Thanks E-Wolf. Here are excerpts of that AHP press release:
biz.yahoo.com
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AHP says fen-phen drama over, new drugs now focus
By Ransdell Pierson
NEW YORK, Oct 18 (Reuters) - American Home Products Corp. (NYSE:AHP - news) on Monday said it had overcome its fen-phen diet drug crisis and expected its depressed share price to begin rebounding thanks to growing sales of existing drugs and future revenues from its promising drug pipeline.
At a meeting of Wall Street analysts in New York, John Stafford, AHP's chief executive officer, said insurance covered 'a little more than 10 percent' of the company's fen-phen liability under a proposed $3.75 billion national settlement unveiled earlier this month.
'We've put it behind us. We think the reserves we have set up cover our liability,' Stafford said. ....
Shares remain well below their intraday high for the past year of 70-1/4, trading at just 24 times expected full-year 2000 earnings per diluted share of $1.96.
Shares of some large U.S. drug companies trade at over 30 times expected 2000 earnings, including Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and Warner-Lambert Co. (WLA) ....
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The chief executive said he sees AHP's consumer health care sales growing an average of 7 to 9 percentfor 2000 and 2001.
Total company research and development spending for 2000 is expected to be $2 billion
versus $1.8 billion in 1999, Stafford added.
AHP said it was making progress on numerous experimental products in its drug pipeline, including possible novel treatments for diabetes and osteoporosis.
The New Jersey-based drug maker, the nation's fifth largest, said it plans to begin a Phase III trial by fourth quarter 2000 of TSE-424, a drug meant to prevent bone loss and possibly prevent breast cancer.
Company researchers said that earlier human trials of TSE-424 showed it was ``ten times more potent' than Eli Lilly & Co.'s drug Evista in osteoporosis trials and also described the drug as a ``potent estrogen antagonist in human breast cancer cells.'
American Home said it plans next year to begin a trial of an experimental compound to treat Type II diabetes by inhibiting the protein phosphotyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTPase 1B).
It said the experimental compound normalized blood glucose and insulin levels in animal models of Type II diabetes.
The company said that it planned by late 1999 to begin human trials of a new type of drug to prevent rejection of transplanted organs, following the recent approval of its transplant drug Rapamune.
It said the new transplant drug it is testing is an antibody that suppresses the immune system.
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Look at that whopping budget for R&D!
I like to notice that figure for each of those gorillas.
Regards,
Cheryl
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