Business news in brief

Drugmaker Merck & Co. said Friday that the federal health-care overhaul would reduce its revenue by about $170 million this year, and by roughly double that amount next year. Merck also expects to take a noncash charge of about $150 million for the first quarter, due to elimination of the tax benefit for providing prescription-drug coverage to company retirees. Merck, which has thousands of employees at operations in the Philadelphia region, said rebates to the Medicaid program, required in the recently passed federal health-care legislation, would reduce its revenue by about $35 million in the first quarter and $170 million for all of 2010. In 2011, the company said, it expects "unfavorable sales impact" of about $300 million to $350 million. - AP

Wilmington Trust Corp. reported a larger-than-expected first-quarter loss of $33.8 million, or 44 cents a share, citing additional money it had to put aside to cover bad loans. That compared with a profit of $17.2 million, or 25 cents a share, in last year's quarter. The quarterly loss was the company's fourth in a row. For the 2010 quarter, analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters forecast a loss of 4 cents a share. The Wilmington bank raised its provision for bad loans to $77.4 million from $29.5 million a year ago. The company said revenue from its corporate-client and wealth-management businesses helped offset the increased loan-loss provision and an $18 million charge related to the bank's investments. Shares closed down $1.68, or 8.3 percent, at $18.48. - Paul Schweizer

National Penn Bancshares Inc., Boyertown, said it earned $1.9 million, or 2 cents a share, in the quarter ended March 31, a turnaround after three straight quarterly losses. The first-quarter profit was up from net income of $1.7 million, or 2 cents a share, in last year's first quarter. The bank said it reduced the money it put aside for loan losses to $32.5 million from $47 million at the end of 2009. Since then, its bad loans have fallen, by $7.2 million, to $122.8 million. Also, the company said it cut its operating costs during the quarter by 7 percent, to $57.7 million. - Paul Schweizer

Fisker Automotive Inc., a California-based startup that wants to build plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Delaware, has closed on its previously announced $528.7 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy, the department said. Fisker said it expected to employ up to 2,000 at the former General Motors plant on Boxwood Road near Wilmington. Company and government officials announced the plan in October. The 3.2 million-square-foot factory opened in 1947 and was closed last summer when General Motors discontinued the two brands manufactured there: Pontiac and Saturn. The decision was part of GM's bankruptcy reorganization. - Reid Kanaley

Pfizer Inc.'s Wyeth unit and Altana AG won a jury verdict on the validity of their patent for the heartburn drug Protonix. A federal jury in Newark, N.J., rejected arguments by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. and Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. that the patent covered an obvious variation of earlier patented compounds in the same family as Protonix. Wyeth and Teva have major operations in the Philadelphia area. Teva and Sun conceded they infringed the patent, which left the jury with only the question of whether the patent was issued properly. Pfizer can now ask U.S. District Judge Jose Linares to order Teva and Sun to stop selling the drug until the patent expires in January. A second trial will be held to determine what Pfizer should be paid for profit lost since Teva and Sun began selling cheaper versions of the drug two years ago. - Bloomberg News

Exelon Corp.'s first-quarter earnings rose 5 percent and the Chicago power company says its sees demand for electricity rising slightly from its previous forecast. The nation's utilities are a proxy for how the economy is doing. Exelon, the parent company of Philadelphia's Peco, said it earned $749 million, or $1.13 per share, for the quarter ended March 31. That's up from $712 million, or $1.08 per share, a year ago. Discounting the onetime gains and charges, profit would have been $662 million, or $1 per share, down from $797 million, or $1.20 per share, a year ago. Analysts expected lower adjusted earnings of 90 cents a share. - AP

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress the administration believed the final cost of the government's heavily criticized financial-bailout effort could be as low as $87 billion. Geithner made the new estimate in a letter to congressional leaders that was obtained by the Associated Press. A year ago, officials were estimating the bailout could cost as much as $500 billion. The new estimate says the biggest losses will occur from the government's support of mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the help provided homeowners facing foreclosure, and the assistance provided to American International Group. - AP

A group of House Republicans is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission's inspector general to investigate whether agency officials engaged in unauthorized disclosure of charges against Goldman Sachs. A letter from the eight lawmakers suggests SEC employees might have leaked information to influence debate in Congress on financial regulation. The lawmakers question the timing of disclosures about the agency's actions and cite a news article that described the Goldman suit before the agency's official announcement. Rep. Darrell Issa (R., Calif.) says any violation of the SEC's disclosure rules "would be deeply troubling." The Republicans also asked the IG to investigate whether the SEC's charges themselves were timed to influence debate on the legislation. The SEC has denied that. - AP

Republicans are stepping up their criticism of the Securities and Exchange Commission after reports that senior agency staffers spent hours surfing pornographic Web sites on government-issued computers while they were supposed to be policing the nation's financial system. California Rep. Darrell Issa, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said it was "disturbing that high-ranking officials within the SEC were spending more time looking at porn than taking action to help stave off the events that put our nation's economy on the brink of collapse." SEC spokesman John Nester said in a statement that each of the offending employees has been disciplined or is being disciplined, and some have already been suspended or dismissed. - AP

Regulators shut down seven banks in Illinois, making 57 U.S. bank failures this year. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. says it took over four banks in Chicago: New Century Bank, with $485.6 million in assets; Citizens Bank & Trust Co., with $77.3 million in assets; Broadway Bank, with $1.2 billion in assets; and Lincoln Park Savings Bank, with $199.9 million in assets. The FDIC also closed Amcore Bank, Rockford, which had $3.8 billion in assets; Peotone Bank & Trust Co., Peotone, with $130.2 million in assets; and Wheatland Bank, Naperville, with $437.2 million in assets. Broadway Bank was owned by the family of Illinois Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias, who is seeking the U.S. Senate seat that had been held by Barack Obama. The bank invested heavily in real estate loans. It lost $75 million last year. - AP