Generic competition, charges cut Merck Q4 profit

Merck & Co.'s fourth-quarter profit fell 7 percent because of hits from generic competition and one-time charges, and the company pushed back plans for seeking approval of a key experimental osteoporosis drug.

The quarterly results beat Wall Street expectations, but Merck shares fell Friday as investors learned the company is reviewing safety and efficacy data from a crucial late-stage patient test of odanacatib, the osteoporosis drug.

During a morning conference call with analysts, Merck executives said that instead of applying for approval of odanacatib in the first half of this year, the company won't do so until 2014. That will allow Merck time to finish an extension of an odanacatib study that includes about 8,200 women, so that Merck can also submit those longer-term results to regulators ? apparently a strategy to improve chances the drug will be approved.

"Whenever investors see a delay, and especially an unexpected delay, the instinct is to assume the worst, or at least assume a negative," which led to the stock drop, said analyst Les Funtleyder, health care strategist at private equity fund Poliwogg.

Merck shares closed down $1.42, or 3.3 percent, to $41.83.

The world's third-biggest drugmaker by revenue said net income was $1.4 billion, or 46 cents per share, down from $1.51 billion, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time restructuring and acquisition charges totaling $1.14 billion, net income was $2.54 billion, or 83 cents per share, 2 cents more than analysts polled by research provider FactSet were expecting.

The maker of Januvia and other diabetes pills says revenue totaled $11.74 billion, down 5 percent from 2011's fourth quarter. Analysts expected $11.47 billion.

The sales drop was due to generic competition for asthma and allergy drug Singulair, which had brought Merck about $5.5 billion in annual sales until its U.S. patent expired in August, as well as for blood pressure medicines Cozaar and Hyzaar.

"Merck did have a very strong fourth quarter and a good year overall," CEO Kenneth Frazier told the analysts.

He said that despite the generic competition, the company expected to keep revenue this year at about the same level as last year's $47.27 billion.

Analysts on the conference call repeatedly asked exactly why Merck was changing its plans for odanacatib, and whether the data showed a serious risk that could block approval of the drug, which is viewed as a potential blockbuster. Company executives declined to give details.

"We continue to believe in the potential of this drug to meet the unmet needs of people with osteoporosis," Frazier said.

He noted that most women with osteoporosis aren't being treated with medication, and about a quarter of patients find they can't tolerate side effects of osteoporosis drugs in an older class called bisphosphonates. Those side effects include heartburn, nausea, diarrhea and joint pain and swelling. Merck's Fosamax, which has had generic competition for four years, was the first drug in that class and had been the top seller.

Funtleyder, the analyst, said earlier data on the drug looked very good, and he's been expecting odanacatib would eventually generate around $1 billion in annual sales.

"They seemed to have a better mousetrap," he said of the drug.

Along with the weak global economy and government health programs in many countries trying to rein in spending, Merck has been hurt by generic rivals to Singulair, which had been its top seller. In the last quarter, Singulair's global sales nosedived 67 percent to $480 million.

That pulled down total prescription drug sales by 6 percent, to $10.09 billion. Most of Merck's other big drugs produced higher sales, led by the Januvia Type 2 diabetes drug, up 18 percent to $1.13 billion, and Janumet, a diabetes combo pill, up 17 percent to $452 million.

Cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia posted a 6 percent increase in sales to $676 million, and sales jumped 61 percent to $442 million for Gardasil a vaccine against sexually transmitted cancers.

Merck's smaller divisions saw increased sales, however. Veterinary medicine sales edged up 3 percent to $898 billion. Sales of consumer health products such as Dr. Scholl's foot care products climbed 9 percent to $395 million.

Merck, based in Whitehouse Station, N.J., forecast 2013 earnings per share of $3.60 to $3.70, excluding charges. Analysts were expecting $3.68 per share.

For the full year, Merck reported net income of $6.66 billion, or $2.16 per share, up from $6.27 billion, or $2.02 per share. But sales in 2012 dipped nearly 2 percent, to $47.27 billion.

