FDA Approves NeurogesX's Qutenza After the market closed on November 16, 2009, NeurogesX (NGSX) announced that the U.S. FDA had approved Qutenza (capsaicin patch) for the management of neuropathic pain due to postherpetic neuralgia (PHN).  We expect management to spend the next several months preparing for the launch by facilitating reimbursement procedure, establishing distribution channels, hiring and training the specialty sales force, and conducting the manufacturing for commercial supply. Key to our bullish sales forecast for the drug will be establishing a permanent reimbursement code for both the product and application, as Qutenza requires administration by a physician or healthcare professional. Qutenza is a cutaneous (skin) patch designed to treat peripheral neuropathic pain conditions. The Qutenza patch provides a pure high concentration (8%) of a synthetic capsaicin, known as trans­-capsaicin, directly to the site of pain via a rapid-delivery cutaneous delivery system designed to provide ...

EcoloCap Solutions Inc. will be hosting representatives from four continents in Korea this November in the first ever public unveiling of the company’s M-Fuel product, an innovative suspension fuel for use in diesel engines. M-Fuel, developed and manufactured by MBT (Micro Bubble Technologies), a subsidiary of EcoloCap Solutions Inc., is an innovative suspension fuel that far exceeds efficiencies for all conventional fuels. This environmentally-friendly and economical product is designed to offer fully scalable and customizable fuel solutions that increase efficiency, lower operating costs, and reduce emissions.

M-Fuel is a suspension mixture of 60% heavy oil, and 40% separated hydrogen and oxygen, plus a stabilizing additive. Nano Processing Units (NPUs) produce the fuel and can be configured to be integrated with an engine, producing fuel on demand, or the fuel can be pre-manufactured for delivery.

The event in Korea, scheduled for November 18th, will have representatives from more than

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This post provides links to a number of interesting articles I have read over the past few days that you may also enjoy.

• Gerard Lyons (Times Online): Discovering if we learnt the lessons of Black Monday, October 19, 2009. Today (Monday) is the twenty-second anniversary of Black Monday. On this day in 1987 stock markets around the world crashed. The Dow Jones fell 22.6 per cent in one day, London shed one fifth of its value over two days. The newspapers and television were full of pictures of traders in panic. Sound familiar? Reflecting on 1987 is interesting in its own right and has lessons for today.

• Allan Dodds Frank (The Daily Beast): Hedge fund dominoes, October 18, 2009. Friday’s insider-trading charges against the founder of Galleon could be the tip of the iceberg. Other hedge funds and the McKinsey consulting

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CNN Money is running an interesting feature by David Goldman entitled "10 countries, 10 solutions" which details the particularities of the global economic crisis facing 10 key countries. In typical old-media fashion, the layout makes no sense from a user-friendliness perspective, so I'm going to take significant liberties in reposting their original content. They also have a single table layout of the 10 countries here. Time Warner lawyers, if you're watching this, get your editorial guys to put their content into a more sensible format that doesn't require constant clicking and I won't have to go such lengths to discuss it and in turn will actually drive more traffic to your site. Got that? Good. Now then, first some

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Alcoa Inc. (AA) recently realigned its Global Primary Products (GPP) business organization in order to poise the company to seize growth opportunities on economic recovery.  Alcoa has named John Thuestad as the Chief Operating Officer for GPP Worldwide and Jean-Pierre Gilardeau as the President for GPP for North America and Iceland. Thuestad was previously the President of GPP’s U.S. branch, while Gilardeau had been President, GPP-Canada and Iceland.  Alcoa also raised its annual forecast for global aluminum consumption. The company now predicts that global consumption will decline by 5.5%, while the previous forecast was a decline of 7%.  The company attributed the improved outlook to a stronger demand for the metal in China. Alcoa believes the economic stimulus spending in China will drive up the country’s aluminum consumption by 8% in the second half. The full year consumption is expected to be up by 4%. ...

