In a positive development yesterday, Forest Laboratories (FRX) and Nycomed announced that encouraging data from a phase III clinical trial of their lung drug was published in a prestigious medical journal. We are pleased to hear that the drug, Daxas (a phosphodiesterase, PDE 4 inhibitor), improved lung function and reduced exacerbations in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

The placebo-controlled trials were carried out in 4,500 patients spanning 10 countries. It evaluated the treatment in two studies, each of which covered a time span of 12 months and 6 months. Results showed that Daxas reduced COPD attacks by 17% per patient every year compared with a placebo and improved the volume of air that patients breathe out each second, a measure known as FEV1 by 48 millilitres.

Studies also showed additional benefits when Daxas was used with other treatments such as Pfizer’s (PFE) Spiriva and GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK)

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – August 4, 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: Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (BMY), AstraZeneca Plc (AXN), Merck (MRK), Novartis (NVS) and Medarex (MEDX).

Get the most recent insight from Zacks Equity Research with the free Profit from the Pros newsletter: http://at.zacks.com/?id=5513

Here are highlights from Monday’s Analyst Blog:

FDA Approves Bristol’s Diabetes Drug

We are pleased with the FDA’s approval of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s (BMY) diabetes drug Onglyza that the company distributes with AstraZeneca Plc (AXN). The drug regulates blood-sugar levels in Type 2 diabetes that affects about 24 million people in the U.S.

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We are pleased with the FDA’s approval of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s (BMY) diabetes drug Onglyza that the company distributes with AstraZeneca Plc (AZN). The drug regulates blood-sugar levels in Type 2 diabetes that affects about 24 million people in the U.S. The approval is a major milestone for Bristol-Myers for penetrating the diabetes market, which has grown to more than $5 billion in the US.

The FDA approval comes against the backdrop of controversy on cardiovascular safety of diabetes drugs. Though data from clinical trials conducted by Bristol-Myers did not show any evidence of cardiovascular risk, the FDA has asked for a post-approval study to evaluate the drug’s safety in higher-risk patients including the elderly and those with existing heart problems. Onglyza has side effects of upper-respiratory-tract and urinary-tract infections and headaches along with certain allergic reactions such as rashes.

Being structurally similar to Merck’s (MRK)

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Yesterday was a crazy day for the natural gas span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_0"etf/span, span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_1"UNG/span. Trading was halted in the middle of the afternoon due to the issuer needing to issue more shares. Here's the press release:br /br /p /pblockquotepOn July 6, 2009, the United States Natural Gas Fund, LP ("span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_2"UNG/span") announced in a current report on Form 8-K that only 32,100,000 of its units registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") were available for purchase by span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_3"UNG's/span Authorized Purchasers. As stated in its current prospectus, span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_4"UNG/span creates and redeems units in blocks of 100,000 units called "Creation Baskets" and "Redemption Baskets," span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_5"respectively/span. Only Authorized Purchasers may purchase or redeem Creation Baskets or Redemption Baskets. /pp As of July 7, 2009, span class="blsp-spelling-error" id="SPELLING_ERROR_6"UNG/span issued all of the remaining outstanding units to its Authorized Purchasers. As ...

Worldwide Energy and Manufacturing USA, Inc., a fast growing manufacturing middleman between China and the U.S., recently announced record revenue and net income for the first quarter of 2009. Revenue increased a whopping 90% to $10.3 million, while net income jumped 132% to just over $506,000. Earnings per share increased 18% to $.13 when compared to the same period last year.

Worldwide serves clients as an engineering and quality control firm, handling contract manufacturing in China. It allows U.S. and other clients to enjoy the huge cost savings of manufacturing in China, roughly 50% or more, with none of the headaches involved in supervising an overseas operation.

Worldwide works with approximately 100 companies, primarily in the wireless antenna, aerospace, automotive, and electronics industries, but its many subcontractor contacts in the Shanghai area of China allow it to serve almost any manufacturing need. For example, the company’s successful Solar Division, with a

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There are two types of headaches in the mining game, start-up headaches and production headaches. The first sets of headaches are painful as paperwork and approvals just never seem to end. The second sets of headaches are painful but perfectly pleasant as product rolls out and profits roll in.

Finding a company that has been through the first set and is ready to happily enjoy the second is one of the best ways to invest in an exploration and development mining company. An investor that can find a mining company that is past the exploration phase and in the production phase is an investor that will profit nicely, when commodity prices behave.

Petaquilla Minerals Ltd., an exploration and development mining company, works to find and extract gold resources primarily in Panama. The company has been working to delineate and define this particular find for some time and expects its first gold

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by Edward Hugh: BarcelonaSpanish house sales dropped sharply again in May for the fourth month running, official figures showed on Monday, and talk of price declines is now becoming much more general. House sales fell by 34 percent year-on-year in May and mortgage borrowing was down by 40.4 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest data from Spain's National Statistics Institute. The result is rather a shocker since many had obviously been clutching at straws following April's better-than-expected year on year decline in new mortgages of only 7.8%. Reality is, unfortunately, now starting to sink in.Sales of resale properties appear to be suffering the most, down 44% to 25,280, compared to the 21% fall (to 24,890) in the number of newly built properties sold by developers. This figure is misleading, however, as the INE’s figures are ...

In 1869, the custom-made horse drawn buggy was the most modern of transportation vehicles. Yet in just 100 years, the technology of travel advanced so far that we placed a man on the moon. The leaps in technological prowess have to be counted in multiple factors of ten, from those early days of horse drawn travel, to our present standard of supersonic flight. Likewise the transistor, developed in just 1947, consisted of over half an inch square of wires, coils, and connections. Yet in just 50 years it was shrunk down to a mere 20 atoms wide at its thinnest part.

Yet nowhere are these magnitudes of change so completely lacking than in the technology of battery development. It’s been said that from the very first day the modern-type battery cell was invented, to the highest quality, most advanced battery that today’s money can buy, the performance has only increased by

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Visicu (EICU) continued its history of posting strong operating results, posting second quarter results on Thursday with in-line revenues of $9.1 million