AIRLINES

New bargain fares to Europe from Northeast

Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle is promising to boost traffic at smaller airports on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean when it starts service to Europe this summer from Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York.

Norwegian Air announced Thursday that it is opening new flight crew bases and plans to hire pilots and flight attendants at T.F. Green Airport in Providence, R.I., and Stewart International Airport in Newburgh, N.Y., about 60 miles north of New York City. Year-round flights from those airports to Edinburgh, Scotland, begin in June, and to four airports in Ireland and Northern Ireland in July.

There also will be flights to Edinburgh from Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport, near Hartford.

One-way flights bound for Europe started at $65 for the first 10,000 seats and were already selling out Thursday morning. Once the introductory phase is over, flights will start at $99. Some Europe-bound flights were on sale for more than $300 on the airline’s website Thursday.

The company won permission from the Obama administration in December for its disputed plan to expand flights to the United States.

Several large U.S. airlines and their labor unions opposed the expansion, arguing that it would threaten U.S. jobs. They have accused Norwegian Air of getting around Norway’s labor and tax laws by operating new flights with a subsidiary based in Ireland called Norwegian Air International.

— Associated Press

PHARMACEUTICALS

Ex-drug executives deny fraud charges

A former Valeant Pharmaceuticals International executive and the former chief executive of the mail-order pharmacy Philidor Rx Services pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges that they orchestrated a multimillion-dollar fraud and kickback scheme.

Federal prosecutors accused Gary Tanner, who was a senior director at the Canadian drugmaker Valeant, of working with former Philidor chief executive Andrew Davenport to drive business and funding from Valeant to Philidor. That, prosecutors said, was part of a scheme that netted Davenport $40 million, $10 million of which was kicked back to Tanner.

Founded in 2013 and headquartered in Pennsylvania, the now-defunct Philidor was a specialty mail-order pharmacy formed with Valeant’s assistance, prosecutors said. At least 90 percent of the drugs it dispensed were Valeant-branded products, they said.

Tanner and Davenport were indicted on four counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

— Reuters

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