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This year, Wal-Mart Stores Inc is supersizing its $10 holiday toy offering.

Last October, the world’s biggest retailer cut its prices and began selling 10 popular toys for $10 each in its U.S. Walmart stores to win sales from early bargain hunting holiday shoppers.

This year, the retailer has ramped up the program and is offering more than 100 toys, including Barbie dolls and board games, for $10 each, throughout the Christmas shopping season.

The $10 assortment includes newly introduced toys, such as certain Transformers action figures and a Play-Doh burger builder set, as well as existing items, such as Monopoly and Connect 4, whose prices have been cut 20 percent to 50 percent.

“What we learned from last holiday was that price mattered more than ever,” said Laura Phillips, the retailer’s vice president of toys.

That is expected to be the case again this year as the retailer surveyed shoppers and found the No. 1 priority for mothers this holiday season is finding gifts that fit their budget, Phillips said.

The year-end holiday season is a crucial one for U.S. retailers and can account for 25 percent to 40 percent of annual revenue. But last year’s holiday season marked the worst in nearly 40 years by some measures and early forecasts for the 2009 holiday season call for sales to be anywhere from up 2 percent to down 1 percent.

But Wal-Mart has been gaining market share amid the recession as shoppers seek out low prices on everything from food to paper towels to popular electronics.

Last year, Phillips said Wal-Mart sold out of its $10 toys because it underestimated how early its shoppers were in its stores, buying gifts for Christmas.

“About 70 percent of our Wal-Mart shoppers start their holiday toy shopping before Halloween and, in fact, about 20 percent finish by Halloween,” she said.

So Wal-Mart spent the past year working with toy makers, such as Mattel Inc and Hasbro Inc to develop new toys or cut prices on existing items so it could stock a much wider selection of $10 offerings this year.

It said the $10 toy offering is the first of several programs it will announce in the next 12 weeks leading up to Christmas “to bring added savings” to shoppers.

(Reporting by Nicole Maestri; editing by Andre Grenon)

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It helped Elizabeth Poelker buy her house.

It probably helped Paul Medler sell his.

But is the $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers really helping the economy all that much? Enough to warrant extending it for another year, at an estimated cost of $15 billion? Enough to maybe even expand it to $15,000 apiece, for everyone?

That’s a question Congress is wrestling with these days, as the program starts to near its Nov. 30 closing date, and the real estate industry ramps up a full-throated campaign to keep the credits flowing. It’s unclear at this point what will be decided.

Nearly everyone agrees that the credits have helped keep the housing market afloat during a tough time. After they were enacted as part of the $787 billion federal stimulus Congress passed in February, existing home sales rose for four straight months, before dipping in August. The rate of sales is up 12 percent since March, according to the National Association of Realtors.

About 1.4 million people have already claimed the credit on their taxes, according to the IRS, with probably more awaiting paperwork or delaying until they file in the spring.

And, along with low prices and historically low interest rates, real estate agents say the credits are sparking interest in home-buying.

"There’s no question it’s had a positive impact on our business," said Jim Dohr, president of Coldwell Banker Gundaker, which has 25 offices in the St. Louis region. That’s especially true at lower price points. Coldwell’s business is up 23 percent from last year on homes sold for less than $100,000 and 16 percent for homes sold for $150,000 or less.

"Much of the action in our business is at the lower end, and it’s really being fueled by the first-time tax credit," Dohr said.

What is less clear is how many of those sales would have happened anyway.

Prices and interest rates are low, after all. And people still need a place to live.

Out of a projected 1.8 million sales that will use the tax credit this year, economists estimate that between 350,000 and 400,000 would not have happened without it. And a recent survey commissioned by real estate tracking firm Zillow found that, if the credit is extended another year, it would be a major deciding factor for 18 percent of first-time homebuyers — spurring an additional 334,000 sales in all.

That’s nothing to sneeze at, said Zillow chief economist Stan Humphries. But at $15 billion, it works out to almost $45,000 for every sale generated.

"It’s an expensive program," he said. "For every five homes, four were going to get purchased anyway."

But there’s still that other one — people such as Poelker.

She’s 25 and works at an accounting firm. Her lease in Maryland Heights was coming up this summer, and she had grown tired of renting but didn’t think she could afford a down payment. When the tax credit passed, she started looking.

