The Consumer Memo, 10/15:CVS, Walgreen shift to H1N1 flu vaccines from seasonal shots

Update: FDA error on Nyquil warning
Preparing for the next waveCVS Caremark Corp. and Walgreen Co. will stop providing seasonal flu vaccines at many locations to shift their focus to swine flu immunization.

CVS will halt its seasonal flu clinics Oct. 22. Based on availability, it will continue to offer the vaccine through 500 MinuteClinics in 25 states throughout the flu season.
Walgreen will not restock the seasonal flu vaccine after it runs out, said James Cohn, a company spokesman.

Fear of pandemic swine flu, also known as H1N1, has heightened public awareness in the U.S. of seasonal influenza, causing vaccine shortages at doctors’ offices, clinics and retail drugstores. Manufacturers are behind in delivering supplies because they’re using factories to make both vaccines.

“Our goal has always been to shift our resources to H1N1 in mid-October,” Cohn said by telephone. “So, with seasonal vaccines, when we’re out, we’re out.”

Nyquil error
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it didn’t send a warning letter about the marketing of Vicks DayQuil Plus Vitamin C and Vicks NyQuil Plus Vitamin C to Procter & Gamble Co.

“Yesterday, a warning letter to Procter & Gamble regarding Vicks DayQuil Plus Vitamin C and Vicks NyQuil Plus Vitamin C products was posted to the FDA Web site in error,” the agency said in a statement on its Web site today. “The posting occurred due to an internal systems error, and no warning letter has been sent to Procter & Gamble.”

Christopher Kelly, an FDA spokesman, declined to comment further.

A healthy trend
ConAgra Foods Inc. will cut sodium from the food it manufactures by 20 percent in the next five years, the maker of Chef Boyardee and Hebrew National said Thursday.

ConAgra said its decision will affect as many as 20 brands and 160 varieties of products, from Hunt’s tomatoes to Marie Callendar’s frozen meals.

It's Anheuser-Busch Live!
Anheuser-Busch is buying all the national ads on this week’s edition of comedy mainstay “Saturday Night Live” to launch its new brew, Bud Light Golden Wheat.

The brewer and NBC Universal announced the sponsorship deal Thursday. This Saturday’s episode will mark the first time in the 35-year history of “Saturday Night Live” that one advertiser has bought all of the national ads for the show.

The sponsorship also includes a segment called “Backstage with Bud Light Golden Wheat” that will show never-before-aired clips from SNL through the years.

Twitter speaks Japanese
Twitter Inc. now speaks Japanese — and it plans to be multilingual within months.

The popular microblogging service launched a Japan-based mobile version Thursday, hoping to penetrate a country where other U.S. social networking sites including Facebook and MySpace have failed to capture much ground.

Late card payments
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. said more customers fell behind on payments in September and Credit Suisse AG forecast losses will mount for at least another year.

Payments at least 30 days overdue, a signal of future losses, climbed at JPMorgan to 4.69 percent from 4.48 percent in August.

Bank of America’s overdue card loans climbed to 7.53 percent from 7.47 percent, according to a separate filing. Both said actual write-offs of uncollectible loans fell for the month.

Amazon launches limited same-day shipping
Amazon.com Inc., gearing up for the year-end holiday season, introduced a shipping service that provides same-day delivery to customers in seven U.S. cities.
Local Express Delivery covers New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Las Vegas, Seattle and Washington, D.C., the company said. Amazon.com will charge $5.99 per item for members of a program called Amazon Prime, which costs $79 a year. For others, charges will depend on the product.

The same-day service will be extended to Chicago, Indianapolis and Phoenix in the coming months, the company said.