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Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Stocks to Buy for Profitable Investing

Three generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to buy for profitable investing opportunities feature companies that have risen near the top of that sector. The three generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to buy include two dividend payers and offer the potenti

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Three generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to buy for profitable investing opportunities feature companies that have risen near the top of that sector.

The three generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to buy include two dividend payers and offer the potential that they all could produce further growth organically and through acquisition. The trade-off is that the three generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to buy typically would not offer the potential blockbuster new drugs that could cause their share prices to soar.

One of the three generic pharmaceutical manufacturers to buy is from India, while the other two are based in the United States. The company based in India may have one of the most recognized brands in the generic industry because it was founded by a physician and named after him.

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For investors interested in gaining exposure to generic pharmaceutical companies, look to India, which has become a “global powerhouse” in the industry, said Bob Carlson, leader of the Retirement Watch investment newsletter

Pension fund and Retirement Watch leader Bob Carlson answers questions from Paul Dykewicz.

Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Buy Include Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories

Among the top prospects for investors interested in companies that provide generic pharmaceuticals are Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories (NYSE:RDY), Sun Pharmaceutical industries (524715.India), Divi’s Laboratories (532488.India) and Cipla (500087.India). However, the generic sector of the pharmaceutical industry has had its problems, Carlson cautioned.

It also generally been under fire for overpricing generic drugs, Carlson continued. U.S. pharmacies and other buyers have consolidated further than in the past and are negotiating reduced prices with the generic drug makers as several government investigations have occurred in the sector, he continued.

Dr. Reddy reported in its fourth-quarter 6-K document filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it is involved in disputes, lawsuits, claims, governmental and/or regulatory inspections, inquiries, investigations and proceedings, including patent and commercial matters that arise from time to time in the ordinary course of business. Most of the claims involve “complex issues” that are subject to uncertainties and the probability of a loss, the company added.

Dr. Reddy’s Headlines Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Buy

However, Dr. Reddy’s rising share price since the end of 2020 shows that the stock’s fortunes have not been ruined by those risks. Aside from manufacturing generic pharmaceuticals, Dr. Reddy partnered with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to cooperate on clinical trials and distribution of Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in India. Upon regulatory approval in India, RDIF agreed to supply Dr. Reddy’s with 100 million doses of the vaccine that is based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector platform to provide proven safety and to complete clinical trials to show its efficacy against COVID-19, the company announced.

Carlson commented that the coronavirus pandemic created supply shortages of compounds used to manufacture generic drugs. There are no U.S.-based locations that produce the compounds, which put American generic drug manufacturers at a disadvantage to those in India and China, he added.

A potential problem for the India-based companies is that as the pandemic wanes, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will have more extensive examinations of the factories in India than has been the case the last 18 months or so, Carlson said.

Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Buy Offer Diversified Revenues

Dr. Reddy’s operates three core segments: Pharmaceutical Services and Active Ingredients, Global Generics and Proprietary Products. Its management described its strengths as Chemical Synthesis, Formulation Development and Manufacturing; Clinical and Regulatory expertise; and robust global supply chain and strategic networks.

Analysts at Barclays PLC upgraded its rating of Dr. Reddy on Feb. 2 to “overweight” from an “equal weight” rating due to the company’s planned launch of its Sputnik vaccine. The heightened rating also included an increased price target of $70.00, up from $56.00. The stock subsequently showed those projections were conservative when the share price closed at $73.51 on July 13.

Chart courtesy of www.StockCharts.com

Money Manager Picks Two of Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Buy

“Pure generic drug investment opportunities have become scarce over the years because success in that business is either predicated on moving up the industry food chain into proprietary products or reaching scale via consolidation,” said Hilary Kramer, who heads the GameChangers and Value Authority advisory services. “Either way, the number of companies focused on off-patent drugs shrinks over time as leaders move on and laggards get bought out.”

Paul Dykewicz conducts a pre-COVID-19 interview with Hilary Kramer, whose premium advisory services include IPO Edge, 2-Day Trader, Turbo Trader and Inner Circle.

“One pure play I’d recommend right now: Amneal Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NYSE:AMRX), which shot into the market spotlight with generic epinephrine pens,” Kramer said. “But even though that initial surge is flattening out now, the stock is still interesting here below $5. You’re effectively paying under six times earnings for long-term EPS expansion of around 12% a year, which is classically an attractive price for that kind of growth profile.”

Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Buy Include Amneal

Amneal Pharmaceuticals, headquartered in Bridgewater, New Jersey, focuses on the development, manufacture and distribution of generic and specialty drug products. The company announced earlier this year that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted the Biologics License Application (BLA) for its Bevacizumab, with a standard review goal date in second-quarter 2022, according to the BsUFA (Biosimilar User Fee Act).

Chart courtesy of www.StockCharts.com

On April 5, Amneal completed its previously announced acquisition of a 98% interest in Kashiv Specialty Pharmaceuticals, LLC. Kashiv Specialty Pharmaceuticals focused on the development of complex generics, innovative drug delivery platforms and novel 505(b)(2) drugs.

Viatris Emerges as One of Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Buy

Otherwise, investors probably are better off simply buying into a big pharmaceutical manufacturer like Viatris Inc. (NASDAQ:VTRS), a Canonsburg, Pennsylvania-based specialty and generics drug company that was formed by a merger between Pfizer’s (NYSE: PFE) Upjohn legacy brands business and Mylan, a generic and biosimilar drug manufacturer. Viatris has a “commanding franchise” and pays a 3% dividend as a bonus, Kramer counseled.

Chart courtesy of www.StockCharts.com

Funds Offer Alternative to Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Buy

Biotechnology stocks and funds have been doing well recently, and that’s likely to continue, Carlson said. Companies continue to announce breakthroughs, and a number of biotech companies are going public, he added.

It is tough to identify the best individual stocks in the sector to buy. He recommends a diversified exchange-traded fund (ETF) for most investors. But even that is difficult, because of differences in the stocks held by the leading ETFs. The best move for investors seeking alternatives to the three pharmaceutical manufacturing stocks to buy might be to hold positions in the two leading biotech ETFs.

iShares Biotechnology (IBB) aims to track the NASDAQ Biotechnology Index, so it holds only stocks listed on the NASDAQ and that are classified as either biotechnology or pharmaceutical companies. This tends to be the more volatile of the funds, and over some periods its returns can be substantially higher or lower than alternatives.

IBB Rose More Than 25% in Both 2019 and 2020

IBB returned 25.21% in 2019, 26.01% in 2020 and 6.35% so far in 2021. Its three-year annualized return is 14.24%, and its five-year return is 14.71%.

The other fund is SPDR S&P Biotech (XBI), which aims to track the S&P Biotechnology Select Industry Index. The sector index is derived from a U.S. total market composite, so it isn’t limited to S&P 500 stocks. But the fund uses a sampling strategy to try to track the index instead of holding all the stocks in the index. XBI tends to favor stocks with greater liquidity, so it does not own many smaller companies or those with limited trading volume.

XBI Carries Less Risk Than Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturers to Buy

Though it is less volatile than IBB, XBI is more volatile than the market indexes and the health care sector. The fund returned 32.56% in 2019, 48.33% in 2020, but so far in 2021 is down 7.90%. The fund’s annualized returns are 13.01% over three years and 21.94% over five years.

The difficulty of categorizing stocks and funds in the sector is evidenced by Morningstar’s classification of these funds. IBB is in the Specialty-Technology category and XBI is in the Specialty-Health category.

IBB tends to hold larger capitalization companies than XBI. Despite their differences, Morningstar says the two funds have a correlation of 94%.

Five Biopharmaceutical Stocks to Buy as New Variants of COVID-19 Spread

The increasingly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 has spread to almost every state in America, raising concerns among health officials about potential spikes in cases. Genetic variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been emerging and circulating around the world throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A variant has one or more mutations that differentiate it from other variants in circulation. The Delta variant is expected to become the dominant coronavirus strain in the United States, the CDC director said. With more than half the U.S. population not fully vaccinated, public health officials caution that a resurgence of COVID-19 cases could occur in the fall when many unvaccinated children are expected to return to school.

Progress in the COVID-19 vaccination process lifts hope that new cases and deaths will keep falling. So far, 184,543,821 people, or 55.6% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Those fully vaccinated total 159,675,163 people, or 48.1%, of the U.S. population, according to the CDC.

Plus, the Food and Drug Administration recently approved a third COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ), which requires only one dose rather than two, as needed with the first two vaccine providers: Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) and Moderna (NASDAQ:MRNA).

COVID-19 cases worldwide have hit 187,798,855 and caused 4,048,903 deaths, as of July 14, according to Johns Hopkins University. U.S. COVID-19 cases totaled 33,914,884 and have led to 607,771 deaths. America has the dubious distinction as the country with the most COVID-19 cases and deaths.