Soon, she found a nice townhouse in Manchester, put in an offer, and closed in June.

"It really helped me make it work," said Poelker, who noted that her brother and a friend had also used the tax credit to buy houses. "I probably would have purchased in the next couple of years, but it helped me do it sooner."

Still, that raises another question about the tax credit. Is it just borrowing sales from the future?

Skeptics point to Cash for Clunkers, the government-funded program to help spur auto sales. After a surge of car-buying in July and August, September is expected to be car dealers’ worst month of the year, according to a recent report from JD Power. The same thing, critics say, could easily happen whenever the homebuyer credit expires.

But supporters say that’s all the more reason to prolong it, at least for a few months. The economy is still shaky. Any housing recovery is fragile at best. Winter is typically a slow season in real estate. The timing, said Scott Dettmer, general manager of Dettmer Homes in Cottleville, is bad all around.

"You’re taking the single biggest impetus for home sales in at least three years, and you’re going to expire it at what is normally a bad time anyway?" he said. "I’d like to see it extended at least through the spring, to give a bridge over what are normally a tough few months."

At least 20 bills have been proposed in Congress to extend the plan, including one co-sponsored by Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid that would push it into June. Another bill — to extend the credit and make it $15,000 for all homebuyers — reportedly has 15 co-sponsors.

But that measure was stripped from the stimulus bill in February, and there seems to be a limited appetite for it now, as Congress wrestles with health care reform and other pricey legislation. Many observers don’t expect a resolution until the Nov. 30 deadline draws nearer.

And that will probably keep Paul Medler waiting.

He sold his home in Kirkwood in June to a first-time buyer who used the tax credit. It probably helped make the deal happen, Medler said. Now he’s renting, and waiting to find a good deal to buy, but prices in the neighborhoods where he’s looking still seem too high for this market.

Medler’s hoping the credit either gets extended to everybody — so he can use it — or ends in November as planned.

"After this stops I feel like we might have another dive in housing prices," he said.

And, at least in his case, that would be a good thing.

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Hungary’s central bank will probably cut the benchmark interest rate to the lowest in 18 months today to help the first European Union country to secure a bailout last year overcome its worst recession in 18 years.

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank in Budapest will lower the two-week deposit rate to 7.5 percent from 8 percent, a third consecutive monthly reduction, according to 10 analysts in a Bloomberg survey. Two expect a cut to 7.25 percent. The decision will be announced at 2 p.m.

Policy makers have trimmed 1.5 percentage points off the key rate since July and have said they will continue to ease monetary policy as long as financial stability is maintained. The central bank expects the recession to slow inflation to its target next year.

“The current market situation provides sufficient room for the continuation of the easing cycle, without any threat to financial stability,” Gyorgy Barta and Sandor Jobbagy, economists at the Budapest-based unit of Intesa SanPaolo SpA, said in a note to clients.

Twenty of the 53 central banks tracked by Bloomberg eased monetary conditions in the past three months to fight the recession, including east European countries such as Russia, Ukraine and the Czech Republic in August and September.

IMF Bailout

Hungarian policy makers held rates unchanged between January and June to protect the slumping currency. Investors sold off the forint and the country’s stocks and bonds last year, citing concern about the nation’s ability to repay its debt.

Hungary in October secured a 20 billion-euro ($29 billion) emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund, the EU and the World Bank and the central bank lifted the benchmark rate to 11.5 percent from 8.5 percent in an emergency move.

Policy makers rolled back that increase by July, when they resumed rate cuts after a six-month pause as the forint strengthened from a record low against the euro in March. The currency has gained 14 percent since then, making it the fourth- best performer in the past six months of the 26 emerging-market currencies tracked by Bloomberg.

CDS

Hungarian credit default swaps linked to five-year bonds, the cost of protection against a default, fell to 215.5 basis points on Sept. 25 from as much as 638 basis points in March and 408 basis points on April 14, when Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai took over after the recession toppled his predecessor.

Hungary will be able to return to market financing after measures to curb the budget gap regained investor confidence, Bajnai said in an interview on Sept. 23.

“If there’s no sudden downturn in the markets, then I would expect Hungary to be able to fund itself,” he said. “Hungary has understood this crisis, turned around its economy. Hungary will be one of those economies in 2011, 2012 that will come out of this crisis fastest in the region.”

