div style="text-align: justify;"We have several firms out defending span style="font-weight: bold;"Illumina (NASDAQ:ILMN)/span after the co pre-announced 2Q results after the close and expecting revenues to be ~$161 MM, below prior guidance range of $168-173 MM. The miss was largely attributed to weakness in the array business: 1) Slowdown in GWAS as researchers await new content; 2) Softness in Foundation funding; amp; 3) Order delays (sequencers) as researchers are uncertain about grant money.br /br /span style="font-weight: bold;"- Deutsche Bank /spanreiterates Buy noting ST volatility does not reflect any change in fundamentals, which remain strong. ILMN est. that $10-15 MM of rev was impacted by delays in 1H’09, with some volatility expected in 3Q as well; however, stimulus benefit should make for a strong 4Q’09 (sequencing). Also, data from 1000 Genomes \should reinvigorate array growth in mid FY10 as rare variant content will drive ‘rich’ GWAS studies. Price tgt is lowered to ...

A more recent addition to my transformational technologies portfolio, Medarex (NASDAQ:MEDX), has scored a huge win. The company, along with Massachusetts Biologic Laboratory, will get $60 million upfront from Merck (NYSE:MRK) for license rights to a monoclonal antibody that apparently cures C. difficile infection. They are eligible for another $165 million in milestones as well as royalties.

Think about the service this company has done mankind. C. diff, as hospital diarrhea is called, is a growing cause of hospital deaths. Though many cases outside of hospitals are never diagnosed, we know it kills at least 30,000 Americans annually. Those who do recover, about 9 out of ten, can suffer horribly for months. Bravo to Medarex and all those who made this breakthrough possible by investing your money in this incredibly worth effort.

So what does this have to do with swine flu?

So far, swine flu is a minor problem compared

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