Business digest 06/16/05

OPEC boosts output, but petroleum prices rise

VIENNA, Austria -- OPEC failed to cool the sizzling global energy market on Wednesday with pledges to increase its crude production target by half a million barrels a day and consider a second boost of that size later this year. Instead, oil prices rose following the cartel's decision to raise its daily output ceiling from 27.5 million barrels to 28 million barrels beginning July 1. Light sweet crude for July delivery rose 60 cents to $55.60 per barrel in afternoon trade on the New York Mercantile Exchange, putting oil futures roughly 50 percent higher than a year ago. Analysts derided Wednesday's decision by the 11-nation Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries as purely symbolic, since the group already is exceeding the higher quota.

Flu vaccine maker reduces number of doses

SAN FRANCISCO -- Chiron Corp. said Wednesday it may not deliver as many flu shots this year as it had promised, prompting the biotechnology company to cut its 2005 financial forecast. The Emeryville, Calif.-based company, one of only two major makers of the nation's flu vaccine, caused a public health scare in October when it failed to deliver 50 million shots at the beginning of flu season because of manufacturing problems. That was about half the nation's expected vaccine supply. Chiron said its Liverpool, England, factory is still plagued with problems and that it now plans to produce 18 million to 26 million doses of its Fluvirin vaccine for the 2005-2006 season, down from a previous forecast of 25 million to 30 million doses.

Paris Hilton ad tapped to sell spicier burgers

ST. LOUIS -- A racy ad featuring a swimsuit-clad Paris Hilton eating a burger and washing a Bentley sparked a controversy on the West Coast. Now it's coming to the Midwest and other markets. Despite protests from the Los Angeles-based Parents Television Council -- whose spokeswoman last month referred to the ad as "soft-core porn" -- California-based CKE Restaurants Inc. has no plans to tone down the spot. The ad featuring the socialite touting the Spicy BBQ Six Dollar Burger for the Carl's Jr. chain has been airing in western markets. It will begin airing the week of June 27 in the Midwest and Southeast to promote Hardee's Spicy BBQ Thickburger, a barbecue-sauced burger with battered slivers of onions and jalapenos. Brad Haley, marketing vice president for the company's Carl's Jr. and Hardee's chains, said, "It was designed to be a racy ad, but we don't consider it pornographic."

Bristol-Myers paying $300 million to feds

NEWARK, N.J. -- Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. agreed to pay $300 million in a deal to defer federal prosecution of a conspiracy charge stemming from an accounting scandal, the U.S. attorney's office in New Jersey said Wednesday. Two of its former executives also were indicted for their alleged roles in the same scandal. With Wednesday's payment, Bristol-Myers has doled out about $800 million to settle lawsuits and investigations tied to the incentives it paid wholesalers to stockpile inventory, inflating sales and earnings.

-- From wire reports