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Linda A. Johnson can be followed at http://twitter.com/LindaJ_onPharma

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/generic-competition-charges-cut-merck-q4-profit-123216845--finance.html

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For just a minute, Dow hits 14,000

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Dow Jones industrial average briefly topped 14,000 on Friday morning, a milestone not seen since before the financial crisis rocked the markets and the world economy.

After rising steadily in early trading thanks to the U.S. jobs report, the Dow briefly crossed 14,000 around 10:07 a.m. EST. The milestone was by a hair ? the highest the Dow reached was 14,000.97 ? and it lasted only a moment. The index was trading around 13,980 shortly afterward. The other major stock indexes were also up.

The Dow has crossed 14,000 only 15 times in its history. The last time was Oct. 17, 2007.

If the gains hold and it closes above 14,000 on Friday, that would put it in even more rarefied territory: On just nine of those days did it manage to close above 14,000 at the end of trading.

That time more than five years ago seems almost a different era ? before signs of the devastating financial crisis were apparent to the average observer.

Lehman Brothers still existed. So did Bear Stearns, Wachovia and Washington Mutual. Housing prices were starting to ebb, but they hadn't cratered. The unemployment rate was 4.7 percent, meaning jobs were abundant.

The benchmark is not far from its all-time high, 14,164.53, which it reached on Oct. 9, 2007. A year later, in the depths of the financial crisis, it had shed nearly 40 percent of its value.

The Dow is an index of 30 big companies, and its purpose is to represent how the broader stock market is faring. And while hitting 14,000 would be an important psychological milestone, it wouldn't be much else.

The stock market is more a representation of how traders are feeling about the economy than the economy's underlying fundamentals. And many investors don't even think the Dow is the best way to track the market: They prefer the much bigger Standard & Poor's benchmark index, which follows 500 companies, because they think it represents a more accurate view of the economy.

"You can hit these milestones, but then it can always end badly," said Joe Gordon, managing partner at Gordon Asset Management in North Carolina. The fact that small investors are finally getting back in the stock market, he said, makes him think that stocks are due for a downturn.

"It's meaningless to the average professional," said Gordon, referring to the 14,000 benchmark. And for workers still unemployed by the financial crisis, he said, "it really means nothing to them."

At midmorning, the Dow was up 119 points to 13,980. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 10 to 1,508. The Nasdaq composite index was up 19 to 3,161.

Overall, the government jobs report that pushed stocks forward was mixed, but traders chose to focus on the positive. The U.S. said it added 157,000 jobs in January, which was in line with what traders had been expecting. Unemployment inched up to 7.9 percent from 7.8 percent in December. But, encouragingly, the government also reported that hiring over the past two years has been higher than it originally thought.

The jobs number is based on a survey of employers, and the unemployment rate is based on a separate survey of households, which is why they can diverge.

In Europe, tentative and incremental signs of a recovery were enough to push up stocks in France, Britain and Germany. December unemployment in the European Union was lower than analysts had feared, inflation unexpectedly fell, and a survey raised hopes of some growth in the manufacturing sector.

But there were also reminders that the debt problem is far from solved. The Netherlands was also forced to take over one of its major banks, to try to stave off a collapse. In Greece, dock workers extended a strike over the government's spending cuts.

Among companies making big moves:

? Drugmaker Merck fell nearly 3 percent, down $1.22 to $42.02. Its fourth-quarter profit suffered because of competition from generic medicines against its blockbuster allergy drug Singulair.

? Insurance company MetLife rose more than 1 percent, up 52 cents to $37.86, after saying it plans to buy the largest private pension fund administrator in Chile.

