A bright spot amid the darkness
Up nearly 5% today shares of Amylin (NASDAQ:AMLN) are a bright spot amid the darkness. It appears that Diabetic Investor isn’t the only one who sees Amylin shares as undervalued, as Carl Icahn has increased his stake in the company. It’s unknown whether Mr. Icahn will try and force Amylin into the arms of Lilly (NYSE:LLY) the most likely suitor for the company but based on his past history this scenario is not unlikely.
In other news Walgreens (NYSE:WAG) and CVS (NYSE:CVS) are in battle to own Longs Drug Stores (NYSE:LDG). Also this past Friday Walgreens trumped CVS previous offer for Longs. This move by Walgreens is somewhat surprising as the company had previously indicated they would be slowing the pace of new store openings. Given the two companies are in fierce battle for the retail pharmacy consumer and they are already mirror images of each other the move does make sense.
Both CVS and Walgreens face increasing competition from Wal Mart (NYSE:WMT) who’s $4 generic pricing has caught on in these troubled economic times. Both companies have matched Wal Mart pricing and are aggressively defending their turf. They also realize that in the long run it’s cheaper to buy more customers than build new stores. While CVS has indicated they have no plans on increasing their offer Diabetic Investor doubts they will let go without a fight.
Shares of MannKind (NASDAQ:MNKD) are also moving on news they will release more data on their inhaled insulin product during tomorrows analyst day. In the eyes of Diabetic Investor it really doesn’t matter how good the results may be as inhaled insulin is a dead duck. With the $4 billion Exubera failure and Lilly and Novo Nordisk (NYSE:NVO) dumping their projects MannKind has next to an impossible task in finding a partner and proving their product is somehow different.
The boat has already left the dock for inhaled insulin and nothing MannKind says or does can change this.
