provo, 228th; Back to Basics Inc., Bluffdale, 250th; Café Rio Inc., Provo, 368th; ChartLogic Inc., Salt Lake City, 445th; and Studeo, Salt Lake City, 474th.

To be eligible for this year's Inc. 500, companies had to be independent and privately held through their fiscal year 2003, have had at least $200,000 in net sales in the base year of 1999 for Inc. 500 alumni and 2000 for new applicants, and $2 million in net sales for 2003. In addition, their 2003 sales had to exceed 2002 sales.

10:51:34 AM    

At the Governor’s Mansion, Gov. Olene Walker recognized a handful of Utah's cities, counties, and special service districts for being the first to receive their Quality Growth Communities certification.

Earlier this year, the Quality Growth Commission implemented the Quality Growth Communities program. This program is a voluntary, technically-assisted program that is intended to provide priority access to state funds and other incentives in order to promote responsible and intelligent growth. Benefits will be available to communities that are certified as "Quality Growth Communities," or to special districts, transit districts, and other service providers certified as "Quality Growth Service Providers."

A Quality Growth Community recognizes the impact it has on neighboring communities and seeks to cooperate to solve common problems while protecting private property rights. To become certified, a community must be engaged in an enhanced community planning process, including working closely with neighboring communities on areas of common concern.

"A Quality Growth Community creates a responsible balance between the protection of natural resources - land, air, and water - and the requisite development of residential, commercial, and industrial land to accommodate our expanding economy and population," said Walker. "I invite all Utah communities to participate in this program in order to strategically plan for a more promising tomorrow. The most valuable benefit of the program is the exercise of looking at where a community is, where it wants to be, and how it is going to get there."

The recipients are as follows:

• Summit County
• Tooele County
• Carbon County
• Salt Lake City
• American Fork
• Murray City
• Midvale City
• West Valley City
• Sandy City
• Provo City
• West Jordan City
• Riverton City
• Draper City
• Payson City
• West Point City
• Roy City
• Orem City
• Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District
• Utah Transit Authority

10:49:17 AM    

(Salt Lake City, UT) - With temperatures dropping throughout Utah, mosquito activity is declining in the colder regions of the state, thereby decreasing the risk of West Nile virus (WNV) and signaling the close of public health’s official monitoring season. Mosquitoes should stop biting when temperatures reach 27 degrees for two to three days. But for now, the Utah Department of Health (UDOH) believes Utahns participating in fall outdoor activities like hunting or fishing in warmer climates should still wear DEET and cover up to avoid mosquito bites.

As of October 15, 2004, Utah detected: (Italicized areas are new 2004 detections)

• WNV in 11 of Utah’s 29 counties in 2004.
• 11 cases of WNV in humans, five of which were neuroinvasive (meningitis/encephalitis). Human cases of WNV were identified in six counties, four of which were new detections. The six counties included Box Elder, Davis, Utah, Duchesne (2), Salt Lake (2), and Washington (4).
• Of the 3,489 mosquito pools that were submitted, 144 tested WNV positive from Duchesne (22), Grand (91), Salt Lake (5), San Juan (1), Uintah (3), and Washington (22) counties.
• 5 Utah horses with WNV from Grand, Salt Lake (2), Uintah, and Washington counties. Two out-of-state horses tested positive (Arizona, Nevada) and 68 domestic horses have been tested. 
• 28 individual sentinel chickens (out of 360) tested WNV positive from Duchesne (16), Emery (2), Grand (1), and Washington (9) counties.
• 3 birds (out of 200 submitted) were WNV positive from Grand (magpie), Kane (raven), and San Juan (Scrub jay) counties.

The steady, westward spread of West Nile Virus and the explosion of cases in Colorado in 2003 indicated that the intermountain states were next, but Utah fared much better than Arizona and even Nevada and California. It is not possible to calculate how many cases were prevented, but Utah public health agencies led an aggressive prevention and education campaign. The media campaign, "Fight the Bite: From Dusk to Dawn, Put Your DEET On," ran through September. The UDOH allocated $50,000 in prevention funds to reach the public with important messages. A partnership with the Utah Advertising Federation (UAF) yielded about $180,000 in message value. The UDOH would like to thank the UAF, TV, radio, and print media partners and all others who contributed toward helping to save the lives of Utahns. The Utah Department of Health is conducting a follow-up survey to determine the impact that the campaign had on the public’s behavior.

"We got a great jumpstart on West Nile virus this year due to the partnership between public health, Agriculture, Natural Resources and mosquito control," said Scott D. Williams, M.D., Executive Director, UDOH. "The generous donation of media time negotiated through the UAF, the coverage by the news media, the response of the public, and the funding from the Utah Legislature for mosquito control in a difficult budget year completed the package helping Utah get through the season much better than surrounding states. We hope to sustain these efforts for the next couple of years."

In addition to the media campaign, hundreds of state, local and grassroots efforts took place to educate the public through the creation of helpful materials; the delivery of presentations and workshops as well as through valuable news coverage. The UDOH spent $10,000 on DEET products to reach migrant workers, homeless people, Native American reservations and other high-risk groups.

The UDOH would like to thank all agencies that helped Utah have a milder than expected WNV season including Utah’s 12 local health departments, laboratories/ the Utah Public Health Laboratory, blood banks, the Utah Mosquito Abatement Association, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food.

10:46:44 AM