| ERT Reports First Quarter 2010 Results (PR Newswire) eResearchTechnology, Inc. , , a global provider of technology and services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, announced today results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2010. Â Unless otherwise noted, all comparative numbers refer to changes from the same period a year ago. us.rd.yahoo.com |
A Look at Big Pharma Business Ratios Derek Lowe submits: Jim Edwards has a good post up about financial efficiency among the big drug companies. If you plot out their revenue versus expenses (S,G&A), you see that all the big outfits are basically the same (here's an enlarged version of the graph). Abbott's (ABT) a bit toward the top end of the narrow range, and AstraZeneca's (AZN) toward the bottom, but there's not much to choose from. This despite several of the companies on the chart having done whalloping huge mergers during the period shown, mergers which were supposed to improve efficiency. As Edwards shows, though, the best that can be said so far is that (in some cases) things have moved from a bit below average all the way up to.. average. It's interesting to compare that ratio to those found at other companies and in other industries. The rule of thumb is that a dollar of SG&A is worth three in revenue. The big drug companies look to have ratios of about 3.2 to 3.5 or so. For apples versus oranges comparisons, Pier 1 (PIR) is at 3, Best Buy (BBY) is at 4.2, and Dollar General (DG) is at 4.4. Tiffany (TIF) is 2.4, and CVS is an impressive 7.1.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
AIDS Fight Shifts Toward Prevention The global fight against HIV and AIDS is moving into a new phase as the high cost of treating millions of people is forcing governments and donors to focus more aggressively on prevention. online.wsj.com |
Celldex Reeling From Pfizer Breakup EP Vantage submits:The writing had been appearing on the wall in increasingly large red letters over Pfizer’s (PFE) commitment to Celldex Therapeutics’ (CLDX) brain cancer vaccine, rindopepimut (PF-04948568 / CDX-110) for some time now. Despite reporting decent if unspectacular phase IIb data at Asco this summer, Pfizer’s silence ever since over phase III plans was looking ominous (Event - Celldex hoping Asco data will move cancer vaccine into phase III, May 12, 2010).Nevertheless, all break-ups are painful when they finally happen and Celldex’s shares tumbled 26% on Friday to a record low of $3.53, valuing the Massachusetts biotech at just $113m despite it sitting on $65m in cash. Investors, unmoved by Celldex’s ambitious and positively spun response, are naturally more concerned about the reasons why Pfizer decided to ditch the vaccine and Celldex’s determination to go it alone with phase III trials, which will most likely need to be funded by dilutive financing.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |
Generex: Do Development Drug Companies Have No Value? Thomas Barnard submits:The valuation of small development companies is always a bit of a challenge. While I am not necessarily surprised by the low share price of Generex (GNBT) because of the things managements of small development companies have to do to raise money to continue the research, I submit the prospects of small companies, in this case Generex, are not nothing, which is close to market's recent valuation.For the stock market, there appears to be no continuum to valuations, which seems a bit irrational.Complete Story » seekingalpha.com |