? Zoetis, an animal health business that Pfizer just spun off, made its debut on the stock market. It was up 18 percent, rising $4.63 to $30.62.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dow-hits-14-000-minute-anyway-155001257--finance.html

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?Video Games Affect People? - Hit & Run : Reason.com

The full quote from Republican Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander is ?I think video games is [sic] a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people.? He said it during a short interview on MSNBC during the current Senate Judiciary hearings on gun violence:

He went on to acknowledge that the First Amendment protects video games the way the Second Amendment protects guns. But of course he was pounced on anyway for being an old codger who doesn?t understand video games.

The attempt to protect guns from regulation by blaming culture is obviously not a new thing, and the NRA has already been righteously mocked for embracing it as a defense in the wake of new gun control efforts inspired by the Sandy Hook tragedy.

He is wrong that video games are a bigger problem than guns (I would argue that neither video games nor guns are a problem, which is why I?m here and not at either Daily Kos or the NRA or serving political office). He is not wrong when he says that video games ?affect? people, so I?m slightly interested that he used that particular phrasing.

Video games certainly can affect people the way movies and music and books do. This makes video games awesome, not scary. Game-friendly media outlets are quick to provide coverage to anything that shows the positive ways video games are affecting people?s lives, so there?s no excuse for a politician not to know better other than the cynical desire to connect with a particularly distrustful voter demographic (and the blame shifting ? we mustn?t forget that).

Anybody interested in the video game counterpart of those anecdotes of mothers and fathers protecting their loved ones thanks to guns should check out ?How Games Saved My Life.? It?s a modest little Tumblr feed full of submitted stories of people finding ways to deal with life?s curveballs with the help of games. The title of the feed can be misleading for quite a few of the stories, but there?s also quite a few doozies. Sadly, it looks as though the Tumblr organizer has abandoned it and there haven?t been any updates since last May.

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/31/video-games-affect-people

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Gardening Tips For Teens And Beginners - The Home of Beautiful ...

Here are some good gardening tips to follow if you are a beginner and/or a teenage gardener. I am not the most knowledgeable gardener yet, but these are very important whatever method of gardening you use.

1. Weed Control

Weed control is extremely important. You must keep the weeds out, or you will have very little to no produce. When the weeds have control, water can't get to the plants, and the poor plants cannot get enough sun. The weeds eventually take over even the roots of the plants and seedlings. As you can see, if you do a little hoeing every day, the weeds are under your control. If you do not, a week will pass by and there have you a hundred good-sized weeds. This can be extremely discouraging, because I have been utterly discouraged as well. But this comes at the top of our list of Gardening Tips, because it is definitely most important.

2. Animal/Pest Control

Animal and pest control is very important. My main adversary to my gardening plans are deer and beetle worms. It gets so frustrating when you prepare the ground, turn it, hoe it, even it out, plant, water, and hoe the weeds every day, and one day, as soon as it is edible, it is gone. This is another main reason why many beginners give up. It doesn't matter how high you build the fence- the deer jump over it. But one thing I seriously recommend is the square foot gardening method. As a result of this method, I have had a hundred times less weeds, and NO pests and deer eating. Why? I bought a net that fits perfectly over the 3x6 bed. Otherwise, my little garden would be a salad bar for the critters. This is an extremely important gardening tip, for without it you WILL become totally discouraged and give up like I almost did until I found square foot gardening.

3. Only 2 seasons?

Most people think that you can only garden two seasons of the year - spring and summer. This is totally untrue. With some newer methods, you can garden most of fall, and some of winter. If you have a greenhouse system, you can garden all year round. With the new square foot gardening method, I can now put a cold cover over the garden and last many frosts and have many fresh veggies throughout the fall. With an herb garden, I can put a simple little herb garden in a plastic bucket and put it in and out for a long time. Thus you see this third of the gardening tips proves the myth of two seasons is totally untrue.

4. Traditional Gardening?

Traditional gardening has been in use for a very long time. Personally, I think it is extremely inefficient, much more work, and much less percentage of seeds to harvest. Just think about it. Someone plants a thousand lettuce seeds in one row of their traditional garden. They end up thinning them out to make some space. So many good seeds wasted. And then, when they are finally ready, who comes? Deer and rabbits come and eat everything in sight. However, there is a solution to the poor planning of the traditional methods. That solution is Square Foot Gardening. So if you want to be a successful gardener, you must take action with these great gardening tips, and soon gardening will be very fun!

