New stocks listings inside today’s section

The Lawrence Journal-World unveils new streamlined stock listings today with a focus on local stocks and 401(k)s.

A weekly overview of stocks and mutual funds will appear on Sundays.

Contact Business Editor Mark Fagan – 832-7188 or mfagan@ljworld.com – if there is a stock or fund you want added to the weekday listing.

Survey

Lawrence employers ease hiring plans

Employers in the Lawrence are slowing their high-speed plans for boosting payrolls, according to a new survey.

Twenty percent of Lawrence-area employers plan to add employees during the next three months, according to a survey released Monday by Manpower Inc. That was down from 40 percent heading into the third quarter a year ago.

On the bright side: “There’s no reductions planned,” said Nancy Slabaugh, area manager for Manpower in Lawrence.

Statewide, 30 percent of employers plan to add employees, up from 29 percent a year earlier, according to the survey. Nationwide, 31 percent of employers foresee adding workers during the coming quarter.

Regulation

USDA faces organic lawsuit

An organic soap company and a consumer group sued the Agriculture Department on Monday for ordering the removal of its “USDA Organic” seal from personal care products and cosmetics.

The department created the label in 2002 to attest to organic claims on food labels, but makers of several products also were welcome to get certified to use the seal.

Department officials reversed their policy in April, saying cosmetics and other personal care products no longer could be government-certified as organic.

David Bronner, president of Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, joined the Organic Consumers Assn. in filing the suit, saying that losing the certification would keep him from getting higher prices for his products.

Research

Court frees firms to use rival drugs

The Supreme Court gave drug companies more freedom to develop new disease-fighting therapies, ruling Monday that rival firms’ patents do not bar them from starting research on competing medications.

The unanimous ruling set aside a lower-court ruling for patent holder Integra LifeSciences Holdings Corp. It means that major pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lilly & Co. and Pfizer Inc. can start experiments sooner, leading to faster drug development, perhaps billions in savings and lower costs for consumers.

Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said a lower court was wrong to automatically prohibit early stage research conducted to identify new drugs. Such experiments are OK so long as the drug could not be feasibly be marketed until after a rival’s patent expired, he said.