Emkay Global Financial Services has come out with a research report on Dishman Pharma's Q2FY10 earnings. The research firm has downgraded rating from buy to accumulate with a target price of Rs 207 because of downward revision in earning estimates.

"Dishman Q2FY10 numbers are below our as well as street expectations. Revenues declined by 14% to Rs 2.2 billion because of a) Pressure in the CRAMS business and b) decline in the Marketable molecule business due to unfavorable US market conditions. The pressure in the CRAMS business was mainly aided by a) postponement of the Solvay order to August 09 (which was scheduled to be on June 09) b) Slowdown in the Carbogen Amcis business because of decline in early phase-I pipeline. On the operating front, the margins expanded by 310 bps to 22.9% because of a) 650bps decline in raw material cost due to change in product mix and b) 200bps reduction in other expenses. Adjusted PAT during the quarter de-grew by 31% to Rs 191mn. On the back of lower than expected performance, we have lowered our FY10/11E earning estimates by 27% and 23% respectively. As mentioned earlier, we are of the view that Q2FY10 numbers are bottom out kind of numbers for CRAMS companies and we expect operating environment to improve going forward. Though 2HFY10 would be more of catching up, FY11E and FY12E seems to be very strong for these companies. We are downgrading our rating from buy to accumulate with a target price of Rs 207 (11x FY11E; in-line with the CRAMS universe) because of downward revision in our earning estimates. At CMP of Rs234, the stock is trading at 15.8x FY10E and 12.5xFY11E", says Emkay Global Financial Services.

Think U.S. health authorities have never conducted outrageous medical experiments on children, women, minorities, homosexuals and inmates? Think again: This timeline, originally put together by Dani Veracity (a NaturalNews reporter), has been edited and updated with recent vaccination experimentation programs in Maryland and New Jersey. Here's what's really happening in the United States when it comes to exploiting the public for medical experimentation:
(1845 - 1849) J. Marion Sims, later hailed as the "father of gynecology," performs medical experiments on enslaved African women without anesthesia. These women would usually die of infection soon after surgery. Based on his belief that the movement of newborns' skull bones during protracted births causes trismus, he also uses a shoemaker's awl, a pointed tool shoemakers use to make holes in leather, to practice moving the skull bones of babies born to enslaved mothers
(1895) New York pediatrician Henry Heiman infects a 4-year-old boy whom he calls "an idiot with chronic epilepsy" with gonorrhea as part of a medical experiment ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").
(1896) Dr. Arthur Wentworth turns 29 children at Boston's Children's Hospital into human guinea pigs when he performs spinal taps on them, just to test whether the procedure is harmful (Sharav).
(1906) Harvard professor Dr. Richard Strong infects prisoners in the Philippines with cholera to study the disease; 13 of them die. He compensates survivors with cigars and cigarettes. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors cite this study to justify their own medical experiments (Greger, Sharav).
(1911) Dr. Hideyo Noguchi of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research publishes data on injecting an inactive syphilis preparation into the skin of 146 hospital patients and normal children in an attempt to develop a skin test for syphilis. Later, in 1913, several of these children's parents sue Dr. Noguchi for allegedly infecting their children with syphilis ("Reviews and Notes: History of Medicine: Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War").
(1913) Medical experimenters "test" 15 children at the children's home St. Vincent's House in Philadelphia with tuberculin, resulting in permanent blindness in some of the children. Though the Pennsylvania House of Representatives records the incident, the researchers are not punished for the experiments ("Human Experimentation: Before the Nazi Era and After").
(1915) Dr. Joseph Goldberger, under order of the U.S. Public Health Office, produces Pellagra, a debilitating disease that affects the central nervous system, in 12 Mississippi inmates to try to find a cure for the disease. One test subject later says that he had been through "a thousand hells." In 1935, after millions die from the disease, the director of the U.S Public Health Office would finally admit that officials had known that it was caused by a niacin deficiency for some time, but did nothing about it because it mostly affected poor African-Americans. During the Nuremberg Trials, Nazi doctors used this study to try to justify their medical experiments on concentration camp inmates (Greger; Cockburn and St. Clair, eds.).

