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Published in Investing on 5 December 2012
AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) has issued a series of disappointing statements this year.
AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) (NYSE: AZN.US) has gained 0.13% to 2,982p so far during 2012, making the share one of the year's less exciting performers in the FTSE 100 (UKX). During the same time, the blue-chip index has gained 4%.
In February, the company released its fourth-quarter and full-year results for 2011. For the three months to the end of December 2011, Britain's second largest drug maker reported a fall in pre-tax profits to $2.05bn compared with $2.28bn in 2010. Revenue for the full year fell by 2% at constant exchange rates (CER) to hit $33.59bn, and core operating profit was down 4% at CER to $13.17bn. However, the dividend was increased by 10% to $2.80 per share for the full year.
At the time, the company also unveiled plans to cut 7,300 jobs as part of its restructuring initiative to make annual savings of $1.6bn by the end of 2014. It said it expected revenue in 2012 to be "adversely affected by government interventions on pricing and ongoing generic competition including the anticipated loss of market exclusivity for Seroquel IR and Atacand in global markets, as well as for Crestor in Canada."
During April, AstraZeneca announced that chief executive David Brennan was leaving on 1 June, as its first-quarter results showed further decline. Revenue fell 11% at CER to $7.35bn, and pre-tax profit was down 38%. Loss of exclusivity on several key brands accounted for 8 percentage points of the revenue decline. Brennan said:
"The anticipated impact from the loss of exclusivity on several brands, together with challenging market conditions, has made for a difficult start to the year in revenue terms. Delivery on our restructuring plans and continued discipline on operating costs, together with the benefits from a lower tax rate, will only partially mitigate the revenue pressures. As a result we have lowered our Core EPS target for the full year to the range of $5.85 to $6.15."
Then in July, the struggling company showed more signs of trouble -- revenue for the second quarter was $6.6bn, down 18% at constant exchange rates (CER).
However, Simon Lowth, interim chief executive officer, reassured investors. He said:
"As we expected, the loss of exclusivity on some key brands and tough market conditions have resulted in a decline in revenue and earnings in the second quarter. Despite these challenges, we are on track to achieve our financial targets for the full year.
"The results in the first half of the year reflect the resilience of several of our brands and the benefits of disciplined cost management. Building on the collaboration with Amgen and the acquisition of Ardea, we continued to bolster our pipeline and portfolio through an exciting opportunity to expand our diabetes alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb.
"Our long-term priorities remain unchanged. We are driving the performance of brands that retain exclusivity, investing in markets with long-term potential, reshaping the cost base for sustainable competitiveness and continuing to drive for productivity on our investments in innovation, whether internally or externally sourced."
Revenue for the third quarter -- reported in October -- was $6.6bn, down 15% at CER.
The company's newly appointed chief executive, Pascal Soriot, commented on the results, saying:
"As expected, the Company's financial performance in 2012 largely reflects the ongoing impact from the loss of exclusivity for several brands in key markets, as well as the challenges that confront the pharmaceutical industry as a whole. Since joining AstraZeneca, I've been deeply impressed by the commitment, talent and passion of our people and by their determination to deliver against our targets. As I take up my new role as Chief Executive, my priority is to restore the Company to growth and scientific leadership."
No doubt some AstraZeneca investors will be hoping for better share-price progress next year. For the moment though, the company offers a good dividend, yielding around 6% and covered more than two times its profits.
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> Sonia does not own any share mentioned in this article.
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A virtual soldier created on University of Iowa computers to test military armor has been hired by Ford Motor Co. to improve the ergonomics of automobile assembly lines.
The job is the first private-sector employment for the avatar called Santos, whose creators say future possibilities range from space travel to the design of amusement park rides.
Santos will help Ford design machinery to produce its 2014 line of cars and trucks, said Allison Stephens, a Ford ergonomics specialist.
Santos and others like him could soon be creating high-end jobs in Iowa City, too, for engineers and research scientists. More jobs will come as the College of Engineering expands its virtual soldier research program, said Steven Beck, a research and development manager at the U of I Center for Computer-Aided Design.