The economy will probably contract 6.7 percent this year and 0.9 percent next year before returning to growth in 2011, according to the central bank. The recession means there is “no inflationary pressure” and the annual rate of consumer price increases is set to fall to the bank’s 3 percent target next year, the central bank said in the minutes of last month’s rate- setting meeting.

The annual inflation rate unexpectedly fell to 5 percent in August from 5.1 percent in July as an increase in the value- added tax rate had a less pronounced impact as retailers were reluctant to pass on the increase to customers because of slumping demand.

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Several big airlines this week have added $10 surcharges for most of their tickets for travel on three busy days around Thanksgiving and New Year’s holidays.

American and United airlines added the charge for travel on Nov. 29, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, as well as Jan. 2 and 3. On Friday, US Airways Group Inc. matched the surcharge, and FareCompare.com said Delta Air Lines Inc. added it, too.

Spokespersons for Southwest Airlines Co. and Continental Airlines Inc. said they had not added the surcharge.

Rick Seaney of FareCompare.com noted that the Sunday after Thanksgiving is one of the busiest travel days of the year, and that the two dates in January are heavily traveled as well.

He said the airlines probably added the charge rather than raise base fares because it was a quick, targeted way to charge more on busy travel days cash advance no fax.

"The bottom line this year for consumers is that it’s pretty clear that if you procrastinate on your holiday travel, you’re going to get stung," he said.

He said holiday fares are still running 15 percent to 20 percent lower than last year, with prices to bigger cities carrying the bigger discount from a year ago.

American added the charge on Wednesday, and United matched on Thursday.

Shares of American parent AMR Corp. rose 28 cents, or 3.6 percent, to $8.02. United parent UAL Corp. added 47 cents, or 5.3 percent, to $9.30, and US Airways Group Inc. was up 5 cents to $4.96. Delta Air Lines Inc. rose 13 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $9.05.

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Goldman Sachs Group Inc expects to benefit from the new over-the-counter derivatives and commodity trading rules owing to its strong technology position, said a Citigroup analyst, who met with Goldman management, and raised his earnings outlook for the bank.

“Standardized central clearing of OTC derivatives are likely to force a major electronification of derivatives trading, which may play to Goldman’s advantage given their existing technology platform and expertise in high volume electronic trading,” Citigroup analyst Keith Horowitz said.

Taming the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market — a “shadow banking system” of enormous size now largely beyond government reach — is a key part of a push for tighter government oversight of banks and capital markets under way now for six months.

“Standardized” OTC derivatives would go through clearinghouses at regulated exchanges to reduce the risk of default. OTC derivatives are complex instruments whose value is based on an underlying asset.

Horowitz, who recently met with Goldman’s Chief Financial Officer David Viniar, said the new rules, which could set mandatory minimum collateral and margin requirements, if enacted are expected to benefit the bank relative to its peers.

Goldman has historically had among the most stringent collateral and margin terms versus more generous peers, who too often cut deals with easy credit terms to win business, said Horowitz, who also met Goldman’s Chief Operating Officer Gary Cohn and investment banking head David Solomon.

“We are more optimistic on Goldman’s long-term prospects and gained comfort that worst-case outcomes from regulatory reform are unlikely to materialize and structurally impair returns,” Horowitz wrote in a note to clients.

Global policymakers agree that the OTC derivatives market should be regulated after a type of derivative, credit default swaps, led to insurer American International Group’s near collapse and $180 billion government bailout.

The analyst raised his earnings estimate for Goldman by 20 cents to $4.20 a share for the third quarter, and by 25 cents to $5 a share for the fourth.

He kept his “buy” rating and target of $215 on the stock. Goldman shares closed at $183.06 Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Tenzin Pema in Bangalore; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

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Canadian food processors and restaurant chains could cut out a lot more salt and help save lives without adversely affecting the quality, shelf life or texture of their ketchup, French fries, soups and sauces, a leading health advocacy group says.

Citing new research that shows salt levels vary widely among similar products, a study by the Centre for Science in the Public Interest, to be released today, challenges the food industry’s argument that high levels of salt are needed to preserve product integrity and flavour.

"The report shows most uses of salt are gratuitous. More efforts by food companies and more political resolve by federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq could save thousands of Canadians’ lives," said Bill Jeffery, author of the report, called "Salty to a Fault."

