What's the Use of News?

An article today by Morningstar talks about investors and the flow of information. Basically, it examnies how investors – big and small – make money from the daily information flow. Read this:

By the time it's on TV, its already too late. Even with the wide array of market-data tools we have at Morningstar, we doubt we could come close to generating an attractive return this way. But why bother? If the majority of the market is focused on the near term, why not simply seek long-term returns that attract far less competition? Many investors must either report their returns each quarter or simply can't develop the patience to hold a stock even when it doesn't appreciate immediately. This frenzy often leaves attractive returns on the table.

But, we think that this emerging market is so early in formation that press releases, conferences, etc., can only be indiciative of long-term trends and are interesting for the detail they give of what the future may look like – two or three years out. We pick and choose those that we think may indicate a trend, given the context of the new biology economy and our experience in this market for the last three years.

However, somethimes there are articles we think provide some benefit to know about and are underreported. For example, the following article on Chiron, the flu vaccine maker. More than anything, Chiron's bumbling represents an opportunity for biomedicine to develop new methods to create new influenza vaccines.

Chiron, which yesterday announced the FDA is inspecting at its Liverpool FLUVIRON influenza virus vaccine manufacturing facility with the goal of restoring production, also said that it expects to limit production of its German-mad Begriva flu vaccine, due to sterility problems.

Chiron said it expects to produce 18 to 26 million doses of Fluvirin for the 2005-2006 influenza season, with the vast majority of the supply going to the US – if it can successfully fix the problems that caused it to stop production last year. The company originally said it would manufacture 25 million to 30 million doses of Fluvirin before cutting that forecast in June. The company yesterday announced that it will supply 4 million doses instead of the previously forecast 12 million doses of Begrivac to customers outside the US.

Chiron cut its outlook for production of Fluvirin in June citing product start-up delays. Its earlier outlook was for between 25 million and 30 million doses.
Chiron manufactures influenza vaccine in two facilities for Europe and other non-US markets. In Marburg, Germany, Chiron produces Begrivac for the German and UK markets, and in Siena, Italy, produces the Agrippal and Fluad products.

India government officals are pitching the need for the country to develop world-class biotechnological research facilities in the country in order to drive economic benefits of technological changes happening globally.

Yesterday, addressing the Indian Council for Agricultural Research in New Delhi, India's agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said the council has established four regional referral laboratories for quality assurance as part of this effort.

The four labs have been established at: IARI, New Delhi, in the areas of pesticide residue in plant products; Bombay Veterinary College, Mumbai, for meat quality assurance; Cental Institute for Fisheries Technology for fisheries; and the Central Institute for Research on Cotton Technology, also in Mumbai, for cotton textiles, according to reports.

These reflect the indigenous nature of India's efforts in biotechnology – which are designed to first help the country solve its own problems.

Systems biology is now an entry in the Wikipedia.