.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Dear Mr. Berko:

Dear M.P.:

The recently passed health-care bill makes certain that Big Pharma will be a big winner. The $85 billion bribe exacted by Big Government ($8.5 billion a year for 10 years) is clever window dressing for the masses – it will have no more impact on Big Pharma than would the advent of a tablespoon of water to a downpour.

The dozen largest drug companies will peddle $430 billion in unguents, salves, pills, solutions, ointments, powders and other prescriptives next year and report $85 billion of net income in the process. Well, Big Pharma will just raise prices a niggardly 2 percent per year (2 percent of $430 billion is $8.6 billion) to cover the bribe.

But as an aggressive, pure-growth pharmaceutical, I would gladly recommend Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA-$53.63). This $16 billion revenue company is the world’s largest producer of generic drugs and is home ported in Israel. In Spanish, “te va” roughly translates to “go,” and in Hebrew “teva” means “nature.” And in the alien Romulan language, Captain Kirk welcomed the Romulan ambassador aboard the Enterprise by saying “teva,” which means “welcome.” How fitting!

TEVA is an impressive company. Unlike Big Pharma’s management teams in the United States, the company’s management isn’t fixated on retirement and won’t waste time on the links, boozing at soirees, passing cash to legislatures or luxuriating in posh executive offices with sycophantic assistants. TEVA’s hands-on management doesn’t spend hundreds of millions on ubiquitous TV and print media promotions to market its products. TEVA doesn’t hire prestigious physicians to publish drug studies or pay doctors to recommend prescriptives.

So how can one not be impressed with a company that went public at $10 and split twice (2 for 1) so that an original 100-share investment with a $1,000 basis is now worth $21,000?

Now, I could regale you with all kinds of superb balance sheet/income statement ratios and data that boast unmatched growth in revenues, earnings, book value, return on equity and net profit margins. Suffice it to say the Street expects this growth to continue. The company’s recent purchase of Barr Pharmaceuticals allows TEVA to remain unrivaled as king of the hill in generics. The company manufactures 61 percent of its own ingredients, permitting it to capture raw material markups that typically accrue to suppliers. Its 2006 purchase of Bentley Pharma gives TEVA a strong foothold in Latin America. And TEVA’s brilliant research chemists seem to have magic skills good enough to turn lead into gold.

The company’s 2011 revenues are expected to grow to $18 billion from $15.9 billion, and earnings are expected to increase to $5.16 per share from $4.54.

TEVA is cool beans; buy it.

Please address your financial questions to Malcolm Berko, P.O. Box 1416, Boca Raton, Fla. 33429 or e-mail him at malber@adelphia.net. ©2010 Creators.com