Baku. Viktoria Dementieva – APA. Pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline will donate 50 million doses of H1N1 vaccine to the World Health Organization (WHO). APA reports that the related agreement was signed in Geneva.
WHO Director-General Margaret Chan said WHO will work to see that these vaccines are distributed to those who need them.
GlaxoSmithKline expects to prepare the first shipments of vaccine to the WHO by the end of November. WHO has prepared a list of 95 developing countries that are slated for receiving vaccines from GSM, and it intends to cover 10 percent of the population in these countries.

Pharmaceutical company logos and an icon symbolizing government-approved health related information are among the proposed ideas for regulating drug marketing online. Firms including Yahoo, WebMD, and Sanofi-Aventis were represented at yesterday's Food and Drug Administration hearing on the topic. Most stressed the need for clear guidance from the FDA on how to market online, particularly when it comes to interacting with consumers in social media environments.

The two-day hearing, held in Washington, DC, serves as a forum for interested industry parties to air their concerns and propose ideas for regulations. Many pharmaceutical brands have remained hesitant to advertise online or experiment with social media due to unclear FDA guidance. The FDA's lack of guidance is "restricting the flow of valuable information exchange" between consumers and pharma companies, said WebMD CEO and hearing speaker Wayne Gattinella.

As part of its "rich ads in search" offering announced earlier this year, Yahoo has been testing the addition of pharma brand logos and links to specific landing pages in sponsored search results. The hope is that links directly from a sponsored search result to specific pages on "Treatment Info" or Safety Info" related to a drug would help satisfy the FDA's requirements for including important safety information or other regulations.

Yahoo also asked the FDA to provide guidance on online video advertising. "We'd like to see greater clarity on the ability to run shorter-form video," said David Zinman, VP and GM, display advertising at Yahoo. "We need the clarity to allow the advertiser to move forward to provide this." Currently, he said, pharma advertisers using video in search ads are only using longer broadcast-compliant video.

One of the overriding suggestions pharma marketers and Internet industry representatives made during the first day of the hearing yesterday was the need for the FDA to consider the unique capabilities of the medium when developing guidelines. In particular, that means incorporating the use of links to required information.

When it comes to search advertising, suggested Zinman, the FDA should "recognize this is a very, very different form of advertising." Because users interact with marketing information after clicking on search ads, the FDA should allow marketers to "make the brand information available through that search placement."

Since the FDA sent warning letters to 14 pharma companies in April accusing them of failure to include drug risk information in online ads, many pharma search ads haven't included drug names at all. For instance, searches on Yahoo and Google for "high cholesterol" turn up ads that state "Learn About a Cholesterol-Lowering Prescription Treatment Option," and display the URL "High-Cholesterol-Rx-Treatment.com." However, the ads actually link to Lipitor.com, the official site for the cholesterol-lowering Pfizer drug.

"We've lost the clarity and the transparency for the users," said Zinman. "They don't know exactly where they're going until they get there." Several other speakers echoed the call to allow links to drug safety and other required information, rather than including them in online ads.

Diana Zuckerman, president of watchdog group National Research Center for Women and Families, argued that linking to required information would not be suitable. "One click away is one click away too many," she said.

Advertising was just one component of the discussion, which focused primarily on how drug companies should interact with consumers in social media. In regards to Twitter, where communications are limited to 140 characters, Craig Audet VP and head of the U.S. regulatory affairs marketed products group at Sanofi-Aventis, suggested that pharma firms could include required safety and drug indication information on company account pages on Twitter.

Other speakers suggested an FDA seal of approval, not unlike the TRUSTe symbol validating online data privacy on Web sites. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association of America stated, "Such a graphic symbol could be combined with a universal warning statement to provide an indication of risk when there is little space." McCann Healthcare Worldwide proposed a similar approach.

FDA panelists, however, question how the agency would police Web sites or content featuring such a seal-of-approval.

The challenge for the FDA will be determining guidelines for presenting required information on third-party sites with social media functions, such as Facebook or WebMD, which features blog comments and community message boards.

Some speakers suggested that companies should monitor discussions of their drugs and products taking place on third-party sites, and ensure that incorrect or off-label information is removed; however, they shouldn't be held responsible for doing so by the FDA if they do not maintain control over said site.

Pharma companies also must report adverse effects of their drugs. That topic, along with promotion of off-label drug usage in social media, is the intended focus of today's hearing.

