Briefs

Superstorm Sandy’s record blackouts laid bare the U.S. electrical grid’s vulnerability to wind and floods and renewed calls for utilities to invest billions to bury power lines. Sandy cut power to more than 8.5 million homes and businesses across 21 states. Some U.S. utilities have balked at moving more infrastructure underground, arguing it would cost about $2.1 million per mile and mean higher utility bills for consumers. Consolidated Edison, owner of New York City’s utility, says underground power systems are not fail-safe. Exelon’s Baltimore Gas and Electric, however, has already moved more than 60 percent of its system below ground and is stepping up tree-trimming to prevent storm devastation.

In a race to be first on the market with a new class of medicines, Amgen, Sanofi, and Pfizer have developed experimental heart drugs that studies showed lowered cholesterol levels in patients taking statins such as Pfizer’s Lipitor. The drugs target the cholesterol-regulating gene PCSK9 in the liver to reduce LDL, the “bad” cholesterol, by as much as 73 percent in patients taking statins. Cholesterol therapies are already a $39 billion market, and new approaches that target PCSK9 could top $10 billion in sales, according to RBC Capital Markets.