For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – October 21, 2009 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Biogen Idec (BIIB), Elan (ELN), UnitedHealth Group Inc. (UNH), Forest Laboratories, Inc. (FRX) and Cypress Biosciences (CYPB).

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Here are highlights from Tuesday’s AnalystBlog:

Biogen Reports Higher Earnings

Today morning, Biogen Idec (BIIB) reported third quarter earnings per share of $1.12, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $1.02. The company reported earnings of 98 cents in the year-ago period. Revenues increased 3% to $1.12 billion, with Tysabri being the primary growth

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This morning, Forest Laboratories, Inc. (FRX), reported earnings per share of 85 cents for the second quarter of fiscal 2010, in-line with the Zacks Consensus Estimate. Product sales increased 4% to $962.7 million. Although Lexapro sales declined 3.1% to $566 million, Namenda, which is approved for the treatment of moderate and severe Alzheimer’s disease, delivered sales of $275.3 million, recording a growth of 11.9% from the year-ago period. Improved patient access and increased promotional efforts should help keep Namenda sales strong. Bystolic, Forest’s beta-blocker for the treatment of hypertension, posted sales of $40.7 million. This was significantly higher than the year ago sales of $14.2 million. Contract revenue, consisting primarily of Benicar co-promotion income, increased 7.2% to $50.6 million. Forest’s most recent product launch, Savella, which is approved for the management of fibromyalgia, posted sales of $10.2 million. The product, which has been developed in ...

Green Planet Bioengineering CO. LTD., a subsidiary of ONE Holdings Corp. (ONEZ.OB), focuses on research and development, production and sale of various extracts that can be used for health supplements and organic agricultural products. The company today issued a press release introducing two natural extracts, Resveratrol and 5-HTP, which are expected to generate about $1.8 million in revenue for the company in the third quarter.

Green Planet has teamed with Fujian Traditional Chinese Medical College to create and execute a marketing campaign for Resveratrol and 5-HTP. The new health supplements have contributed $1 million in revenue since they were originally launched, and Green Planet said it has already secured long-term purchase agreements with two new customers.

“We are very excited to have launched our marketing efforts for these new extracts. Sales appear to show a raising trend, leading us to believe that these two new supplements will be highly

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Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc.

(Public, AMEX:AEN)

StocksHaven Investments takes a look at Adeona Pharmaceuticals, Inc. which currently has three blockbuster drugs in phase III, and are coming close to NDA status. The first being Trimesta, which tackles Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Post-partum Depression. Secondly, Zinthionein, a product seeking treatment for Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD). Lastly, Oral dnaJP1 which is an immunotherapy for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients. If these products aren’t enough to entice your way into purchasing this stock, take a look at the recent $5 million dollar cash infusion from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), billions of dollars in product market potential, purchasing of Hartlab LLC, an independent Chicago-area CLIA-certified clinical reference laboratory, an experienced management team that will have you feeling like a kid in a candy store, and to

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I recently highlighted a small biotech firm, ISIS Pharmaceuticals, as a potential “value” growth play. ISIS took a tumble after earnings despite being just a penny off of estimates. Despite slightly lower than expected earnings, the Company showed a strong cash position, moderate cash burn, and a likelihood that it would be able to at least make it through full trials for its most promising drug. I know that for some even this doesn’t count as value. Afterall, the Company is not free cash positive and any value ascribed to the Company is derived from future expectations of its drug pipeline of which there are none currently in distribution.

For those looking for more proven business models but still looking to take advantage of the coming shift towards genetic pharmaceuticals as opposed to small molecule pharmaceuticals, a look at ISIS’s partners may clue you into some

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Large Market Opportunity...

In our view, obesity remains the single largest opportunity for a new pharmaceutical product today. Roughly two-thirds of the U.S. population is overweight. The number is expected to grow to 75% by 2015. There is massive unmet medical need and clear pharmacoeconomic benefits to curtailing the problem.

According to the Journal of Health Affairs, obesity costs Americans $147 billion per year in total medical costs. This is 10% of all healthcare spending, and that number has doubled since 1998. It is likely to continue to surge in the years to come. Obesity is associated with an enormous number of co-morbidities, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, joint and muscle pain, as well as depression and fibromyalgia. Studies have shown that reducing body weight by as little as 5% has a meaningful impact on reducing these co-morbidities.

New Products Are Coming...

Several biotechnology companies are working on the

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In January 2009, the U.S. FDA approved Cypress Bioscience's (CYPB) Savella (milnacipran HCl) for the management of fibromyalgia. Following the minor re-workup of a cosmetic formulation change, the product became commercially available on April 28, 2009.In connection with its approval in January 2009, Cypress received a $25.0 million milestone payment and $6.5 million in expense reimbursement for clinical trial costs from partner Forest Labs (FRX). Forest and Cypress are now actively detailing the drug.Forest Labs, with its estimated 1,400 representative primary care sales force, and Cypress, with it estimated 100 representative specialty and hospital sales force, will co-promote the drug. Additionally, the duo will collaborate with patient advocacy groups and will be distributing product and disease state information in physician's offices, pharmacies, and over the Internet.The program will focus on raising awareness of fibromyalgia, educating patients about ...

Below is a summary of updates to the BioMedReports.com FDA Calendar, which includes a database of about 200 entries. The calendar was originally created by Mike Havrilla to track companies with pending new drug, biological agent, or medical device new product decisions at the FDA. With the launch of BioMedReports.com, the FDA Calendar has expanded to include the following additional categories: pending new submissions to the FDA (e.g. NDA, BLA, 510k, PMA, sNDA, sBLA filings), pending complete response letter (CRL) re-submissions to the FDA, and pending late-stage pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial results which are designed to support a filing for FDA approval.

On 6/4/09, Abbott Labs [ABT: 45.42, +0.86 (+1.93%)] and AstraZeneca [AZN: 43.34, +1.70 (+4.08%)] announced that the companies have submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA for an investigational compound to treat mixed dyslipidemia, a combination of two

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Reiterating Hold Recommendation on Forest LabsForest Laboratories, Inc. (FRX) turned in a very solid fiscal 2008. While 3rd quarter revenue was below our forecast, EPS was significantly better due to stronger operating margins as a result of better-than-expected gross margins and lower R&D and SG&A expenses. Revenue came in about $11 million shy of our expectations due to lower than forecast sales of Lexapro. We expect Lexapro sales to show a modest improvement now with the adolescent indication added to the label.Management's guidance for the full fiscal year remains below results in 2008, but has been revised upwards for the 3rd time. Forest now expects full-year adjusted EPS in the range of $3.35 - $3.45. The guidance reflects lower R&D expenses in the current quarter relative to previous expectations.We expect higher SG&A expenses through the remainder of the year to support the ...

Sometime during the middle of the year, Genentech (DNA) shareholders are going to get $95 in cash for each share of Genentech stock they own. In total, nearly $47 billion in funds are expected to be returned to biotechnology investors.We've come up with an effective "basket approach" to re-deploy those funds back into the biotech sector -- in search of the next Genentech.Antisense Makes a Lot of SenseFor a little over $13, investors can pick up one share of Isis Pharmaceuticals (ISIS). Isis is the market leader in antisense technology.We've made it no secret in the past -- we are big fans of antisense. We view the drug discovery engine fueled by Isis' antisense technology very similar to the power of Genentech's recombinant DNA and monoclonal antibody technology breakthroughs of the 1980's. Antisense drugs are still in their infancy, ...