Business news in brief

Advanta Corp., the Spring House credit-card company that froze nearly a million customers' accounts as defaults soared, said yesterday it was cutting its workforce by half, leaving it with fewer than 200 employees. The layoffs began Monday, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and followed an order by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. at the end of June to wind down the deposit-taking operations of subsidiary Advanta Bank Corp. Advanta, which had 841 employees at the end of last year, said the layoffs would cost $8.5 million to $9.5 million. - Harold Brubaker

Lincoln National Corp., a Radnor life insurer, completed the final leg of its $2.1 billion capital-raising effort by selling $950 million of preferred shares to the U.S. Treasury under last fall's financial bailout program. Lincoln also said it put $1 billion into its main insurance unit, Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. Last month, Lincoln sold $690 million of common stock and $500 million in senior notes. Jimmy S. Bhullar, a J.P. Morgan stock analyst, said this week that he thought the company had raised enough capital to absorb anticipated losses on investments. - Harold Brubaker

The Pennsylvania Department of Banking may enforce its laws on high-interest payday lending against an out-of-state lender that does business in the state only over the Internet, a panel of Common-

wealth Court judges ruled. The banking department's decision last July to require out-of-state lenders to get a license under the Consumer Discount Company Act was challenged by Cash American Net of Nevada L.L.C. A seven-judge panel heard argu-

ments April 1. Three judges dissented. Lawyers at Duane Morris L.L.P. represented the banking department. - Harold Brubaker

The World Health Organization approved GlaxoSmithKline PLC's cervical-cancer vaccine Cervarix for distribution to developing countries. Glaxo, a London company with major operations in the Philadelphia region, said in a statement that the approval would help speed access to Cervarix. WHO had previously approved Gardasil, a competing vaccine made by Merck & Co. at its West Point, Pa., plant. More than 80 percent of the estimated 280,000 cervical-cancer deaths a year occur in developing countries. - AP

The Food and Drug Administration said it had approved expanded use of a Merck & Co. HIV drug, Isentress. Isentress was developed at Merck's West Point, Pa., facility. The drug got an accelerated approval from FDA in October 2007, limiting it to use inpatients who had drug-resistant strains or were failing on other therapies, in combination with other HIV drugs. Now it can be used in all adult patients. - AP

Endo Pharmaceuticals Holdings Inc. has licensed exclusive U.S. rights to develop and market a bladder-cancer drug that is in Phase 3 clinical testing. The Chadds Ford drug company entered the arrangement with Bioniche Life Sciences Inc., of Ontario, for Urocidin, which is being developed to treat non-muscle- invasive bladder cancer. Under the agreement, Endo will pay Bioniche an up-front cash payment of $20 million, and as much as $110 million more if various milestones are met. Bioniche will make the drug. David Holveck, Endo's president and CEO, said this new arrangement would augment its new bladder-cancer drug Valstar, which will be released in August. - Roslyn Rudolph

US Airways says it will add flights to Barbados from Philadelphia International Airport, beginning Oct. 1. Philadelphia's dominant carrier said it would begin with four flights a week there (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday), then offer daily flights for the winter season, beginning Dec. 19. The airline said that, once the service was started, it would offer an average of 109 weekly nonstop flights to 14 Caribbean destinations during the peak season to travel there. Tickets for those flights will go on sale Sunday. - Roslyn Rudolph

The Treasury Department is selling its financial stakes in bailed-out banks for one-third less than they are worth, potentially shorting taxpayers up to $2.7 billion, a bipartisan congressional watchdog said. Treasury countered by noting that banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., think the department's asking prices are too high. Unable to agree on a price, some institutions are letting the department sell the warrants in public auctions. The shortfall estimated by the Congressional Oversight Panel concerns warrants, financial instruments that allow Treasury to buy shares of the firms at a set price in 10 years. If the stock prices of the banks go up, as they are expected to do, taxpayers could reap a healthy profit. - AP

The Obama administration has sent Congress proposed legislation designed to protect investors by bolstering the authority of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The proposal seeks to put investment advisers providing services to retail investors and stockbrokers under the same standards of conduct, and to strengthen rules governing the timing and quality of disclosures by investment funds. - AP

Two of the biggest credit-card issuers in the nation - Bank of America and Chase - say they are switching some fixed-rate cards to variable rates to manage costs in light of the sweeping new reforms to the credit-card industry. The interest on variable-rate cards is tied to the rise and fall of the prime rate. The changes will be effective starting in August for both banks. The moves are just the latest clampdown on cardholders over the last year. To prepare for a new law that will limit banks' ability to change card terms, lenders have been raising interest rates, tightening credit limits, and even closing inactive accounts. - AP