The three generic pharmaceutical stocks to buy offer ways for investors to profit amid the pandemic. Rising COVID-19 vaccine availability, improving economic data and a recent $1.9 trillion federal stimulus package should help to lift the valuations of the three generic pharmaceutical stocks to buy.

Paul Dykewicz, www.pauldykewicz.com, is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, the Wall Street JournalInvestor’s Business DailyUSA Today, the Journal of Commerce, Seeking Alpha, GuruFocus and other publications and websites. Paul, who can be followed on Twitter @PaulDykewicz, is the editor of StockInvestor.com and DividendInvestor.com, a writer for both websites and a columnist. He further is editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C., where he edits monthly investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts, free e-letters and other investment reports. Paul previously served as business editor of Baltimore’s Daily Record newspaper. Paul also is the author of an inspirational book, “Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame’s Championship Chaplain,” with a foreword by former national championship-winning football coach Lou Holtz. The book is great as a gift and is endorsed by Joe Montana, Joe Theismann, Ara Parseghian, “Rocket” Ismail, Reggie Brooks, Dick Vitale and many others. Call 202-677-4457 for special Father’s Day gift pricing!

 

The post Three Generic Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Stocks to Buy for Profitable Investing appeared first on Stock Investor.

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The next pandemic? It’s already here for Earth’s wildlife

Bird flu is decimating species already threatened by climate change and habitat loss.

I am a conservation biologist who studies emerging infectious diseases. When people ask me what I think the next pandemic will be I often say that we are in the midst of one – it’s just afflicting a great many species more than ours.

I am referring to the highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza H5N1 (HPAI H5N1), otherwise known as bird flu, which has killed millions of birds and unknown numbers of mammals, particularly during the past three years.

This is the strain that emerged in domestic geese in China in 1997 and quickly jumped to humans in south-east Asia with a mortality rate of around 40-50%. My research group encountered the virus when it killed a mammal, an endangered Owston’s palm civet, in a captive breeding programme in Cuc Phuong National Park Vietnam in 2005.

How these animals caught bird flu was never confirmed. Their diet is mainly earthworms, so they had not been infected by eating diseased poultry like many captive tigers in the region.

This discovery prompted us to collate all confirmed reports of fatal infection with bird flu to assess just how broad a threat to wildlife this virus might pose.

This is how a newly discovered virus in Chinese poultry came to threaten so much of the world’s biodiversity.

H5N1 originated on a Chinese poultry farm in 1997. ChameleonsEye/Shutterstock

The first signs

Until December 2005, most confirmed infections had been found in a few zoos and rescue centres in Thailand and Cambodia. Our analysis in 2006 showed that nearly half (48%) of all the different groups of birds (known to taxonomists as “orders”) contained a species in which a fatal infection of bird flu had been reported. These 13 orders comprised 84% of all bird species.

We reasoned 20 years ago that the strains of H5N1 circulating were probably highly pathogenic to all bird orders. We also showed that the list of confirmed infected species included those that were globally threatened and that important habitats, such as Vietnam’s Mekong delta, lay close to reported poultry outbreaks.

Mammals known to be susceptible to bird flu during the early 2000s included primates, rodents, pigs and rabbits. Large carnivores such as Bengal tigers and clouded leopards were reported to have been killed, as well as domestic cats.

Our 2006 paper showed the ease with which this virus crossed species barriers and suggested it might one day produce a pandemic-scale threat to global biodiversity.

Unfortunately, our warnings were correct.

A roving sickness

Two decades on, bird flu is killing species from the high Arctic to mainland Antarctica.

In the past couple of years, bird flu has spread rapidly across Europe and infiltrated North and South America, killing millions of poultry and a variety of bird and mammal species. A recent paper found that 26 countries have reported at least 48 mammal species that have died from the virus since 2020, when the latest increase in reported infections started.

Not even the ocean is safe. Since 2020, 13 species of aquatic mammal have succumbed, including American sea lions, porpoises and dolphins, often dying in their thousands in South America. A wide range of scavenging and predatory mammals that live on land are now also confirmed to be susceptible, including mountain lions, lynx, brown, black and polar bears.

The UK alone has lost over 75% of its great skuas and seen a 25% decline in northern gannets. Recent declines in sandwich terns (35%) and common terns (42%) were also largely driven by the virus.

