there seems to be some heavy resistance around these level with a lot of potential upside.

Morning Falcothou,

A bit of a mixed metaphor.
Cherry picking.....Taking the pick of the Litter or fruit.
Low hanging fruit.... Is never as sweet or as ripe as the fruit at the top of the tree.

I often mix my metaphors, as it makes life more interesting.

Not having a dig, just thought it humorous (made me smile).

Regards Greek.

May be they are doing a combination, I have now idea about the fundies of the companies they are hoovering up, though pharma seems generally as a sector to be out of favour, so I would hope that they are at some discount. Apologise for the mixed metaphors I confused myself

No prob, as said it made me smile, and as you say they may be doing a bit of both.

Sorry if off thread but another mixed metaphor. 'Honourable Member of Parliament'.

As the WHO have now declared a Pandemic, there is a list of countries that are putting or already have a declared Pandemic plan into operation.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8022516.stm

As with most bad situations, it will be a case of money being made by the barrow load. Its an ill wind, etc.
Just one quoted example......The US has a stockpile of 50 million courses of anti-viral drugs and has begun distributing the medication. It will spend $251m to buy 13 million more courses of flu medicine. Multiply this several times and it will show just how many millions of doses will be required, world wide.
Whilst under such measures, drugs under patent can be manufactured by none patent holding companies, no doubt a licence fee is still required to be paid to the patent holding company.
Surprised this has not had more effect on the sp.

http://www.sharecast.com/cgi-bin/sharecast/story.cgi?story_id=2828597
SP is rudderless Greek , cable not helping, or California being broke

Morning Falcothou,

Broke or not, if the money needed to fight this pandemic is not forthcoming, the cost to these countries will be phenomenal. The world can not afford to not spend the required money. An untreated pandemic will cost far more to the world economy.
As to the sp, I can only agree with you. It matters not what we feel the true sp value is, if the market feels differently.
By the way, it would be nice to see someone else posting. It appears there is only a few of us left on MoneyAm interested in GSK.

Regards Greek.

I've got a hunch we're not the only shareholders

Interesting point re cost/affordability.

LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - British pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline is planning to cut the prices of many of its leading medicines in emerging markets, CEO Andrew Witty said in an interview with the Financial Times.
"Making sure the price-volume equation is right is a key piece of the strategy," Witty was quoted as saying in the paper's Friday edition.
The plan follows the success of a pilot programme in the Philippines, the paper said. Speaking from the Philippines, Witty said a 60 percent cut in the local price of its cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix had increased sales eightfold.

Presume the cost of Relenza to the customer will reduce as volume increases.

Break out above 1080?

Please I hope your right.

Just a thought.

Could the almost none upward movement of companies such as Glaxo be down to fear.
Whilst there is always the chance of a drug scare release knocking Glaxo's profits, could it be that many punters, PI's as well as institutional investors are in the present financial climate putting more downside on the risk than in so called normal times. In other words are such drug companies as defensive as other so called defensive stock.

There will as we know always be the risk of a adverse report knocking the sp. An example as such follows (could this have been one reason for yesterdays dip)

Tylenol ban will hurt the bottom line.
On Monday, a consortium of drug companies lobbied to an FDA panel, saying, products that include acetaminophen (Tylenol) should stay on the market despite concerns of widespread liver damage. Drug manufacturers offered to more clearly warn buyers about the risks of liver damage linked to the Tylenol instead of the FDAs more drastic options: a full-out ban.

http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/435872-www-threebrothershealth-com/10611-tylenol-ban-will-hurt-the-bottom-line

Investors tend to look at the negative sections of such reports....'An FDA ban, or a strict warning, will hurt the bottom-line of these companies'......
instead of looking to the positive effect if these companies win their augment.

Until investors start looking at risk in prospective and excepting that shares in any company no matter how safe they are perceived to be are still a risk, drug companies especially the majors will stagnate at least until confidence in the general financial situation improvises. It is only then that negative reports will be looked at as part of the territory, and these companies will get back to being in their truly defensive positions.

