News
Tehelka goes bonkers!!
The newspaper has finally lost it, going wayyyyy overboard in its criticism of the Indian cricket team. As everybody else, I too am deeply aggrieved over the early exit of India from the WC2007. However, sad as it is, it does not call for total beration of the stars we all worshipped at some point of time. From their website:
Reputations aflame: Fans burn a poster of the self-styled (emphasis added) god of Indian cricket, Sachin Tendulakr (sic!), following India’s loss to Bangladesh in the World Cup.
Does the reporter realise that more people in India love and till a certain extent even still worship this person, than those who know about Tehelka? And “self-styled”!! Please give him a break. He may not be the best in the world any more, but he is still good enough to be in the team. And for God’s sake, he never called himself the “god of Indian cricket”. It was us who gave him this status.
R.I.P. Barbera
Joseph Barbera, of the Hanna-Barbera fame, passed away day before. He was in part responsible for few of the most memorable moments of my childhood life with all the cartoons he had helped produce. He was the co-creator for Tom & Jerry, The Flintstones, Yogi Bear and Scooby-Doo amongst others. So long, and thanks for all the fun. You will be missed.
Joseph Barbera (March 24, 1911 – December 18, 2006)
India Wins!!
India has won the first test against South Africa by 123 runs, and has won back cricketing fans who had waned away after the one day performances in the past year.
On another happy note, Delhi HC has convicted Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lall murder case. Immense happiness comes.
Lipitor Sucessor Fails!
Pfizer, world’s largest drug maker, got hammered badly in the NYSE on Monday following the disclosure that it had pulled the plug on its “to-be” blockbuster drug, torcetrapib. The stock lost 11% of its market value and wiped out USD 21 bn off its market cap.
Though some might consider this as excessive, this just goes to show what one drug can do to a company’s fortune. Pfizer banks on Lipitor for almost a quarter of its annual USD 51 bn sales and a higher percentage of its profits. With Lipitor patent coverage expiring in 2011 (thanks to Ranbaxy), torcetrapib was supposed to take its place and drive the company’s growth and profits. Pfizer had spent over a billion USD on the development of the drug and pulling it out at the last stage of development has prompted Moody to reconsider the downgrading of Pfizer’s rating from the present Aaa.
Also interesting is the increase in the share prices of its competitors, namely, Roche and Astra Zeneca. Many also expect that this failure might change the way big companies focus on blockbuster drugs to drive both topline and bottomline growth.