India Infoline is bullish on Sun Pharma and has recommended buy rating on the stock with a target of Rs 1485, in its November 12, 2009 research report.

Sun Pharma has been trading in a range of Rs 1,460 to Rs 1,050 post election. On Wednesday, the stock touched upper end of its trading range with impressive volumes. We believe that the current run up may lead to a breakout, which should result into a potential upside up to Rs1550 and above. Technically, the stock is showing strength along with the momentum, and given the positive oscillators set-up, the stock could outperform as long as it sustains above short-term moving averages placed around Rs1406. We recommend traders to buy the stock for a short-term target of Rs 1485 and a medium term target of Rs 1,550. It is advisable to maintain a stop loss of Rs 1406," says India Infoline research report.

Disclaimer: The views and investment tips expressed by investment experts on moneycontrol.com are their own, and not that of the website or its management. Moneycontrol.com advises users to check with certified experts before taking any investment decisions.

To read the full report click on the attachment.........

Preliminary research on college students in the US suggests that too much texting can lead to neck and shoulder pain, similar to that found in older adults who develop injuries from prolonged and repeated use of computers.

Judith Gold, an ergonomics researcher at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, presented the preliminary findings of her study at this year's annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, that took place this week in Philadelphia.

Gold, who is an assistant professor of Epidemiology at the College of Health Professions and Social Work at Temple University, where she also directs the Ergonomics and Work Physiology Laboratory, told the press that texting is probably doing for this generation of young adults aged 18 to 21 what years in front of a computer did for older adults: it is putting them at risk of serious injury.

She told the press that:

"What we've seen so far is very similar to what we see with office workers who've spent most of their time at a computer."

Current studies of people who sit for long periods at computers, such as office workers, show they are prone to carpal tunnel syndrome, bursitis, and tendonitis.

Gold said text messaging is a new technology, and a new area of ergonomics research, but given the similarities in the way the body is positioned for texting, "stationary shoulders and back with rapidly moving fingers", findings from research on overuse injuries from computers could also apply to texters.

In her preliminary research, Gold found that among college students, the more they texted, the more pain they experienced in their neck and shoulders.

She and her team use infrared cameras, motion analysis and heart rate monitors to study the body's position in several job-related simulations.

She now wants to explore further the physiological effects of text messaging.

"Looking around our campus, you see every student on their cell phones, typing away," said Gold.

"It's the age group that texts the most, so it's important to know what the health effects may be to learn whether it will cause long term damage," she added.

The world record for texting keeps being broken, but it is currently believed to be held by a 21-year old student from Utah, Ben Cook.

In a contest held at the New York State Fair in September this year, Cook regained the world record on his 31st attempt. To do this he had to type the following 160-character message prescribed by the Guinness Book of Records in under 41.4 seconds:

"The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."

The three judges timed him at 40.72, 40.91 and 41.31 seconds, according to a report from Syracuse, the online version of the Post-Standard Daily Newspaper.

Sources: Temple University, Syracuse Online.

Springer is founding a new journal Food Digestion, dedicated to a quickly growing area of research - food science combined with the physiology of digestion. The journal will publish two issues in 2010 and increase to four issues in 2011.

Food Digestion will bring together the increasing number of researchers who are working at the interfaces between the physical sciences and nutrition and health. Rigorous, multidisciplinary science is required to understand the impact of food on diet, nutrition and human health and this new journal aims to fill that need. Food Digestion will publish original papers and reviews that describe interrelationships between foods and all aspects of the physiological, biophysical, microbial and neurohumoral components of digestion, acquisition and absorption, with particular emphasis on the role of food structure.

While the principle area of focus of the journal is in regard to human digestion, the journal will welcome papers that explore these areas in animal and in vitro models and which compare these processes in an evolutionary sense. Editors-in-chief Roger Lentle from the Institute of Food Nutrition and Human Health at Massey University in New Zealand and Peter Wilde from the Institute of Food Research in Norwich, UK, will work together with an international editorial board. Food Digestion will include features such as fast electronic publication in Online First™, Cross Reference Linking, and Alert services.

Susan Safren, Senior Editor, Food Science and Technology at Springer, said, "There is an increasing interest in determining the role of the physical and chemical properties of food on human health in terms of the resultant physiological response to that food. With no journal currently in place for this particular field, papers are published in a variety of periodicals focusing on either food science or clinical aspects. Our goal is to create a single publication where this information can be published, located, and reviewed."

