BUSINESS NEWS DIGEST | GOP challenges proposed deal

GOP challenges proposed deal

WASHINGTON

Leading House Republicans are challenging a deal that federal and state officials have offered to five big U.S. banks that would change the handling of foreclosures and force lenders to modify more mortgages.

The Republicans sent a letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner saying the offer would fundamentally alter the rules long governing the mortgage industry. It asks Geithner to explain the legal justification the government has to try imposing such sweeping changes.

Federal regulators and attorneys general of the 50 states offered the terms to the large banks last week, following weeks of talks over revelations that the lenders cut corners and used flawed documents to foreclose on many home borrowers.

Cost of pregnancy drug skyrockets

ATLANTA

The price of preventing preterm labor is about to go through the roof.

A drug for high-risk pregnant women had cost about $10 to $20 per injection. Next week, the price shoots up to $1,500 a dose.

That’s because the drug, a form of progesterone given as a weekly shot, has been made cheaply for years, mixed in special pharmacies that custom-compound treatments that are not federally approved.

But recently, KV Pharmaceutical of suburban St.Louis won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, known as Makena. The March of Dimes and many obstetricians supported that because it means quality will be more consistent and it will be easier to get.

None of them anticipated the dramatic price hike, though — especially since most of the cost for development and research was shouldered by others in the past.