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OT: US Appeals Court Rules Obamacare Is Unconstitutional
www.cnbc.com/id/44121909
They could have saved a lot of time and just asked me; I would have told them that this was unconstitutional 2-years ago!!
A U.S. appeals court ruled Friday that President Obama's healthcare law requiring Americans to buy healthcare insurance or face a penalty was unconstitutional, a blow to the White House.
Adam Gault | Getty Images
The U.S. Appeals Court for the 11th Circuit, based in Atlanta, found that Congress exceeded its authority by requiring Americans to buy coverage, but also ruled that the rest of the wide-ranging law could remain in effect.
The legality of the so-called individual mandate, a cornerstone of the 2010 healthcare law, is widely expected to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Obama administration has defended the provision as constitutional.
The case stems from a challenge by 26 U.S. states which had argued the individual mandate, set to go into effect in 2014, was unconstitutional because Congress could not force Americans to buy health insurance or face the prospect of a penalty.
"This economic mandate represents a wholly novel and potentially unbounded assertion of congressional authority: the ability to compel Americans to purchase an expensive health insurance product they have elected not to buy, and to make them re-purchase that insurance product every month for their entire lives," a divided three-judge panel said.
Obama and his administration had pressed for the law to help halt the steep increases in healthcare costs and expand insurance coverage to the more than 30 million Americans who are without it.
It argued that the requirement was legal under the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. One of the three judges of the appeals court panel, Stanley Marcus, agreed with the administration in dissenting from the majority opinion.
The majority "has ignored the undeniable fact that Congress' commerce power has grown exponentially over the past two centuries and is now generally accepted as having afforded Congress the authority to create rules regulating large areas of our national economy," Marcus wrote.
Many other provisions of the healthcare law are already being implemented.
The decision contrasts with one by the U.S. Appeals Court for the 6th Circuit, based in Cincinnati, which had upheld the individual mandate as constitutional. That case has already been appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, has yet to rule on a separate challenge by the state of Virginia.
In Regard To A Stock Buy-Back. . . .
. . . I would prefer a one-time special dividend to return some value to shareholders. It is probably premature at this point; but, in another year if the cash hoard is $5/share higher than it is now, and especially if the M-Copaxone situation has the perception of improving, and if the stock price remains stagnant, then I'd think a $1 or $2/share one-time dividend would go a long way toward convincing The Street in management's confidence of its long-term potential.
I might be wrong but I'd think that would be an unprecedented move in the biotech space. Then again, MNTA has a history of setting precedents.
Bill
Thanks For The Humbling Info, Dew!
I'd be interested to know, via anonymous polling, if anybody can beat that share price.
FWIW, I was on the disgusting pile of feces that is the Yahoo! MB until I got tired of being called such poorly-conceived insults as "shorty" and associated cheerleading posts and asked if there was a MB in which steerage-level participants wouldn't be inclined to scavenge.
The answer was the iHub board and Dew in particular was mentioned as "a guy who's made (or saved) me a lot of money." I can't recall who it was. It was either Flatlander or Flob, if I'm not mistaken. Whoever it was was in the Orient at the time traveling with a sugar daddy who had a lot more than 900 shares worth of MNTA.
And no, I'm not on anybody's payroll (though all inquiries will be given its proper 'Dew' attention).
Oh Damn!
How much Chivas have you had?
Good to read corroboration from the land of the sober.
Bill
I'm Happy To Lose That Quarrel Any Day!
Any unexpected surprises from the MNTA end? I'm not inclined to rain on anybody's parade, but can anybody project an otherwise unforeseen development from MNTA? Thanks in advance.
Dew, 'Dew' you ever sleep man? It seems that every time I'm on here late, which isn't that often, you're boring full steam ahead.
Congrats on that Sox game btw; my fantasy team is chock-full of Orioles and Sox batsmen.
Good day all around.
I Know You're Being Facetious. . .
. . .but the lying skill is in the cradle of civilization, not the bastion of democracy.
Old Farts Like Me Respond. . . .
. . .sweet too.
Whoever Is Skilled In iHub Polls. . .
. . .let's put in a poll for who bought MNTA at what price and when. Let's be honest. Hopefully it can be done confidentially so that people don't claim to make boastful and false claims.
I'll answer officially if the poll is posted. For the masses, however, and in the interest of being honest that I did not get in when it was single-digits, I bought on 7/23/10 as soon as I heard the news on CNBC. It was $18 and change then.
