| Pfizer, Inc. Q4 2007 Earnings Call Transcript
Amal Naj, Head of Development. Please begin the call.
Amal Naj - Senior Vice President, WW Investor Development & Strategy
Head of Investor Development. Good afternoon and thank you for joining us on this call to review our fourth quarter 2007 performance. I am here with Jeff Kindler, Chairman and CEO; Frank D'Amelio, Chief Financial Officer, and other members of our senior management.
The financial chart that will be presented on this call can be viewed on our homepage at www.pfizer.com in the Investor Presentations tab by clicking on the link Quarterly Corporate Performance - Fourth Quarter 2007.
We will end our conference call at 1 o'clock sharp, and as we would like you to... as we would like to hear from as many as you and in this time we would appreciate if you would limit yourself to just one part question.
Text of Dr Lara Wieland's letter
IN 2003 Dr Lara Wieland was the resident Royal Flying Doctor medico on Kowanyama Aboriginal Community in Cape York. Her abhorrence at the incidence of sexual abuse of young children forced her to write a 10-page letter to Prime Minister John Howard and Queensland Premier Peter Beattie. After she handed the letter to Mr Howard, she was sacked by the Queensland Department of Health for making public her concerns. She now works in aboriginal health on Queensland's Atherton Tableland and returns three times a year to Kowanyama where she and her husband, Ron, run volunteer health and recreation programs for the children of Kowanyama during school holidays. Letter to John Howard and Peter Beattie 1. Substance Abuse Substance abuse has already been identified as a problem of epidemic proportions linked with almost every other issue.
Democrats Are Hocking Their Agenda As If They Were at a Fire Sale
Just over a week ago, about a thousand activists from the Christian right gathered in Washington to pass verdict on the Republican presidential candidates. At the Family Research Council's Values Voters summit, the values most cherished did not sit well with most Americans. Polls show that a consistent and substantial majority in the US are pro-choice, supports stem cell research and opposes amending the constitution to ban gay marriage. All these issues figure low on the list of national priorities and high on the agenda of the FRC. None the less, all the leading Republican contenders showed up. The more out of touch with mainstream America they sounded, the greater the applause. "Sometimes we talk about why we're importing so many people in our workforce," said Mike Huckabee.
George Bush on the Couch: The Psychology of Chauvinism
The best diagnostic clues may come from the Freedom of Information Act. I have been reading de-classified documents from the CIA about Iraq this week. The docs reach back to before the time Saddam murdered his way into power… …so far back in fact that Saddam's name is spelled Hussyn, and so far back that the writer of some of the documents called him Saddam Tikriti, Tikriti used as his surname, the writer seeming not to realize Tikriti was the name of both Saddam's tribal affiliation and home place; and as such, is attached at the end of everyone's name who is from that tribe, sort of as if after our surnames, also was tacked on the name, "Usa." Nonetheless, it was breathtaking to see that Iraq was in the 20th century a constitutional republic that was hijacked, that Britain had once occupied the entire area and still had an interest in Iraq via Tony Blair, that this was not a new and sudden interest, but an old exploitative one of memory … and that in the old moldering war between Iraq and Iran, the USA took up with Iraq, befriended Saddam, even though the CIA records from that time clearly provided more than one report that Saddam was vicious and unreliable and had closed out, exiled or murdered any who didn’t agree with him or threatened him.
The Bonds of Race
But as book has piled upon book, expert upon expert, guru upon gimmick, the whole messy realm has cried out for a rigorous, cultural cartographer. It has found one, finally, in Anne Harrington. A Harvard historian, she has expertly mapped the transmission of mind-body ideas in The Cure Within, showing us where they come from and why exactly they seem to have nine lives. That mind-body medicine has provoked influential skeptics to speak out against it hasn't checked its growth. In the late 1970s, Susan Sontag famously attacked the belief that character causes disease. "Patients who are instructed that they have, unwittingly, caused their disease are also being made to feel that they have deserved it," she wrote in Illness As Metaphor. Marcia Angell, then an editor at the New England Journal of Medicine, echoed the fear that patients swept up in psychologizing would feel "the anguish of personal failure" if they couldn't cure themselves and might even "come to see medical care as largely irrelevant." Yet the mind-body message continues to thrive.
Masonry downtown needs massive upgrades
Most of the downtown buildings have to be torn down because of earthquake compliance," said Buck Kamphausen, who owns several buildings downtown. "They're a disaster waiting to happen. I've been through the retrofit process with four buildings downtown and there's no economic return. You're just kidding yourself with those buildings." The buildings that have not been retrofitted are likely to rain debris or come down entirely in an earthquake, he said. West's characterization differs some from Kamphausen's. "Some of the buildings probably should come down, but others are historically or architecturally significant and worth saving," West said. "Most downtown buildings are safer than they were. All are either reinforced or that work is under way. The rest are unoccupied.
Subprime Bailout: Good Idea or 'Moral Hazard?'
Saving wounded financial institutions is good for the economy, some economists argue. But others warn against intervention, lest we fall prey to "moral hazard:" Bail out someone who has engaged in risky behavior and you're likely to encourage that behavior in the future. .
Trouble Brewing? - Merck, Schering-Plough Get New York Subpoena Over ...
1/27/2008 1:43:13 AM New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo subpoenaed Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) and Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP) on Saturday seeking documents to probe whether the companies had concealed the study results of their controversial blockbuster drug Vyotrin.
Cuomo in a statement said, We will investigate and, when appropriate, hold accountable drug companies for engaging in irresponsible and deceptive conduct and any deceitful marketing of prescription drugs."
The issuance of this subpoena comes a day after the FDA said it would review the effectiveness of Vyotrin after Merck released the long-awaited study results of that drug.
MRK closed Friday's trade down 3.57% or $1.77 at $47.79 on a volume of 64.98 million shares. In after-hours, the stock shed another $0.19 and was at $47.60.
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