Other drug industry lobbyists, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said his departure raised questions about whether the drug makers would continue to support the proposed overhaul, which has stalled in Congress.
George Scalise, the association's president, predicted that chip makers would continue to work off accumulated inventory for three more months before quarterly growth resumes in the last quarter of 2001.
Under the proposed merger plans, the defence operations of the new, combined company would be based in Britain, while Airbus, the commercial jet maker, would continue to have its headquarters in Toulouse, France.
A spokeswoman for Sanofi, Emmy Tsui, said the drug maker would continue to sell Ambien as well as its extended release version, Ambien CR, which is also approved to help people stay asleep.
Emerging markets would continue to boom.
Despite those positive trends, the policy makers said the troubles in Europe would continue to depress American growth.
Sony, one of the world's biggest makers of consumer electronics, said it would continue to introduce new models in Japan, where it faces less competition from rivals like palmOne, the world's biggest maker of personal digital assistants.
SuperMedia would continue to print and distribute the real money-maker, the Yellow Pages, which charges businesses that want prominent display, and the business White Pages, which also generate revenue from display advertising, he said.
Despite signs of a deepening slowdown in Europe and North America and waning airline industry profits, however, executives at the European plane maker and its parent, European Aeronautic Defense and Space, said they were confident the group's performance would continue to buck the broader economic downtrend.
(AP) — Trouble in the global economy dragged the chip maker Advanced Micro Devices' profit down 40 percent in the second quarter, and the company warned Thursday that revenue would continue to be hurt through the summer.
Auto makers criticized the agency, saying that they had already made progress in recent years to reduce pollution and would continue to do so.
