Abbott Laboratories (NYSE:ABT) and St. Jude Medical, Inc. (NYSE:STJ) have agreed to sell certain businesses ahead of the proposed merger. The sell off to Japanese company Terumo Corp will involve vascular closure and electrophysiology businesses. The assets in question are believed to be worth $1.1 billion. However, the selloff will only take place on the proposed merger coming to fruition. Abbott, which agreed to acquire St Jude Medical Inc in April in a cash and stock transaction valued at $25 billion, expects the deal to close before the end of the year. Abbott expects the transaction to go a long way in bolstering its prospects in the medical devices business. In the meantime, looks like this NEW red hot play in the healthcare space is about to storm WallStreet. The float is tiny (10M s-hares). Recent volume is surging. So are the company’s opportunities, including penetration into a$35 bln new market segment. All moving averages are below the current price and turning upward. And we see no overbought signs yet on the current breakout move. Click to Read more about this new company.
Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) Investing $90 Million in Expanding Access to Health Care
Eli Lilly and Co (NYSE:LLY) is planning to spend as much as $90 million as part of a new effort that seeks to expand access to global health care. The company plans to target as many as 30 million people with the push mostly in impoverished areas. The $90 million program will seek to provide better access to treatment of diabetes, cancer as well as tuberculosis. Some of the countries where the company will make the program available include Kenya Brazil, China, India, and Russia. The Indianapolis drug maker is to use $45 million of its own money for the program with the remaining coming from the Eli Lily and Co. Foundation. Meanwhile, the company has confirmed a dividend payment of $0.51 to be paid on December 9, 2016, to shareholders of record as of November 15, 2016.
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) Tanks on Better than Expected Q3 Earnings
Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) stock tanked by 2.6% even on posting better than expected third quarter results and boosting its fourth quarter outlook. The pharmaceutical giant says it earned a profit of $4.3 billion in the quarter up from $3.36 billion a year ago. Net sales in the quarter were up by 4.2% to highs of $17.8 billion above Wall Street expectations of $17.74 billion. Chief executive officer Alex Gorsky has attributed the better than expected earnings to a robust drug portfolio. During the quarter, Johnson & Johnson also made new drug application submission expected to bolster the company’s drugs portfolio upon approval.
For the full year, Johnson & Johnson now expects earnings of between $6.68 a share up from an initial guidance of $6.63-$6.73 a share.
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) To Begin Remicade Biosimilar Sales in November
Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) will begin sales for its biosimilar version of Johnson & Johnson rheumatoid arthritis drug, Remicade, next month. The drug will be available at a 15% discount from current wholesale prices under the name Inflectra. Inflectra will become the second biosimilar drug approved in the US having already touched ground in Europe among other overseas markets. Given its price, Pfizer should be able to generate a substantial amount of revenues as consumers continue to look for cheaper alternatives away from pricey biologic medicines. For Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), it is a big blow given that Remicade generated revenues of about $5 billion last year. JPMorgan analyst Michael Weinstein has already warned that Remicade revenues could tank to $1 billion next year given the new competition.
Merck & Co., Inc. (NYSE:MRK) stock was up 0.93% to $62.09. The company’s Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) facilities in West Point, Pa., and Rahway, N.J., were designated as “Milestones in Microbiology” sites for their contributions to vaccines and anti-infectives respectively, by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM).
