| FTSE falls on pharmaceutical pressure
Pharmaceutical stocks came under renewed selling pressure on Thursday as one of the City's leading analysts forecast drug companies would continue to underperform. The UK pharmaceutical sector fell 5.2 per cent last year - underperforming the FTSE All Share by 16.2 per cent - amid worries over drug pipelines and the threat of political intervention in the US. .
Talk of the bay
A $4.8-billion bid by General Electric Co. to buy the aerospace division of London-based Smiths Group will mean a name change for a business in the Tampa Bay area. Since 1969, the British company has operated two divisions on Roosevelt Boulevard in Clearwater. One does design and production of avionics systems for both military and commercial customers, including Boeing, Airbus and Lockheed Martin. Customer service for the Americas is also handled out of the Clearwater location. A spokeswoman for Smiths said the sale to GE is not expected to affect the 460 employees in Clearwater. "Our facilities will continue their regular operations," said Jennifer Villarreal. "GE is acquiring a complementary business which will expand both companies' capabilities." Online, sales tax break will be later Free income tax filing started Tuesday on the IRS Web site (www.irs.gov), but you'll have to wait until Feb.
Crush high prices for perscription meds
One recent study showed that instead of paying about $140 for 100 doses of cardiovascular drug Tenormin, you could instead pay $5.65. Instead of paying near $500 for 100 doses of heartburn drug Nexium, you could pay about $62. Those examples, achieved through a variety of techniques outlined below, were included in a November study, ''Shopping For Drugs: 2007,'' by health economist Devon Herrick of the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative think tank in Washington.
Below are several ways to spend less money on yours. Of course, your doctor should approve using these strategies.
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AstraZeneca to lay off 3,000 over three years
AstraZeneca P.L.C. yesterday reported a strong 18 percent leap in quarterly profit and then handed employees pink slips, a stark sign of retrenchment across the pharmaceutical industry. The London-based maker of heartburn medicine Nexium and high-cholesterol treatment Crestor said roughly 3,000 people in its manufacturing divisions, or 4.6 percent of its 65,000 employees worldwide, would lose their jobs over the next three years. Job cuts will include an unspecified number of layoffs in the Wilmington-Philadelphia area, where AstraZeneca's U.S. headquarters employs about 5,000 people, said David Elkins, chief financial officer for U.S. operations. The cuts were forced by weak projections and new generic competition for its heart drug Toprol XL. AstraZeneca is also struggling to replenish its research pipeline after ceasing work on several products, including Galida for diabetes and an experimental compound for strokes.
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