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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mkilloran who wrote (7614)	5/6/1999 8:14:00 AM
From: BigKNY3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

James Cramer from TheStreet.com on PFE 5/6/99 BigKNY3 Pfizer (PFE:NYSE), on the other hand, traded lower from the get-go. I know I even pondered buying puts on the once-powerful stock if the bonds failed to hold. But I knew that if the bonds advanced I would take a beating, so I later dismissed the idea. Good thinking -- it would have been a major loss. All of the big shifts in these two important stocks were "told" by the bonds ahead of time. Some of the switches yesterday were exacerbated by research calls. Pfizer, for instance, benefited from a late-day call from NationsBanc Montgomery saying that maybe the drugs are not as bad as we thought. Montgomery has credibility on the issue -- it was negative when others were positive -- so its boost bolstered the case for Pfizer.

To: Mkilloran who wrote (7614)	5/6/1999 8:19:00 AM
From: BigKNY3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

MK: Here's the news behind the story. BigKNY3 Pfizer challenges UK gov't over Viagra LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - U.S. drugs group Pfizer Inc said on Wednesday it was taking the British government to court over its advice to doctors not to prescribe the anti-impotence pill Viagra. A UK spokesman for Pfizer told Reuters the company would seek to have the Department of Health's advice to doctors not to prescribe the drug ruled illegal at a hearing in the High Court in London on May 10 and 11. Pfizer believes the advice, issued when the drug was approved in September, was illegal because Viagra is not included in the Department of Health's Schedule 10 or Schedule 11 lists, the normal mechanism for restricting doctors' freedom to prescribe. A proposal to limit all forms of treatment for erectile dysfunction to specific categories of patient such as diabetics, multiple sclerosis sufferers and men who have suffered spinal cord injury, is currently being considered by the government. UK Health Secretary Frank Dobson said in January that making Viagra freely available on Britain's National Health Service could increase the cost of treating the condition tenfold from the 10 to 12 million pounds ($19.55 million) spent currently. The government's stance has been attacked by the British Medical Association (BMA), which says it discriminates against individuals suffering from impotence who do not meet its strict criteria. Sales of Viagra worldwide slipped in the first quarter of this year to $193 million from $236 million in the last quarter of 1998 as some of the hysteria, which made it the fastest-selling new drug ever last year, subsided. Nevertheless, analysts expect full-year sales to be well in excess of $1 billion.