The average Canadian consumes more than 3,000 mg of sodium per day, according to Statistics Canada. That’s nearly a third more than the maximum daily intake recommended by Health Canada.

There is growing evidence that ingesting excessive amounts of salt contributes to high blood pressure and is a risk for heart disease, the report says. Cutting average salt consumption in half would avert 14,500 heart failures and strokes a year, it adds.

Yet, Health Canada has done little to force the $140 billion-a-year food industry to reduce its dependence on sodium chloride, Jeffery said, relying instead on voluntary initiatives.

"What we hear from a lot of food manufacturers and restaurants is that you have to add a lot of salt to food in order to preserve it for a long enough period of time, to give it a certain texture, like to make dough rise," Jeffery said in a telephone interview.

He said the study, which compares a variety of brand-name products and restaurant meals, proves that’s not true. It found salt levels within the same product category vary widely.

For example, in the frozen French fry category, McCain’s Xtra Crispy Superfries contain 450 mg of sodium per 85-gram serving. That’s 900 per cent more than in the No Name Crinkle Cut Fries, which was considered the benchmark.

(The study used the product with the lowest sodium content in its category as the benchmark. The benchmark product could not be one that made a specific sodium-reduction marketing claim.)

Organic labels were no guarantee that salt levels would be lower, the study also found. Presidents’ Choice Organic Ketchup, for example, contained 50 per cent more salt than Heinz.

Loopholes in the federal nutrition labelling system make it difficult for consumers to figure this out for themselves, Jeffery said. Different manufacturers use different serving sizes on their labels, making direct comparisons difficult even when the products are in the same category.

Comparing restaurant meals is even more difficult as companies are not required to disclose their nutrition information, though many do so.

Several leading food companies say they have taken steps to voluntarily reduce sodium levels.

Kraft Foods has invested well over $20 million in research and development over the last several years to reduce salt, spokeswoman Lynne Galia said. "Sodium reduction is extremely challenging since it impacts food safety, the taste and textures of foods," Galia said. "We’re reducing sodium in our products one milligram at a time."

Kraft has rolled out reduced-sodium versions of some of its most popular products, including Triscuit crackers, Ritz Crackers and Stove Top Chicken Stuffing Mix.

Canadian supermarket leader Loblaw Cos. Ltd. said it has reduced the amount of sodium in many of its President’s Choice Blue Menu better-for-you products.

"We take sodium so seriously that we’ve created a sodium task force, challenging our product developers to reformulate customers’ favourite products without affecting flavour," Loblaw spokeswoman Sheri Helman wrote in an email. "Over the year, we’ll remove 2.3 billion milligrams of salt from our (PC blue Menu) dressings alone – without affecting the rich, bold flavours."

McDonald’s Restaurants of Canada said it is working with experts to learn more about sodium issues.

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Intel Corp Chief Executive Paul Otellini expects personal computer sales volume this year to “likely” at least match 2008’s, underscoring growing expectations that consumer spending is driving a mild recovery for the depressed market.

But with analysts expecting much of the fastest growth for Intel in future to come from non-PC arenas, Otellini stressed on Tuesday that software and embedded chip development would be crucial.

Intel plans to host a software applications development platform for its lower-end Atom microprocessor, which will allow developers to write programs that work across different devices and operating systems.

Otellini said Taiwan’s Acer and Asus, and PC maker Dell, would support the platform. Intel itself has no plans to get into the apps store business.

The company instead will provide the framework for developers to write software that can then be sold through others’ stores.

Otellini also talked about embedded electronics: microchips in car audio and communications systems, for instance, that can synchronize with computers and smartphones.

Intel has said that market represents a $15 billion opportunity. Otellini on Tuesday said BMW and Daimler would use a version of the Atom chip for in-vehicle information and entertainment devices beginning 2012.

On Intel’s core business, Otellini seemed to echo industry expectations of a flat to potentially better 2009 compared with last year, when PC sales fell off a cliff.

Otellini said the PC industry remains “alive and well” in the middle of the worst U.S. recession in 70 years, with unit sales seen at flat to slightly higher this year versus last.

Goldman Sachs this month raised its forecast for PC unit sales to “roughly flat,” compared with previous expectations for a 4 percent decline, citing resurgent consumer and government-education spending.

