Last week, Japan approved the first ever generic version of biotech drug industry, thus increasing the affordability of the expensive biotech drugs. This is a great opportunity for the generic players. One fallout of the approval is greater competition - a blessing for customers. However, the market is large enough to accommodate many players. Estimates put the global biotech market (growing at 12% a year) value in the range of $80-90 billion.

Leading players in the biotech space to be affected from the move are Amgen (AMGN), Gilead Sciences (GILD), and Genzyme (GENZ) among others.

The issue of data exclusivity is yet to be decided in the US. The period of protection for branded companies is the most debatable point, where they are asking for 12-14 years' exclusivity. The US law-makers are aware of this delay. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House of Representatives Energy

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We are maintaining our Buy rating on Teva Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (TEVA) with a price target of $52. We are impressed with the company's strong performance in 2008 despite the global slowdown. We are optimistic on the company's growth prospects, and we expect Teva to continue posting strong revenues and earnings going forward.The company expects to post earnings in the range of $3.20 - $3.40 per ADS on revenues of $14.1 - $14.6 billion. We believe the guidance is achievable, and are modeling EPADS of $3.29 on revenues of $14.2 billion. New product launches, both generic and branded, and continued strong performance of existing products should help boost sales in the coming quarters. Several branded products are scheduled to go off-patent in 2009 - 2010, and this provides significant commercial opportunity to the company.We are also pleased to see Teva's progress with its branded pipeline. ...

For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL - April 27, 2009 - Zacks Equity Research picks Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) as Bull of the Day and Amgen, Inc. (AMGN) as Bear of the Day. In addition, the analysts at Zacks Equity Research discuss the latest on Wells Fargo (WFC), US Bancorp (USB) and SunTrust (STI).

Full analysis of all these stocks is available at: http://at.zacks.com/?id=2678

Bull of the Day

We are initiating coverage on Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) with a Buy rating and a price target of $52. We are impressed with the company's strong performance in 2008 despite the global slowdown and are optimistic on growth prospects.

We expect Teva to continue posting strong revenues and earnings going forward thanks to new product launches, both generic and branded. We are also pleased to see Teva's progress with its branded and biogenerics pipeline. Biogenerics should help drive growth in the long-term.

Meanwhile, the

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We are initiating coverage on Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) with a Buy rating and a price target of $52. We are impressed with the company's strong performance in 2008 despite the global slowdown and are optimistic on growth prospects.

We expect Teva to continue posting strong revenues and earnings going forward thanks to new product launches, both generic and branded. We are also pleased to see Teva's progress with its branded and biogenerics pipeline. Biogenerics should help drive growth in the long-term.

Meanwhile, the recent acquisition of Barr Pharma should help Teva strengthen its position in the U.S. and expand its presence in Europe. We believe that the current share price represents an attractive entry point for long-term investors and recommend purchase up to the $52 level. Zacks Investment Research

Initiating Teva Pharmaceuticals with a BuyWe are initiating coverage on Teva Pharmaceutical Industries (TEVA) with a Buy recommendation and a price target of $52.Teva posted strong financial results in 2008 despite the global recession. The company witnessed robust top- and bottom-line growth during the year. We expect the strong performance to continue, and believe the current share represents an attractive entry point.We believe Teva has significant growth opportunity thanks to many products going off-patent in the next few years, several for which the company has filed ANDAs (abbreviated new drug applications). The number of ANDAs filed by the company with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now stands at 201, representing more than $110 billion in branded sales. New generic product launches over the next few years should help drive sales.The acquisition of Barr Pharma in December 2008 should ...

Barr Pharmaceuticals, Inc.’s (BRL) first quarter results missed ours and the Street’s expectations by a huge margin with all the business segments performing poorly. Given the lack of significant catalysts, barring a favorable ruling in the Miraprex case, and the ongoing issues related to pricing pressure and intense competition in the generics market, we had advised investors to avoid the name for the time-being.

We had issued a Sell rating on the stock after the company posted disappointing first-quarter results and slashed its full-year outlook. However, we moved back to a Hold rating following the recent announcement regarding the takeover of the company by Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA). Teva and Barr entered into a definitive agreement under which Teva will acquire Barr for $7.46 billion plus the assumption of net debt of approximately $1.5 billion. This offer has come at the right time for Barr - the deal is

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The long overdue consolidation in the generic drug industry appears to be in full swing based on about $15 billion in deals announced recently. Teva Pharma (TEVA) is the largest public company in the generic drug industry with a $34.8 billion market cap, which just got even bigger with a $7.5 billion buyout of Barr Pharma (BRL) that follows a smaller $350 million deal announced earlier for Bentley Pharma (BNT). Other recent deals in the generic industry include a $2.7 billion offer for Czech-based Zentiva (which the company has officially rejected as of today) and a $4.6 billion buyout of India-based Ranbaxy (Bombay: 500359) by Daiichi-Sankyo (Tokyo: 4568). However, Teva is not a pure-play on generic drugs as the Company also offers branded and specialty products such as Copaxone for multiple sclerosis.

Other major players that do not trade directly as public companies include …