Scientists haven’t managed to completely sequence the virus in all affected species. Research and continuous surveillance could tell us how adaptable it ultimately becomes, and whether it can jump to even more species. We know it can already infect humans – one or more genetic mutations may make it more infectious.

At the crossroads

Between January 1 2003 and December 21 2023, 882 cases of human infection with the H5N1 virus were reported from 23 countries, of which 461 (52%) were fatal.

Of these fatal cases, more than half were in Vietnam, China, Cambodia and Laos. Poultry-to-human infections were first recorded in Cambodia in December 2003. Intermittent cases were reported until 2014, followed by a gap until 2023, yielding 41 deaths from 64 cases. The subtype of H5N1 virus responsible has been detected in poultry in Cambodia since 2014. In the early 2000s, the H5N1 virus circulating had a high human mortality rate, so it is worrying that we are now starting to see people dying after contact with poultry again.

It’s not just H5 subtypes of bird flu that concern humans. The H10N1 virus was originally isolated from wild birds in South Korea, but has also been reported in samples from China and Mongolia.

Recent research found that these particular virus subtypes may be able to jump to humans after they were found to be pathogenic in laboratory mice and ferrets. The first person who was confirmed to be infected with H10N5 died in China on January 27 2024, but this patient was also suffering from seasonal flu (H3N2). They had been exposed to live poultry which also tested positive for H10N5.

Species already threatened with extinction are among those which have died due to bird flu in the past three years. The first deaths from the virus in mainland Antarctica have just been confirmed in skuas, highlighting a looming threat to penguin colonies whose eggs and chicks skuas prey on. Humboldt penguins have already been killed by the virus in Chile.

A colony of king penguins.
Remote penguin colonies are already threatened by climate change. AndreAnita/Shutterstock

How can we stem this tsunami of H5N1 and other avian influenzas? Completely overhaul poultry production on a global scale. Make farms self-sufficient in rearing eggs and chicks instead of exporting them internationally. The trend towards megafarms containing over a million birds must be stopped in its tracks.

To prevent the worst outcomes for this virus, we must revisit its primary source: the incubator of intensive poultry farms.

Diana Bell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

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A major cruise line is testing a monthly subscription service

The Cruise Scarlet Summer Season Pass was designed with remote workers in mind.

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While going on a cruise once meant disconnecting from the world when between ports because any WiFi available aboard was glitchy and expensive, advances in technology over the last decade have enabled millions to not only stay in touch with home but even work remotely.

With such remote workers and digital nomads in mind, Virgin Voyages has designed a monthly pass that gives those who want to work from the seas a WFH setup on its Scarlet Lady ship — while the latter acronym usually means "work from home," the cruise line is advertising as "work from the helm.”

Related: Royal Caribbean shares a warning with passengers

"Inspired by Richard Branson's belief and track record that brilliant work is best paired with a hearty dose of fun, we're welcoming Sailors on board Scarlet Lady for a full month to help them achieve that perfect work-life balance," Virgin Voyages said in announcing its new promotion. "Take a vacation away from your monotonous work-from-home set up (sorry, but…not sorry) and start taking calls from your private balcony overlooking the Mediterranean sea."

A man looks through his phone while sitting in a hot tub on a cruise ship.

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This is how much it'll cost you to work from a cruise ship for a month

While the single most important feature for successful work at sea — WiFi — is already available for free on Virgin cruises, the new Scarlet Summer Season Pass includes a faster connection, a $10 daily coffee credit, access to a private rooftop, and other member-only areas as well as wash and fold laundry service that Virgin advertises as a perk that will allow one to concentrate on work

More Travel:

The pass starts at $9,990 for a two-guest cabin and is available for four monthlong cruises departing in June, July, August, and September — each departs from ports such as Barcelona, Marseille, and Palma de Mallorca and spends four weeks touring around the Mediterranean.

Longer cruises are becoming more common, here's why

The new pass is essentially a version of an upgraded cruise package with additional perks but is specifically tailored to those who plan on working from the ship as an opportunity to market to them.

"Stay connected to your work with the fastest at-sea internet in the biz when you want and log-off to let the exquisite landscape of the Mediterranean inspire you when you need," reads the promotional material for the pass.

Amid the rise of remote work post-pandemic, cruise lines have been seeing growing interest in longer journeys in which many of the passengers not just vacation in the traditional sense but work from a mobile office.