Clay

Source: http://www.thegardenprince.co.uk/gardening-articles/4743-gardening-tips-for-teens-and-beginners

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Consulting Jobs Require You to Name Microsoft's Worst Product, Coffin Math

Insight

By Beecher Tuttle, 30 Jan 2013

How many people will buy coffins in a country with five million people? What?s Microsoft?s worst product? These are just a couple of the questions M.B.A. graduates and prospective interns from New York University?s Leonard N. Stern School of Business were asked by consulting companies in recent months.? If you can answer them and the others below, you may have a shot at a job with the likes of an IBM, Oracle or Bain.

• A coffin company in a little country called Moldavia makes budget-priced, machine-made coffins and hand-made, high-end coffins. The company?s craftsmen who make the hand-made coffins are slowly retiring and new people are harder to find. The company is thinking about revamping their factories to install machinery to manufacture high-end coffins. What issues would they have to think about to make this decision? How could we estimate the market size for coffins in Moldavia if there are 5 million residents, people only live to age 75 and coffins are sold at $1,000 each (you have to make your own assumptions)

• How profitable would it be to serve a cup of coffee to a tourist on Alcatraz?

• Should you get an offer from multiple consulting firms how will you decide which firm?

• A private equity firm is looking to acquire a company that installs and operates independent banking machines/ATMs. It is looking to get a 25% return over the next five years. What factors should it be looking at when considering the acquisition?

• How would you prepare a proposal for a client who is manufacturing a special cable which can be used in power lines and telephone lines? The client wants to evaluate the future of this product.

• You?ve been hired by a PE firm to evaluate buying a dormant cell phone network in a city of 5 million people for $50 million. They plan on offering a $30 a month plan that offers free calls anywhere in the metro area but nowhere else. Market penetrations of cell phones is 40%, max is 60%. There are 3 players in the market. The average customer life is 3 years. Acquisition cost is $500 per customer, 20% of non-cell phone users would be interested in the plan, 10% of users would switch. Should they do it?

• Tell me about a poorly marketed product. What do you think was the rationale behind this marketing?

• Tell me a Microsoft product that you hate? How would you fix it?

• The new CEO at Apple is asking you for help on continuing Steve Jobs? legacy through Apple?s products and services. Where do you begin?

• You have a company that is the number one producer of baby nutritional products in Europe. You would like to launch your product in the U.S. What are the issues around launching that product? Given these issues, would you recommend launching the product?

(Note: Some questions were altered for grammar and readability purposes)
Check out our previous post on interview questions posed by asset managers, commercial banks, private wealth managers and other finance firms.

Source: http://news.bankingtech.efinancialcareers.com/newsandviews_item/wpNewsItemId-133277

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UPDATE: Tornado watch extended to 1 a.m.; severe weather remains

Macon Public Works employee Kenneth West sweeps debris from the tree he and other workers moved off of Forest Hill Road in Macon after high afternoon winds blew it down Wednesday.

GRANT BLANKENSHIP/THE TELEGRAPH ? gblankenship@macon.comBuy Photo

Some of the worst weather has passed Middle Georgia, but much of the area will remain under a tornado watch now extended through 1 a.m. Thursday.

Some areas remained under severe thunderstorm warnings through Wednesday evening.

In tornado watches, people should be alert to changing weather conditions and look for approaching storms. Signs of danger include a dark or greenish sky; large hail; a large, dark, low-lying cloud that could be rotating; or a loud roar like a freight train. If you see the danger signs, be prepared to take shelter immediately, the Federal Emergency Management Agency says.

If a tornado is spotted or a tornado warning is issued, the National Weather Service says people in the path of the storm should move to a basement or interior room on the ground floor, staying away from windows. If driving, do not seek shelter under a highway overpass. If you are in a mobile home or vehicle, evacuate and get to a shelter or lie flat in a ditch or other low spot.

