| Amgen Back in the Spotlight Bruce Whitaker submits:With pharmaceutical/biotech stocks having been taken to the woodshed over a number of issues including generic competition, expiring patents, weak pipelines, and healthcare reform, investors are waiting to see if the other shoe will soon drop. Will healthcare reform strong-arm big pharma into lowering prices to justify the cost/benefit spread between slightly more effective newer drugs versus well established competing drugs whose benefits arguably don't make higher priced alternatives all that attractive? Generally, fat dividend yields and piles of cash sitting idly on balance sheets have done little to spark investor interest in big pharma. While downward price movement is somewhat muted during steep market drops, the same can be said when the market surges--pharma stocks just aren't participating and are lethargically range trading at valuations that are low by almost any historic measure. Aside from the lows seen in the '08-'09 period, the Amex DRG index hasn't traded in its present range since 1998. All of this happening with the backdrop of a majority of the baby boom generation entering their 60's.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co. Q2 2010 Earnings Call Transcript Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co. (PPCO)Q2 2010 Earnings CallAugust 4, 2010 11:00 am ETComplete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Bio-Reference Labs' fiscal 3Q profit jumps 24 pct (AP) Bio-Reference Laboratories Inc. said Thursday its fiscal third-quarter net income jumped 24 percent, as the clinical laboratory testing services provider increased the number of patients served and its revenue per patient. us.rd.yahoo.com |
Insurer Alters Way to Pay Cancer Docs In the latest experiment aimed at curbing health-care costs, UnitedHealth Group is altering the way cancer specialists are paid. online.wsj.com |
FOMC Minutes and How to Play the Non-Rebound Rebound Michael Shulman submits: Yesterday minutes of the last Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting were made public and that group, in not so many words, said, “The double dip is coming, in the real world if not in the data.” No, I am not a bear twisting words. An economic outlook that includes opinions suggesting a six-year time frame to restore unemployment to normal means the material reality of a recession is still upon us and will be so for quite a while. Recessions are statistically defined but lived through by people – unemployed people, scared people, uncertain people. If too large a percentage of the population is unemployed, underemployed, given up looking for employment, scared of unemployment or uncertain about their employment status, spending is less robust than it was in previous rebounds and business activity, over time, takes a hit. And when that happens, corporate profits eventually stall and succumb, and historically this means markets must take a hit.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |