First, let’s take a look at mortgage exposure.

The company is still soundly in the driver's seat. Analysts are expecting earnings of $2.35 in 2008, resulting in a very low forward multiple of just 7, and are bumping up their 2009 forecasts by 7% to $2.51, which is probably on the conservative side since an array of new products are already in the pipeline. The dividend of $1.28 currently yields a juicy 7.4% annual return and appears very secure at a payout rate of only 54% of earnings.

Via Pubmed:

Chief Executive Stephen J. Hemsley noted the quarter's results were hurt by lower margins, adding that second-quarter weakness also stems from reduced margins at its risk-based businesses and Medicare operations. "We are continuing to take the aggressive specific steps necessary to improve our operating performance, as well as to better position our organization for sustained future growth," he said. To stop weakness in the risk-based operations, the company has been letting go of some customers who didn't generate enough profits.

UnitedHealth showed complacency in accepting higher medical costs with few practical ways of raising premiums. Commercial risk based customers are negotiating harder (playing insurers against each other) and accepting lower benefits for lower premiums. As a result, their employees will have to defer all nonessential care.

That's worrisome, because a lot of important cellular development pathways go through the Notch receptor, and these are things that you'd really rather not mess with. (Just run the word "notch" through PubMed to see what I mean). Indeed, some of the toxic effects of the earlier gamma secretase inhibitors seem to have been mediated through just those side effects. So for some years now in the gamma secretase field, the hunt has been on for compounds that will shut down beta-amyloid production without messing with the other functions of the enzyme complex.

An NPV analysis of MedImmune’s products suggests the criticisms levelled at AstraZeneca for over-paying are likely to continue. The total NPV of all products acquired from MedImmune amount to $8.21bn, still only half of the acquisition price, according to EvaluatePharma’s NPV Analyzer. Although last week’s announcement that MedImmune’s long-standing chief executive David Mott is leaving the company was attributed to “personal reasons”, could it be a sign that the relationship is straining under the pressure to deliver on its high expectations?

Quidel Corp. (QDEL) is a company that develops and manufactures rapid point of care testing devices to diagnose such things as influenza. Through generating large amounts of free cash flow, the company has been able to substantially buy back stock while continuing to develop new products.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) added to Pfizer’s (PFE) woes Friday with a new assault on the anti-smoking pill market, previously dominated by Pfizer’s Chantix. Chantix has been losing ground since January, when US regulators warned about suicide risks connected with the drug.

And that's significant, says Dr. Dara Jamieson, a neurologist at the Weill Cornell Medical College/New York Presbyterian-Hospital. (Okay, that is just the world's longest facility name, but the PR folks there get testy if you don't use the whole darn thing. I think the hospital/medical school needs to find a much shorter way to brand itself. It would take way too much time to say all that on TV and would have to be squeezed so much on screen that it wouldn't be legible.) Anyway, I digress.

Guidance Call

The firm assembled what it calls the "Obesity Team" made up not just of healthcare analysts, but also a whole bunch of consumer products analysts: 21 people in all.

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2001 study: est. 29 million Americans affected by 2050 (not accounting for undiagnosed diabetes).

Sales of new homes have declined 40.3% decline since May of 2007. Prices of single-family homes in 20 major cities dropped by 15% year-over year, with California and Florida falling 20%+. And few seem to think a "bottom" is in sight.

A dart-throwing monkey would likely have beaten any area associated with real estate in 2007. That might include homebuilders, financial services and/or real estate investment trusts.

First, the agency put off a ruling on Lilly's (LLY) bloodthinner Effient, and then yesterday morning, Merck (MRK) announced the FDA is not ready to approve its cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil for older women.

Currently, India conducts about 1.5 percent of the global clinical trials. This could rise to five percent by end of 2008 and 15 percent by 2011.  Outsourced pharmaceutical manufacturing activity in India is expected to cross $1bn by 2010 (Motilal Oswal Report).   

One company happily straddling these two profitable sectors and offering both some of the best imaging technology available is Peabody, Mass.-based Analogic Corp. (Nasdaq:ALOG).