Nycomed reports continued satisfactory performance in the third quarter 2009, with total net turnover increasing by 0.9% (3.2% in local currencies) to €820.0 million. Pantoprazole sales were resilient after losing patent protection in May in 12 European countries. On a regional basis, sales in most emerging markets exhibited strong growth. The pipeline portfolio advanced significantly. Roflumilast (Daxas®) was submitted to the FDA, and an agreement with Forest Laboratories on US commercialisation was signed. Positive phase III trial results were published in The Lancet. Instanyl® was approved in Europe in July for the treatment of breakthrough pain in cancer patients, and has since been launched in its first markets in Denmark and Germany. Håkan Björklund, CEO, commented on the company's results: "Nycomed achieved continued satisfactory performance in the third quarter. Roflumilast was filed for approval in the US and with Forest Laboratories we found the best partner for commercialising the product in the United States. Furthermore, the positive phase III trial results were published in the medical journal The Lancet and presented at the European Respiratory Society meeting in Vienna. The results reinforce our confidence in the drug's strong commercial prospects. In addition, Instanyl was approved in Europe and launched in its first markets. Initial uptake has been very positive. Nycomed also strengthened its position in the faster growing markets of Central and Eastern Europe with the acquisition of a portfolio of 20 branded generic products from Sanofi-Aventis and Zentiva. This demonstrates our commitment to identifying and in-licensing promising products and our focus on growth in fast growing markets

KARACHI: Airport Security Force (ASF) has arrested an official of a private pharmaceutical company after a magazine of a small pistol along with six bullets was recovered from his possession.

Airport officials said that the man Asif who claimed to be a regional sales manager of the company in Lahore, was arrested after a scanning machine alarmed while verifying his baggage. On searching the luggage manually, ASF personnel found a magazine with six bullets from his bag.

Officials quoting the suspected man said that he denied being aware of the pistol and bullets and said that he arrived in the city for an official meeting later leaving for Lahore via flight no PK-306. Officials further said that the man has been handed over to the Airport police station and further investigation is in progress. staff report

The company made this announcement during trading hours today, 16 November 2009. Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 193.12 points, or 1.15%, to 17,041.95. On BSE, 2.30 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of5.83 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock hit a high of Rs 238 and a low of Rs 227 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 346 on 1 December 2008 and a 52-week low of Rs 119.15 on 5 February 2009. The mid-cap stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 13 November 2009, falling 7.46% as compared to the Sensex's 1.04% fall. It had also underperformed the market in the past one quarter, declining 13.24% as compared to the Sensex's return of 8.57%. The company's equity capital is Rs 26.97 crore. Face value per share is Rs 1. The current price of Rs 236.90 discounts the company's Q2 September 2009 annualized EPS of Rs 8.53, by a PE multiple of 27.77. Fluocinonide is the generic version of Medicis' Vanos cream and Ciclopirox Olamine, the generic version of Medicis' Laprox gel Under the terms, Glenmark will be able to market and distribute its generic version of Vanos cream under license from Medicis in early December 2013. In addition, Glenmark would have a license to launch a generic version of Laprox gel, supplied by Medicis immediately. Meanwhile, Glenmark Pharma signed a pact with US based Medicis Pharmaceuticals to co-develop and commercialize a specialty pharmaceutical product in North America. Glenmark Pharma will receive a one-time upfront payment of $5 million. The company is also eligible to receive additional payments upon achieving certain development milestones and royalty upon commercialization. The product is used for treating acne vulgaris. Glenmark Generics Inc had in September 2009 got US drug regulator's nod for Verapamil in 240 miligram strengths. Verapamil tablet is used for treating hypertension and is the generic version of Isoptin SR tablets. As per IMS Health, the drug had an annual sale of $65 million in US market in twelve months to June 2009. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals' net profit declined 14% to Rs 57.50 crore on 4.4% rise in net sales to Rs 235.83 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q2 September 2008. Glenmark Pharmaceuticals manufactures and markets pharmaceutical ingredients. Currently, the company has 11 drug compounds at various stages of research development for treatment of diseases such as inflammation, heart ailments, metabolic disorders and cancer.