All obviously IMHO.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has confirmed its first case of a genetic mutation of the new H1N1 flu virus that shows resistance to Tamiflu, the main antiviral flu drug, a health ministry official said on Thursday.
The patient was given Relenza and recovered, and does not appear to have infected anyone else.

Could this be the first move toward Relenza taking over.

And what will happen if the H1N1 virus mutates to a higher level that Relenza can't touch. A bit scary coupled with the figures of late that up to 100,000 persons in the UK per day could catch the virus. Good job it is not a more virulent strain. Of course we can trust our government 100% to be prepared for such an eventuality, Yer right.

http://www.reuters.com/article/internal_ReutersNewsRoom_ExclusivesAndWins_MOLT/idUSTRE5614TW20090702

Saturday July 04 2009

EVERYONE in Ireland is shortly to be offered a free swine flu vaccination as health authorities brace themselves for a worst-case scenario of up to 100,000 new cases a week.

Glaxo is mentioned in full article.
No doubt Scotland will get the same before the poor neighbour (England) get it.


http://www.independent.ie/national-news/swine-flu-jab-for-all-after-virus-toll-alert-1805686.html

WASHINGTON, July 9 (Reuters) - The U.S. government will pay for any vaccination program against the H1N1 swine flu, and may encourage schools to help vaccinate children, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Thursday. The government is also considering buying even more antiviral drugs, including more of GlaxoSmithKline's inhaled drug Relenza and pediatric doses of Roche AG's Tamiflu, officials told a swine flu "summit" at the National Institutes of Health.

Dd you get your divi yesterday Greek? It all helps...

Morning Falcothou,

Yes, and a you say it does help. Glaxo's divi must be one of the best in the market. Appreciate it is not the highest but it is high and looks very safe.
I hope other countries follow the lead of the USA re their decision re Relenza. I would have expected the sp to be a bit higher on opening, but I suppose the increased revenue from Relenza is just a spit in the ocean for GSK.
I have never forecast an SP before regarding a future forecast but I took the bait a few months ago and forecast 15 by end of March 2010. I still feel that with Galxo's new direction re more add ons or/and joint ventures coupled with their expansion into the health food/drink field this is still achievable.
Obviously only a personal view.

Nice to have a bit of company on here.

From The Sunday Times July 12, 2009
Everyone will get vaccine against swine flu.
Jon Ungoed-Thomas

The NHS is preparing to vaccinate the entire population against swine flu after the disease claimed the life of its first healthy British patient.
A new vaccine is expected to arrive in Britain in the next few weeks and could be fast-tracked through regulatory approval in five days.
As many as 20m people could be inoculated this year. Ministers have secured up to 90m doses, and the rest of the population is likely to be offered vaccinations next year.
The first patients in the queue for the jab - being supplied to the UK by GSK and Baxter Healthcare -

Full article.....
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6689955.ece

Whilst no one wishes this Flu to spread or mutate, it undoubtedly will do both, and as with all disasters, natural or otherwise there are many companies and/or individuals that will make vast amounts of money.

As I understand a virus survives by mutating especially when it comes up against disease resistance.
Very interesting website and book Greek if you are interested in nutrition and how the body adapts to mineral/ vitamin defiencies
http://www.mybodylanguage.co.uk/

According to todays Yorkshire Post, the British Government have signed a contract with manufacturers GSK and Baxter to supply up to 132 million doses of swine flu vaccine.
May have been published earlier, but I have not seen the figures before.

Falcothou,

Just looked through the website www.mybodylanguage.co.uk, looks interesting.
Plain speaking and easy to understand.

That's a lot of doses, I wasn't sure who was doing supplying, good for Glaxo
It's written by a forensic scientist, his wife got huge cravings for lettuce(6/day) because of it's anti-carciogenic properties... it transpired she had breast cancer!The book is quite funny e.g. sex with the milkman... regarding a woman who has a milk allergy and she reacts badly to her husband' semen if he drinks milk!