The following day I bought more in the $20 range. Ever since I've bought during the dips. I only have 900 shares, which is a pittance for a lot of you, but this is my "fun money" trading account. My 401-K is locked in quite boring employer-sponsored funds (they do match a handsome percentage, so it's not all bad). HCA's earnings are 7/25 for those with interest. My average MNTA price is a little over $15.00.
In any case, I'm not a millionaire (though in enough time with more earnings like NVS reported tonight, then maybe).
Oh boy, life is good.
Bill
Oh my. . .
Even with a BAC of 0.15% I'm sorry I threw the legumes comment out there!
Anybody else ever put on a bender and then wake up early in the morning (my dog won't let me sleep in) and then wonder what in the world they e-mailed the night before?
Bill
Wow! My Chivas Soaked Grey Matter Is Impressed
I was convinced that the GPO channel stuffing would mean EPS of around $1/share this quarter. I'll take what you're touting in a heartbeat.
T-enox overhang be damned, this is one of the best kept secrets on Wall Street; too bad that it's a secret.
Bill
Any Forex Experts Out There. . . ?
It seems that NVS, being European-based, reports earnings in Euros and then converts them to dollars. As my previous post will attest, I'm more inclined to take an interest this time of night in a bottle of Chivas in celebration than to endure the drudgery of actually listening to the call.
If this is true, then it would seem that the MNTA earnings would be influenced by currency trends.
If this has been addressed in a prior message then pardon me; Googling when you're already half-Googled full of Chivas is more than I can bear.
Or could it be that since m-Enox is only approved in the US that all earnings are reported by NVS in dollars?
Bill
I've Already Put Away A Celebratory Pint of Chivas
I hope you're right but I'm in no condition to argue otherwise (as if I'd want to).
I hope when I awake bright and early that it sounds like another good buying opp as it does now.
Bill
What took you so long?
LOL
I have 12:16 (CT) on my desktop clock now.
Thanks for the info. Saved me the trouble of tuning in.
BK
Trust Fund Potential For MNTA
FWIW, in my humble opinion yes it is; however, I don't believe in basing such things on one stock (see My Stocks for my current portfolio). I believe in diversification after having been burned a few times in the past with the latest Johnny Come Latelys. I seldom have invested in something that went nowhere but down, but as it is with most laypersons, I didn't sell when I should have and I lost 100% of it on a couple of occasions.
I'd put no more than 10 of 15% in MNTA as a spec play. Once it has other products beside m-enox on board then I think you can go to 20%.
One fact can't be disputed, that MNTA has the ONLY proven technologies and patents that have produced a FDA-approved FOB or biosimilar on the planet. And there's a plethora of them out there ripe for picking once they get more approved products and resulting cash flow (which is outstanding now!). And this doesn't even consider their novel drug potential, which I consider to be icing on the cake.
Disclaimer: I'm long MNTA and am a hospital pharmacist by trade with many post-grad courses in molecular biology at Wash U. in St. Louis. Trouble is, I know a lot more about cloning legumes thanks to Wash U.'s proximity and generosity of Monsanto than I do with drug biotechnology.
So This Is News?
The places I have been; . . .
I presume you meant vials and not files. I process physicians orders from my home for up to 27 different facilities. It's true that very few use the vials; but, those who do are generally large facilities who use enough of it to warrant the added labor expense to draw them up and reap the savings of reduced wastage. Enox was, and probably still is, the #1 line item in terms of drug budget so the reduced wastage savings can be substantial.
Bill
Correct On HSP Vials
The large institutions that I mentioned in the prior message use the existing vial on the market, from what I understand, to draw up the individual doses themselves.
The Lovenox prefilled syringes and graduated prefilled syringes are preservative-free and intended for use only as a single-dose injection. The multiple-dose vial contains 15 mg benzyl alcohol per 1 mL as a preservative [see DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION and HOW SUPPLIED].
Bill
Enoxaparin Vials
While it's true that enoxaparin syringes sometimes contain more than the necessary dose they are not multi-dose vials as they contain no preservative. Thus, if you have a 75mg dose using a graduated 80mg syringe you waste 5mg. Because as a hospital you bill for what you use and eat the rest it makes sense for some large institutions to draw up multiple doses out of the vial that contains the preservative. It sometimes costs smaller institutions more in labor to draw them up so it makes more sense for them to buy the syringes.