(Reporting by Clare Baldwin)

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An investment arm of Goldman Sachs is in talks with Chinese car maker Geely Automotive, which has been linked with both Volvo and Opel, to buy about $250 million of the company’s convertible bonds and warrants, two sources said.

“The two sides have basically agreed on the investment in Geely already, but have yet to work out some technical details,” one source with direct knowledge of the deal told Reuters.

Geely, China’s 10th largest vehicle maker, said this month its parent was considering a bid for Ford’s Swedish car brand Volvo with a local government-backed investment firm.

A successful deal would boost Geely’s profile and give it access to Volvo technologies which it needs to upgrade its cars.

A source told Reuters last week that Geely’s parent also had approached Canadian auto parts maker Magna International about a potential production partnership on Opel. General Motors agreed earlier this month to sell a 55 percent stake in car maker Opel to a group led by Magna.

Trade in Geely shares was suspended last week as the company said it was considering a convertible bond and warrants issue, though Geely Executive Director Lawrence Ang told Reuters the issue was not related to Volvo.

Geely would use the proceeds from a Goldman deal to boost its production capacity — including adding 150,000 units a year in the central province of Hunan, which can now produce 50,000 units, one of the sources said allstate insurance.

The sources declined to be named as the talks were not yet public. Geely and Goldman officials declined to comment.

Geely had said previously it would buy three new plants from its parent, with a combined annual capacity of 165,000 units, once construction was completed.

Car sales in China, the world’s largest auto market, have grown sharply this year, boosted by Beijing’s policy initiatives, including sales tax cuts on small cars and subsidies for rural buyers.

Automakers from GM to Volkswagen are building new plant or setting up new China joint ventures.

Geely, which competes against Chery Automobile and other local brands, has current annual production capacity for 370,000 cars, according to data provided by a Geely representative.

The car maker, based in the eastern city of Hangzhou, had said previously it aimed to add capacity of 315,000 in phases, including taking over its parent’s three facilities.

Geely’s January-August car sales rose 35 percent to more than 185,000 units, equivalent to 74 percent of its full-year target, another company executive said.

(Reporting by Fang Yan and Alison Leung; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Ian Geoghegan))

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Throughout history, people have complained about the companies they do business with. Until the Internet came along, those gripes were directed at small groups of family, friends and co-workers.

But e-mail, discussion forums, blogs and social networks have created a world where a once relatively harmless rant can do serious damage to a company and its reputation. Unhappy customers can, quite literally, broadcast their irritation to the world. It’s a fact that’s forcing some rather significant changes in the way many companies — including Dell, Coca Cola, Starbucks, Southwest Airlines and Charter Communications — are approaching customer service.

No longer is it enough to staff a call center and wait for customers to complain or ask for help. The smart companies, experts say, are the ones using social media to reach out to customers — particularly those who are unhappy and vocal about it.

"Those who wish it away and who think it’s just a fad — those are the ones who are going to be caught flat-footed and run over," said Steve Rosa, chief executive officer of (add)ventures, a Providence, R.I.-based marketing firm.
Of particular interest these days to companies is Twitter, the fast-growing microblogging site that allows users to communicate instantly, on their computers or cell phones, in 140-character messages, referred to as Tweets.

In August of last year, the service had 2.3 million unique visitors. A year later, the number had surged to 24.6 million, according to Nielsen Online.

And although Twitter itself hasn’t yet found a way to turn a profit, companies both large and small are finding uses for it. Some of them even make money. Dell, for example, announced earlier this summer that it has raked in some $3 million in sales directly related to its Twitter efforts. That’s not a lot for one of the world’s top computer makers — with more than $12 billion in annual revenue — but it does demonstrate potential.

Others, such as Progress West HealthCare Center in O’Fallon, Mo. are using it to communicate quickly with customers or, in this case, patients. The facility’s emergency room tweeted every couple of hours with updates on expected wait times. Emergency room staffers also use the Twitter feed to send notes to patients and are starting to answer questions. But the emphasis, at least for now, is on managing patient expectations, said Paula Szwargulski, manager of the emergency department.

"People expect to wait. But if they know how long they’ll have to wait and why they’ll have to wait, it’s not as painful," Szwargulski said.