Following stalls in negotiations, Magna and Sberbank have modified the terms of their agreement to buy Opel, and are now apparently confident that GM Motors will be able to accept their offer.  To see a timeline of events in the Opel-Magna saga, check Reuters.  Russia and Lithuania have apparently settled their dispute over vehicle checks, after Russia banned the import of dairy produce from four Lithuanian companies.  Iceland has denied reports that it rejected a loan from Russia, and states that talks are 'still underway'.  VTB chief Andrei Kostin was granted permission by Vladimir Putin to take a week's holiday after the bank head said the company was on track to enlarge its loan portfolio by $3.14 billion in three months.  Automobile manufacturer IzhAvto has filed for bankruptcy, which leaves 5,000 employees uncertain of work.  The ...

by Edward Hugh: : L'Escala de Empordàbr /br /According to a once-upon-a-time post on the Economist's a href="http://www.economist.com/blogs/certainideasofeurope/2007/07/a_fistful_of_reply.cfm#list-comments"Certain Ideas of Europe Blog/a Edward Hugh “was very cross” about some of the journalism they were serving up over at that prestigious journal. Well, not to worry, since this time he is hopping mad. And the issue which lies behind his wrath is essentially the same one, how to interpret and understand the demographic processes which are currently so evidently affecting our societies. In what is simply the latest episode in a long and sorry saga (if you want documentation, please see the comments Claus Vistesen and I nailed to their "Wall" in the above linked post) this week's print issue contains a href="http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14164483"a research review from their science and technology correspondent/a who is evidently not backward in coming forward with headline grabbing claims. According to the said corresponedent the demographic transition ...

On June 22, 2009, NeurogesX (NGSX) announced that it has entered into a development and commercialization partnership for Qutenza, the company's cutaneous patch for neuropathic pain, with Astellas Pharmaceuticals. NeurogesX has licensed for commercialization Qutenza in all 27 EU member states, plus Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Switzerland, along with the Middle East and Africa.Astellas has also agreed to fund the required additional studies as requested by the European Commission, which include a long-term safety program in on-label indications. In return, Astellas has agreed to pay NeurogesX an upfront payment for Qutenza of e30 million ($42 million).We expect that NeurogesX will recognize this payment over the life of the agreement. Astellas has also purchased an option to co-develop NGX-1998, the company's liquid formulation, for e5 million ($7 million). In addition to these upfront payments, Astellas has also committed e70 million ($97 million) in ...

Past posts have preached a look at the long-term and investing; not where the market is, but where one thinks it will be down the road. Some industries and markets are better suited in this regard than others. An investor that can find companies to fit this long-term strategy is one that will profit at some point. It really comes down to doing the research, investing and forgetting about the investment for a certain amount of time.

Century Aluminum Co., a primary aluminum production company, produces molten aluminum, billet and other value added aluminum products. Additionally, the company holds a 50% stake in the Gramercy alumina refinery of Gramercy Louisiana, capacity in Iceland and bauxite interests in Jamaica.

Although the company has been affected by the same economic conditions that a majority of the world’s companies are, it does seem that there may be an opportunity for investment. First quarter 2009 did

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We made a brief trip back to France for a board meeting. Returning to London, people all seemed to be in mourning. Black is the color in London. Everyone wears black. Black pants, black skirts, black coats…

…the cabs are black…and so is the mood.

Last week, the Bank of England and European Central Bank announced new initiatives aimed at putting some brighter colors in the economy. Both banks are going to take up forms of QE – quantitative easing.

Whoa…don’t touch that dial! (A reminder for younger readers: TVs and radios used to have dials, which you turned to change the channel. Announcers would begin with ‘Don’t touch that dial’ when they had something important to say.)

We’re not going to discuss QE – promise!

On Friday, for the benefit of new readers, we were trying to explain The World According to The Daily Reckoning. Today, we continue our explanation –

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