The Santos story began in 1998 when biomedical engineering professor Karmin Abdel-Malek established a Digital Humans Laboratory, where graduate students could experiment and create computer-based interactive, predictive models of humans.
The first body part that Abdel-Malek's students created was a digital hand.
The effort got a big boost in 2003 when it received a $2.75 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to create a virtual soldier. Since then, more than $25 million in grants have been received, mostly from the government, but also from private industry groups, including auto and heavy equipment manufacturers.
The idea, said Beck, was to create a digital human that would replicate human movements. It would have a skeletal and muscular system that would be driven by complex mathematical equations.
That goal has been met.
Now, Beck said, new mathematical models are being created to replicate fatigue and other physiological indicators that will make Santos even more valuable as a digital design tool.
Without going into specifics, he said, researchers are using a "unique approach" and expect to have the new model completed by the end of the year.
The new version of Santos will be huge, he said. For digital designers, "it's going to be a game-changer on the order of the iPhone.
Keeping workers healthy can save companies millions
Computer-aided design eliminated the need to build prototypes of equipment, creating a new problem for manufacturers, Ford's Stephens said.
"If you eliminate the prototype and do all your design inside the computer, how do we assess injury risk to workers?" she said.
Workers' health and safety are huge concerns for manufacturers, she said. Back, wrist and other injuries that occur on assembly lines cost the auto industry millions of dollars each year
To lower those costs, Stephens said, Ford started looking at the design process. The company asked if somebody had a digital hand that could be inserted into designs to see whether specific pieces of equipment would cause repetitive stress injuries to wrists and hands.
"We investigated universities in Japan and all over the United States looking for research that would allow us to do these risk assessments in a virtual environment," Stephens said.
Ford found two possibilities.
One was in Japan.
The other was a U of I website that featured the hand that had been created by the Digital Humans Laboratory.
The team focused on the Iowa research, Stephens said, after "we discovered that this guy wasn't just a hand, he had a whole body attached."
The Japanese version was an arm, she said.
There was a second "aha" moment, she said, when Ford discovered the military had provided most of the money for Iowa's digital human.
"In terms of injuries, it made sense that the Army would be interested in the same things we would," she said.
Long-term demand high for digital humans
A year ago, the U of I signed a licensing agreement with SantosHuman Inc., a private company created to find markets for digital humans in the real world.
"The long-term value proposition is huge," said Jay Johnson, chief executive of SantosHuman.
But it will take three to five years to know how quickly that market will develop, he said. Possibilities range from "we will grow fairly rapidly in the next couple of years," to "we will become the default standard for human modeling globally.
Johnson has traveled to South Korea, a hub of auto manufacturing, and Brazil to meet with aerospace manufacturers. He's also talking with U.S. companies that make automobiles, heavy equipment and motorcycles.
In addition to the full-bodied Santos model, professor Abdel-Malek's digital hand model "is of particular interest to people who make consumer electronics," Johnson said. That includes makers of cameras, cell phones "and anything that has a hand-held controller in it.
"The hand model that we are creating is the most biofedelic and accurate hand tool available," he said, meaning that the movements of its fingers and joints are the most realistic available in a digital model.
Like Santos, Johnson said, SantosHuman will be more of a virtual company than a traditional manufacturing or marketing company. It will partner with existing businesses that will put Santos to work in the computer-aided design programs of real companies, such as Ford.
The benefit to Iowa City, Johnson said, will be twofold.
One is that the licensing agreement with SantosHuman should produce significant sums of money that the university can spend on a variety of research and educational programs.
Second, to stay ahead of manufacturers' needs, the Santos model will require new research and development that will result in additional engineering and scientific jobs at the university.

subset: commoncrawl


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This is a pre-TR, almost like a poll. I will be doing a daytrip to BOS soon and I have been thinking to do a "Real Time/Live TR". I'll update what's going on as time goes by in various airports and places in Boston. I'll update the TR by posting on threads. Of course, pictures tell a thousand words, so I'll post all the pics the next day .
So, what do you think? Should I try it ?
Quick thing: here are the airports I'm going to. Please tell me if they have wi-fi to keep this TR live
maybe PIT
[Edited 2009-06-10 19:06:51]


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