More companies, however, are employing Twitter to put out fires before they have a chance to spread.

That’s what Michael Tomko of St. Louis learned earlier this summer when he complained on Twitter about a bill from Town and Country-based Charter for his phone service. He was annoyed by a range of fees and regulatory charges.

The brief rant caught the attention of Charter’s social media team, a group of five men charged with monitoring Internet traffic — Twitter, Facebook, blogs, discussion forums and consumer sites — for just that sort of thing. A rapid response quickly blunted Tomko’s anger.

"They could have gotten defensive. Instead, they wanted to know what was going on," Tomko said. "It felt like a real person talking to me."

The encounter offered Tomko a way to vent payday loan lenders. He still canceled the phone service. But it turned him into a fan of Charter’s social media initiative, which has eliminated a source of irritation — the phone call-in center. Now he says all of his dealings with the company start with Twitter and the Umatter2Charter group.

"I’m not proclaiming that Charter is fixed," Tomko said. "But I’m saying there is a team of like five guys who are doing it right."

The company is quick to point out that the social media approach won’t subtract anything from other service avenues. And it should be noted that the five teammates — they’ve assisted some 7,000 customers this year — represent a tiny piece of Charter’s customer service operation, which deals with millions of calls annually.

But one thing it does seem to do is provide some customers with a more personalized touch. Each of the five social media guys has his own Twitter page, complete with name and photo.

Customers can essentially decide whom they’d like to talk to. That’s the thing that makes it work for Alexander Chow-Stuart, an author and screenwriter who lives in Woodland Hills, Calif.

"We’re on a first-name basis," Chow-Stuart said. "But when you call, you get a different person every time."

Although Charter has been increasing its involvement in social media — the company hired its first team member in January — it certainly wasn’t the first to go this route. But in recent months, the team has noticed a shift in customer attitude that should probably scare any company not active in this sphere.

In the early days, a customer ranting about Charter on his Twitter feed would express surprise when someone from Charter reached out to help. But those reactions are growing rare, said Eric Ketzer, communication manager for the social media team.

"We don’t have the shock-and-awe responses we used to get," Ketzer said. "So many companies are on Twitter now that they’re just kind of used to it."

That raises a couple of issues for companies who haven’t spent much time thinking about their online reputations.

The first is simply a lost opportunity, said Lorrie Thomas, a Web marketing expert who teaches social media at the University of California, Berkley.

She compares Twitter to a focus group. It’s just a lot bigger and free: "You are getting truly authentic messages. You can watch real, live conversations happening."

More importantly, she said, those companies aren’t doing enough to protect their image in an arena where attendance is expected.

"There are organizations that are completely behind," she said. "If you don’t build your brand, someone else will do it for you."

The challenge facing some companies, however, is convincing profit-oriented chief executives to invest money in an area without being able to promise a monetary return, said Chad Mitchell, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. It doesn’t help that the companies having the most success aren’t eager to share their expertise, out of fear of helping competitors, he said.

"How are you making money with this? That’s hard to measure," Mitchell said.

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Canada's largest generic drug manufacturer, Apotex Inc., has voluntarily recalled three of its prescription drugs as a "precautionary measure" after ongoing inspections by Health Canada at the company's facilities in the GTA.

The recall also follows a recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration import ban on Apotex products from two of its facilities, enacted after a warning letter was sent on June 25, 2009.

That letter makes reference to an inspection in 2008 of an Apotex facility in Etobicoke, which found "multiple, serious deficiencies" not promptly addressed by the company.

The follow-up letter demanded more action.

Yesterday's recall affects three products: apo-meloxicam, used to treat rheumatoid athritis and osteoarthritis in adults; apo-ranitidine, used to treat and prevent problems arising from excess stomach acid, and apo-amilzide, used in therapy treating liver cirrhosis.

An Apotex release late last night maintained the Canadian recall was "minor in nature" and that "no patient has experienced any problem from taking these medicines." The release also said one-fifth of all prescriptions in Canada are for Apotex products.

"Health Canada will continue its inspections of Apotex facilities in Ontario over the coming weeks to verify if other health products are affected and to ensure the manufacturer's (good manufacturing practices) compliance," the health agency said.

"At any time in the inspection process, should Health Canada's inspection reveal a risk to health, immediate and appropriate action will be taken."

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