Bayer HealthCare announced Wednesday that it abercrombie and fitch will invest more than $100 million to upgrade and improve its Berkeley manufacturing capabilities, a decision that dispels fears the pharmaceutical giant and the city's largest private employer would exit.
The decision by Bayer HealthCare to manufacture future versions of its hemophilia drug Kogenate isn't just about the patients. It's also a major relief for Berkeley and Oakland. Earlier this year, Bayer hinted it was considering a move out of Berkeley.
"There has definitely been a lot of bad news with abercrombie and fitch NUMMI leaving and the threat of Bayer possibly leaving, so it's nice to finally give people some good news," said Tom Bates, mayor of Berkeley. "This is not just important for Berkeley but for the region as well."
This is the largest investment ever made by Bayer on the Berkeley site, said Joerg Heidrich, head of Bayer HealthCare's product supply biotech organization.
nation
abercrombie and fitch sues Beyoncé
Teen clothing retailer abercrombie and fitch is suing singer Beyoncé Knowles over her plans for a fragrance named after Sasha Fierce, her alter ego.
Abercrombie & Fitch says in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that Knowles' intent to use the name constitutes trademark infringement, unfair competition and deceptive trade practices.
New Albany, Ohio-based Abercrombie says its Abercrombie & Fitch Trading Co. subsidiary has owned the Fierce trademark since 2002 for its own men's fragrance.
It asks the court to order Knowles to halt her plan to sell a fragrance with a similar name.
abercrombie and fitch says sales of its fragrance have exceeded $190 million. It projects 2009 sales at $64 million.
washington
Fed looks at medium-size lenders
Federal Reserve supervisors are examining the vulnerability of medium-size lenders to falling commercial real-estate values to gauge the size of potential losses across the banking system.
The Fed is focusing on banks smaller than the 19 largest lenders examined in detail in May, a central bank official said on condition of anonymity. The process involves gathering data from individual banks and comparing it with their peers, an approach known internally as a "horizontal review."
Policymakers need to estimate the timing for a revival in bank lending when deciding when to withdraw emergency credit programs and record monetary stimulus. While the Fed has pumped billions of dollars of liquidity into financial institutions, total bank credit to the economy grew just 2 percent in August compared with the same month last year, according to Fed data.
