| (AFX UK Focus) 2007-01-30 15:16 GMT: Wyeth 4Q profit up 17 percent
NEWARK, N.J. (AFX) - Wyeth on Tuesday said its fourth-quarter profit rose 17 percent, driven by sales of the antidepressant Effexor and the childhood infection vaccine Prevnar. Net income for the Madison-based drug maker grew to $855.4 million, or 63 cents per share, from $731.7 million, or 54 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Results for the latest quarter included charges of 3 cents per share related to productivity initiatives. Analysts polled by Thomson Financial expected fourth-quarter profit of 71 cents per share. Quarterly revenue rose 10 percent to $5.22 billion, from $4.75 billion last year, compared with a Wall Street consensus of $5.11 billion for the latest quarter. Sales were driven by an 11 percent rise in sales of Effexor to $936.1 million, and a 25 percent increase in sales of Prevnar to $501.7 million.
MY UNINSURED MEDICAL NIGHTMARE
I had that thought just eight months ago - before I was lucky enough to finally land a job that would provide health-care benefits. Since then, I've seen a doctor four times, but still haven't gotten to the dentist, mostly because I'm afraid of what he'll tell me. This was my life for the first five years I lived in Philadelphia. I came here with barely enough money in my pocket to make the deposit on my cruddy apartment, and for the first three weeks I lived in my unfurnished hole, I subsisted on ramen noodles and a cabbage. (Why a cabbage? I mistook it for lettuce and couldn't afford to throw it away.) I did quickly find a job working retail in a small store making $8.50 an hour for 45 hours a week. I worked a second job in the winter so I could buy Christmas presents for my family.
Wellness, longevity take varied paths in U.S., Cuba
The average Cuban lives slightly longer than the average American, but the American's healthcare costs $5,711 a year while the Cuban's costs $251. Those are the figures of the World Health Organization. Some experts question the accuracy of the Cuban numbers, but no one doubts the underlying revelation: There is little relationship between the cost of your healthcare and how long you'll live. ''Medical care is responsible for only a small portion of the variation in life expectancy,'' says Gerard Anderson, a Johns Hopkins professor specializing in health policy. ``Behavioral factors such as diet and exercise are much more important. The U.S., which spends much more than any other industrialized country on healthcare, is getting little value for much of the spending.'' These factors have moved to the forefront of the American political discussion as leaders in both major parties work toward solving what almost everyone agrees is a ''healthcare crisis,'' with soaring costs threatening to increase the numbers of the uninsured, which already include 46 million Americans.
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