In 2023, Turkish cruise line operator Miray even started selling cabins on a three-year tour around the world but the endeavor hit the rocks after one of the engineers declared the MV Gemini ship the company planned to use for the journey "unseaworthy" and the cruise ship line dealt with a PR scandal that ultimately sank the project before it could take off.

While three years at sea would have set a record as the longest cruise journey on the market, companies such as Royal Caribbean  (RCL) (both with its namesake brand and its Celebrity Cruises line) have been offering increasingly long cruises that serve as many people’s temporary homes and cross through multiple continents.

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As the pandemic turns four, here’s what we need to do for a healthier future

On the fourth anniversary of the pandemic, a public health researcher offers four principles for a healthier future.

John Gomez/Shutterstock

Anniversaries are usually festive occasions, marked by celebration and joy. But there’ll be no popping of corks for this one.

March 11 2024 marks four years since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Although no longer officially a public health emergency of international concern, the pandemic is still with us, and the virus is still causing serious harm.

Here are three priorities – three Cs – for a healthier future.

Clear guidance

Over the past four years, one of the biggest challenges people faced when trying to follow COVID rules was understanding them.

From a behavioural science perspective, one of the major themes of the last four years has been whether guidance was clear enough or whether people were receiving too many different and confusing messages – something colleagues and I called “alert fatigue”.

With colleagues, I conducted an evidence review of communication during COVID and found that the lack of clarity, as well as a lack of trust in those setting rules, were key barriers to adherence to measures like social distancing.

In future, whether it’s another COVID wave, or another virus or public health emergency, clear communication by trustworthy messengers is going to be key.

Combat complacency

As Maria van Kerkove, COVID technical lead for WHO, puts it there is no acceptable level of death from COVID. COVID complacency is setting in as we have moved out of the emergency phase of the pandemic. But is still much work to be done.

First, we still need to understand this virus better. Four years is not a long time to understand the longer-term effects of COVID. For example, evidence on how the virus affects the brain and cognitive functioning is in its infancy.

The extent, severity and possible treatment of long COVID is another priority that must not be forgotten – not least because it is still causing a lot of long-term sickness and absence.

Culture change

During the pandemic’s first few years, there was a question over how many of our new habits, from elbow bumping (remember that?) to remote working, were here to stay.

Turns out old habits die hard – and in most cases that’s not a bad thing – after all handshaking and hugging can be good for our health.

But there is some pandemic behaviour we could have kept, under certain conditions. I’m pretty sure most people don’t wear masks when they have respiratory symptoms, even though some health authorities, such as the NHS, recommend it.

Masks could still be thought of like umbrellas: we keep one handy for when we need it, for example, when visiting vulnerable people, especially during times when there’s a spike in COVID.

If masks hadn’t been so politicised as a symbol of conformity and oppression so early in the pandemic, then we might arguably have seen people in more countries adopting the behaviour in parts of east Asia, where people continue to wear masks or face coverings when they are sick to avoid spreading it to others.

Although the pandemic led to the growth of remote or hybrid working, presenteeism – going to work when sick – is still a major issue.

Encouraging parents to send children to school when they are unwell is unlikely to help public health, or attendance for that matter. For instance, although one child might recover quickly from a given virus, other children who might catch it from them might be ill for days.

Similarly, a culture of presenteeism that pressures workers to come in when ill is likely to backfire later on, helping infectious disease spread in workplaces.

At the most fundamental level, we need to do more to create a culture of equality. Some groups, especially the most economically deprived, fared much worse than others during the pandemic. Health inequalities have widened as a result. With ongoing pandemic impacts, for example, long COVID rates, also disproportionately affecting those from disadvantaged groups, health inequalities are likely to persist without significant action to address them.

Vaccine inequity is still a problem globally. At a national level, in some wealthier countries like the UK, those from more deprived backgrounds are going to be less able to afford private vaccines.

We may be out of the emergency phase of COVID, but the pandemic is not yet over. As we reflect on the past four years, working to provide clearer public health communication, avoiding COVID complacency and reducing health inequalities are all things that can help prepare for any future waves or, indeed, pandemics.

Simon Nicholas Williams has received funding from Senedd Cymru, Public Health Wales and the Wales Covid Evidence Centre for research on COVID-19, and has consulted for the World Health Organization. However, this article reflects the views of the author only, in his academic capacity at Swansea University, and no funding or organizational bodies were involved in the writing or content of this article.

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