The National Weather Service also issued a wind advisory for most of the state through midnight for sustained winds of 15 to 25 mph and gusts to 40 miles per hour. Winds Wednesday evening were expected up to 50 mph.

Meteorologists warn isolated tornadoes could be possible with the squall line headed for the state.

Strong winds will develop Wednesday morning ahead of the front and are expected to increase in the afternoon as showers and thunderstorms develop.

Gusty winds are also possible outside of showers and storms.

Drought-stressed trees are susceptible and others could topple in soft ground from recent rains.

Up to two inches of rain is possible in Macon and a flood watch is posted for much of north Georgia through Wednesday night.

Tornadoes could develop with very little notice and are expected to be brief.

The most intense storms are expected in North Georgia on Wednesday morning, in metro Atlanta by mid-afternoon and into Middle Georgia by early evening.

Source: http://www.macon.com/2013/01/30/2335500/damaging-winds-expected-in-ne.html

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Liftoff! NASA Launches Next-Generation Relay Satellite into Space

This story was updated at 10:46 p.m. ET.

A next-generation NASA relay satellite was launched into orbit Wednesday (Jan. 30) on a mission to upgrade a vital communications network linking the space agency to its spacecraft orbiting the Earth.

The U.S. space agency's first launch of 2013, the new Tracking and Data Relay Satellite K (TDRS-K for short) soared spaceward atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida at 8:48 p.m. EST (0148 Jan. 31 GMT).

"We have a customer that's quite thrilled right now to have a healthy satellite on orbit," Tim Dunn the TDRS-K flight director said in a NASA TV interview after the launch.

The TDRS-K satellite is bound for an orbit 22,300 miles (35,888 kilometers) above Earth, where it will join a constellation of five other satellites currently in orbit to help NASA and other space agencies stay in touch with orbiting spacecraft.

NASA's TDRS communications network began in 1983 and has not received an upgrade since 2002, when the space agency launched its 10th TDRS satellite. Five satellites are currently in use today, with the TDRS-K launch adding one more that number, mission managers said. [Launch Photos: NASA's TDRS-K Satellite Blasts Off ]

The TDRS-K satellite is expected to spend at least 15 years, but agency officials expect that the satellite will exceed its projected life-expectancy. Many of the network's satellites have outlived their expected mission lifetimes, ?said Jeffrey Gramling, NASA's TDRS project manager.

But that does not mean that TDRS-K is unnecessary. One of the satellites currently in active service is slated be retired in the next few months, and other satellites in the aging network are getting older, said Badri Younes, a scientist in NASA's Space Communications and Navigation office.

The satellite launched today was the first of three new satellites expected to enter service between now and 2015 that should further bolster the network. The TDRS-K mission costs between $350 million and $400 million, not including the price of its rocket.

The TDRS-K satellite is 26 feet long (8 meters) and weighs about 7,615 pounds (3,454 kilograms). It was expected to separate from its Atlas 5 rocket one hour and 46 minutes after liftoff, with a Centaur upper stage rocket engine slated to carry it the rest of the way to its geosynchronous orbit.

The satellite is expected to deploy its solar arrays and giant antennas about 11 days after launch, according to a mission description. ?

NASA's TDRS satellite network is part of the larger "Space Network" used keep space agencies on the ground in constant communication with orbiting spacecraft. The International Space Station sends all of its data and messages through the network using the TDRS satellites. The rocket that sent TDRS-K into orbit even uses the space network to beam down data, Vernon Thorp, a program manager with NASA said.

TDRS-K is now entering into a three month period of testing and calibrations, but once those tests are complete the NASA research team will decide if the satellite is ready for service.?

Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter?@mirikramer?or SPACE.com?@Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook?&?Google+.?

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/liftoff-nasa-launches-next-generation-relay-satellite-space-022520967.html

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