Enoxaparin is one of those strange birds like Procrit that costs the same amount per mg or unit. So, an 80mg syringe costs the hospital exactly twice of what the 40mg dose. Thus, if you can use all the milligrams that you've purchased and wasted none then you've maximized your purchasing efficiency.
What's more, using the 75mg dose and 80mg syringe mentioned above, enoxaparin contains an air bubble in the syringe hub so that there is no bruising. So, nursing does not expel the 5mg and then inject the 75mg dose; they inject 75mg of the 80mg and leave 5mg in the single-dose syringe (with needle permanently affixed) before disposing of it. Therefore, not only is there no preservative in it (rendering it unfit to give the remaining 5mg to the same patient), but, using the 5mg remainder to a different patient would be tantamount to needle-sharing.
Incidentally, the 30mg and 40mg syringes are not graduated and cannot be administered in fractional doses.
Bill
Teva Misinformation
I don't dispute that assertion at all; in fact, I concur 100%. I think it makes them look pretty bad though to publicly estimate a FDA response to the CP "by September" when it was already in hand.
Bill
UBS Analyst
The analyst was apparently unaware of the smoking gun FDA letter as of last night.
Thanks for posting that letter. I'm sure it caused quite a stir at the shiny sparkling Teva building just off I-435 in KCMO. I got quite a mental image of what the FDA was saying to Teva too--in the form of Dr. Woodcock.
Bill
The Negative
The negative would be if those who read it are unaware of the public letter and thus read the Teva statement as gospel. It's a long-shot either way. The selling is probably just automated profit-taking.
Bill
Alleged Teva Statement
www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000652722&fid=1725
Could this piece of misinformation be why MNTA came back down today? If a Teva spokesman really said this then when compared to the smoking gun FDA letter of yesterday, then it would form the basis for a SEC inquiry at the least and a shareholder lawsuit down the road. At least I think it would involve the SEC even though the alleged statement was made offshore to an overseas journalist (or blogger). Perhaps the statement was made yesterday, before the letter arrived, and only reported today.
Bill
Rivals will not be allowed to launch generic Copaxone until the FDA makes its decision on Teva's Citizens Petition.
9 June 11 08:50, Globes' correspondent
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has postponed a ruling on the Citizens Petition of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (Nasdaq:TEVA; TASE:TEVA) to prevent the launching of generic Copaxone. A company spokesman told "Globes" that the FDA decision has been put off to an unspecified date.
Teva was responding to a report on "Fly on the Wall" yesterday that the FDA had dismissed the company's petition regarding Copaxone, Teva's flagship multiple sclerosis treatment.
The report on the "Fly on the Wall" consisted of just one sentence and was based on anonymous sources. However, the report was picked up by "Yahoo Finance", which billed it as a rumor. Teva insists it received a different response from the FDA. The significance is that rivals cannot launch generic versions of Copaxone until the FDA makes a decision.
Teva is pulling out all the stops to protect Copaxone, which provides 25%-33% of the pharmaceutical company's profit. The Citizens Petition was filed with the FDA on December 12, 2010. In the petition, Teva insists that generic Copaxone cannot be launched without a full clinical trial. Should the petition be approved, Teva would receive a breathing space of at least two years before generic Copaxone would reach the market. But if the petition is dismissed, generic competition for Copaxone would start very soon.
In a survey published last night UBS analyst Marc Goodman said that he would not be surprised if the FDA waited until September before making a decision on the Citizens Petition.
Teva's share price closed at $49.56 on Nasdaq last night, giving a market cap of $44.26 billion.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 9, 2011
I am predicting at least $1.20+.
it makes little sense to try to undercut the competition on price
My thinking is it has HPG has moved toward m-enox largely because of the patient discharge kit issue with branded Lovenox.
Incidentally, HCA will be issuing an IPO very soon. Expected price will fetch from $27 to $30 a share (124 million shares resulting in 515 million total shares).
Bill
it makes little sense to try to undercut the competition on price.
margin on hospital sales of Lovenox, which I estimate to be 52%
OT: You Think You Can Do Better Than The President?
Here is a computer-model budget-reduction simulation that's challenging and somewhat frustrating. You're faced with reducing the budget substantially yet running for re-election starting in about a year. Caveat emptor.
http://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/#
Bill
HPG GPO Pricing For M-Enox
The contract price listed in the wholesaler database for m-enox is exact to the penny to that of branded Lovenox for each strength's box of 10.
