Business Digest

REGION

Dialysis center to open

BOARDMAN — Boardman Dialysis Center will open in December in a 10,000-square-foot space in Tiffany Plaza, at the corner of Tiffany Boulevard and Boardman-Poland Road, according to Kutlick Realty.

NATION

$5M settlement for Ohio

COLUMBUS — Ohio will get $5 million as part of a global settlement with drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis, which was accused of cheating Medicaid on the cost of nasal sprays. The settlement was first announced in May and totals $95.5 million. Ohio Attorney General Richard Cordray announced the state’s share Friday.

The money will be paid by Aventis Pharmaceutical Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sanofi-Aventis U.S. LLC. The U.S. Justice Department charged that between 1995 and 2000, Aventis and its corporate predecessors did not offer Medicaid the best prices for the sprays Azmacort, Nasacort and Nasacort AQ. Medicaid is a state and federally funded health- care program for the poor.

Paper suspends publishing

ROYAL OAK, Mich. — A new Detroit-area newspaper, the Detroit Daily Press, which hit the streets Nov. 23 and had planned home delivery next week, says it will stop publishing until after Jan. 1.

On its Facebook page, the paper said Friday that there has been a lack of advertising, sales and distribution, which the paper called “just a bump in the road.”

Publishers Mark and Gary Stern say they created the paper to provide seven-day-a-week home delivery after The Detroit News and Detroit Free Press reduced home delivery to three days a week.

Bankruptcy filings rise

WASHINGTON — Bankruptcy filings in federal courts jumped by more than one-third this year, as businesses and individuals struggled to regain their footing in a weakened economy.

New numbers from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts show about 1.4 million bankruptcy cases were filed this fiscal year. That’s up 34.5 percent compared with the more than 1 million cases filed last fiscal year. The bankruptcy figures cover a period from Oct. 1, 2008, to Sept. 30.

Filings under Chapters 7, 11, 12 and 13 all rose — particularly filings for Chapter 11 protection, which increased 68 percent. Overall, business filings were up 52 percent, while nonbusiness filings rose by 34 percent.

Vindicator staff/wire reports