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Pastimes : The Justa and Lars Honors Bob Brinker Investment Club Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Justa Werkenstiff who wrote (28)	7/2/2000 9:58:29 PM
From: Justa Werkenstiff	Respond to of 10065

Drug Companies I do not like the pharmaceuticals now. I think they have rallied hard in anticipation of a slowing economy and have ben pumped up by institutions chasing momentum. I am especially concerned that the end of the quarter was window dressed with these stocks. I think they are especially vunerable to any political rhetoric as it has been assumed that no legislation affecting their operations is forthcoming this year. Even if that is the case I see these stocks as vulnerable now for changes beyond that time frame. Sunday July 2, 8:06 pm Eastern Time<p><br> Gore takes aim at price "gouging" drug makers<p><br> By Thomas Ferraro WASHINGTON, July 2 (Reuters) - Vice President Al Gore, who last week took on the oilindustry, intends to open fire on drug makers this week as he takes his White House campaign to key election states across the nation. With stops in St. Louis and San Diego on Monday, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee plans to promote his proposal to help the elderly buy prescription drugs while accusing the pharmaceutical industry of reaping unfair profits, Gore aides said on Sunday. Aides said prescription drug prices have been rising at twice the rate of inflation -- a trend that has continued for years -- while pharmaceutical industry profits have skyrocketed. Last year, the pharmaceutical industry enjoyed profits of 18.6 percent of revenues -- or nearly 400 percent the median of Fortune 500 profits, they said. In addition, they said, drug prices are much higher in the United States than they are in the rest of North America.For example in 1999, a 30-pill bottle of Prilosec (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: AZN.L) , used to treat ulcers and heartburn,cost $99.24 in the United States, $49.53 in Canada and $17.14 in Mexico, they said. Gore, in an interview published in The New York Times on Saturday, accused the pharmaceutical industry of engaging in ``corporate chutzpah'' for ``gouging consumers unfairly.''``I don't see myself as a basher of the pharmaceutical companies,'' said Gore, who began butting heads with the industry while a member of Congress more than a generation ago. ``I see myself as opposing the excesses that have accompanied their enormous market power, excesses that have come at the expense of consumers.''The vice president ripped into the oil industry last week, calling for a federal probe into soaring gasoline prices. He said ``Big Oil'' may also be engaged in price gouging.<p><br> Gore's escalated election-year defence of consumers comes as he begins to feel heat in public opinion polls from longtime consumer crusader Ralph Nader, the presidential nominee of the Green Party. Though polls show Nader drawing only about 6 percent of the vote, most if it is believed to be coming from Democrats, liberals and others who would be expected to back Gore over expected Republican candidate George W. Bush. A Newsweek poll released on Saturday found Gore and Bush in a virtual dead heat, unlike a series of other recent polls that found the Texas governor with up to a 13-percentage point lead. The survey of 607 registered voters found Gore at 46 percent and Bush at 45 percent. The poll had a margin of error of plus or minus percentage points. In a four-way race, Gore got 41 percent, Bush 40 percent, Nader 6 percent and presumptive Reform Party nominee Patrick Buchanan 2 percent. This week, Gore intends to push his plan to add a prescription drug benefit to Medicare so the nation's 40 million Medicare beneficiaries are not forced to choose between buying medicine and paying for food or rent. Gore's plan would pay half of prescription drug costs up to $5,000 with no deductible and offer discounts on prescriptions for all seniors and people with disabilities on Medicare. A group funded largely by drug makers has already aired more than $2 million in television ads against such plans. Gore, in a statement on Sunday, said, ``I will lead the fight to give every senior a real, comprehensive prescription drug benefit under Medicare.... It's the right thing to do.'' In addition to St. Louis and San Diego, he plans campaign stops this week in Dayton, Ohio, and Philadelphia, Chicago,Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.