So that begs the question of whether Sandoz has bundled m-enox in with discounts for other items. I don't know enough about the inner workings of these contracts to know if the wholesaler is pocketing the difference in that their cost may be lower than branded; I doubt it.
The contract with HPG went into effect today.
Bill
While it is somewhat farfetched
I've actually been part of (a.k.a, a victim of) such a strategy; though, not in the public arena (though one party was a public company). It's not as far-fetched as you might think, with the exception of the FTC.
Bill
The FTC won’t allow Teva to buy MNTA—I guarantee it!
I'm less than a novice in such areas but the news of the last few days has me believing that MNTA would be foolish to be acquired by anybody less than a ridiculously handsome premium.
If I had the majority of the voting share then I'd hold out for a sum so large for my shares that any offer would be viewed as bottom-fishing.
Now that the USPTO has applied their stamp (again) then I'd let it ride. There are many more rungs to the ladder than the compounds in the pipeline and m-Copaxone and m-enox. I'm no longer a buy & hold guy, but, there is no other player yet in the micro-industry (a.k.a., solo-industry) that appears to have the infrastructure to reverse-engineer numerous compounds that are losing patent protection in the next decade.
For those whom desire the usual disclaimer; yes, I'm long.
Bill
P.S.: I realize that the USPTO is not judge, jury, and executioner in such matters. I have admittedly lost more than I care to admit in http://superbserv.com/, a micro-company of which I'm both a large shareholder and creditor; it attained a USPTO patent years ago. We have the best technology but improper timing. Sorry Dew, I'm really not trying to sell SuperbServ here; I'm just trying to illustrate that I don't take the USPTO rulings as harbingers for the future. Perhaps we could help you in your meals bet, though!
That’s what message board fare for :- )
You mean that's what this message board is for; for others, who shall remain nameless though not exponential sign-less, such is a crime to be emasculated for.
Bill
HPG M-Enox Pricing Will Be Available March 1
That's when the contract rolls. Sodrock, do you have the percentage of the institutional pie that HPG represents? Thanks in advance.
The HPG GPO contract coupled with the Copaxone patent news today makes me feel good about buying more shares at $13.10. I didn't hit the nadir but I seldom shoot for that; I always like to see some resistance and recovery first.
Bill
MNTA: February 10 Earnings Announcement
Has anybody on this board taken a stab at what we're expecting Thursday? The 2 sources I use say either 81 or 86-cents. Both are downward revisions from, loosely speaking, the 1-dollar range.
Thanks in advance.
Bill
Before approval of M-enox it was a maximum 30%.
Institutional pricing for SNY 40% off WAC.
OK, then SNY discounted that 14% when M-enox was approved on July 23rd. That was the consensus of this board.
Bill
Sandoz M-Enox Pricing:
So it does appear that for all intents and purposes the WAC is priced on a per mg basis.
SNY was WAC less 14%, correct? So the $15M that HPG will save is $15M less than whatever that discounted number was.
You can see that a 120mg dose, for instance, costs roughly twice what a 60mg syringe does and 4-times what a 30mg one does. Throw in the fact that it is given twice a day and not once a day and you see how large this news is.
Bill
Is Lovenox Priced On A Per Milligram Basis?
I know Epogen for instance is a situation in which a 4,000 vial costs twice what the 2,000 unit vial costs and a 40,000 unit vial costs 20-times the 2,000 unit vial.
I no longer work where I have access to wholesaler pricing. Does anybody know if there is a volume, or in this case just as adequately called mass, discount to the extent that a 120mg syringe is a little less than 3-times a single 40mg syringe (or 4-times a 30mg one)?
It may not be priced mg-per-mg but I bet it's close.
Bill
LMAO re the title of this article:
Sodrock beat me to the punch again, this time by only a minute though.
What is this language? Chinglish? You remember that during the 2008 Olympics the Beijing government was going to fine people who used Chinglish? Cited as examples were signs like this worded in Chinese (Mandarin or Cantonese, I guess) and then followed in English with something peculiar like: Please do not leave your buffalo unattended.
Bill
LMAO re the title of this article:
You're shortchanging the body of the article. This portion of a single paragraph is Comedy 101:
. . .introduced today that it has submitted an digital Investigational New Drug (IND)application on the U.S. meals and Drug Administration. . .
As I Recall You Have Or At Least Had The Same Access!
If I remember the daze[sic] I spent mired in the YMB muck you and I report to the same Goliath.
Bill