Cephalon gave a peek into the early effects of health-care overhaul legislation when it reported earnings last night. The drug maker expects Medicaid drug discounts to add between $7 million and $11 million in expenses this year and next. On top of that, in 2011 there will be another $11 million to $19 million in overhaul-related expenses from other changes under the new law.

The provisions being implemented this year — including those Medicaid rebates, the taxation of retiree drug subsidies and a discount on brand name drugs for Medicare Part D participants marooned in the doughnut hole — have a generally negative impact on pharma and biotech companies. Starting in 2014, measures that will expand coverage to the previously uninsured will have a more positive effect.

Here’s what else we know so far about the impact of health care legislation:

• Pfizer  said yesterday that changes that kick in this year will shave $300 million from 2010 sales, but the company didn’t change earlier financial guidance for the year. It’s cutting its 2011 sales estimate by $800 million but says it will offset the impact on earnings with cost cuts.
• Allergan actually boosted its 2010 earnings forecast, although it did project a $12 million sales hit this year and as much as $70 million in 2011, largely because of greater Medicaid discounts.
• Bristol-Myers lowered its 2010 earnings estimate by 12 cents a share, to between $1.84 and $1.94 a share, and lowered sales estimates by between $300 million and $400 million, citing the overhaul as one factor. It said the hit to sales and earnings in 2011 will be “double” what it is this year.
• Celgene raised its 2010 sales and earnings estimates, but said changes under the new law would pare about $35 million to $40 million from this year’s sales and as much as $90 million from sales next year. Over the long haul the new law will have only a “modest” impact.
• Merck said sales will be trimmed by about $170 million this year and between $300 million and $350 million in 2011.
• Baxter reduced its 2010 earnings estimate, mostly due to a slowing market for its plasma-based products, but partly due to health-care legislation. It cut its earnings estimate by 28 cents, 10 cents of which it attributed to Medicaid drug rebates.
• Amgen is projecting 2010 sales will be reduced by between $200 million and $250 million.
• Abbott cut its 2010 earnings outlook to a range of $4.13 to $4.18 a share from its earlier outlook of $4.20 to $4.25 a share. Revenue will be down an estimated $230 million in 2010 and an incremental $200 million in 2011.
• Gilead lowered its 2010 net product sales projection to a range of $7.4 billion to $7.5 billion, down from its previous $7.6 billion to $7.7 billion estimate.
• Johnson & Johnson sees 2010 earnings reduced by a nickel, to a range of $4.80 to $4.90 a share excluding certain costs. Health-care legislation will also pare revenue by between $400 million and $500 million.
• Lilly cut its 2010 earnings estimate to a range of $4.35 to $4.50 a share from a previous estimate of $4.65 to $4.85 a share. The company also said its 2010 sales will be clipped by between $350 million and $400 million, and its 2011 sales by as much as $700

The development ministers of the G-8 are done with their meetings to set up the agenda for their bosses later this year. The meetings didn’t make any firm commitments, and had a “we’ll have our people look into it and get back to you” sort of approach.

From The Toronto Sun, writer Laura Payton recieved a couple of spins on the meetings and critique from World Vision.

“We have agreed on a set of principles that will guide our work and a scope of actions that leave the needed flexibility for each country so that our delegates here can advise their leaders on how to build their basket of initiatives to support Canada’s focus on mothers and children,” said Bev Oda, Canada’s international cooperation minister.

The delegations agreed their efforts must include nutrition and disease prevention, Oda said. They’ve also agreed to be more accountable in reporting donor funding and finding more benchmarks to measure effectiveness.
…

Glen Pearson, the Liberal party’s international cooperation critic who was at most of the meetings, said a lot of points were sent to experts to report back, but he still thought they made progress.

“Because we’re so close to (the June leaders’ summit in Huntsville, Ont.) I’m just hoping we can come up with a plan of action,” he said.

“The issue for me on this thing was not to come out with false promises; it was to set up a framework by which they could achieve these goals.”

Caroline Riseboro, spokeswoman for World Vision Canada, says the agreement to focus on maternal and child health and the emphasis on nutrition are good signs.

“We have been pushing for consensus around the child and maternal health initiative, and details and new money behind it. It looks like that will come, but just the fact that consensus has been reached and this initiative will continue to push forward is critical in saving the lives of 8.8 million children dying every year,” she said.

The third Monte-Carlo Rally for Alternative Energy Vehicles took place over the last weekend in March and the new Ford Fiesta ECOnetic emerged victorious in its class.

The event, which uses the traditional Monte Carlo Rally roads was the first round of the FIA Alternative Energies Cup, which is organised around the most innovative environmentally friendly vehicles. The Ford Fiesta ECOnetic was entered in the class for fossil-fuel-powered cars with emissions of less than 120g/km of CO2 per kilometre. The  class featured 28 cars from nine different manufacturers.

Three Ford Fiesta ECOnetic cars, entered by Ford France and driven by the “Drive Classic” team, delivered an outstanding result with first, second and fourth places in the class. This impressive result was coupled with Ford’s overall victory in the manufacturers’ classification.

Target Speeds, Minimal Consumption
The rally began simultaneously from two different starting points in Lugano and Clermont-Ferrand, and included three legs – the Parcours de Concentration, Parcours Commun and Parcours Final). The rally was run over 1000 km and included four “regularity runs” during which the teams were given the tough challenge to meet target average speeds while using as little fuel as possible.

The pairing of Pascal Aimé and Stéphanie Aimé took their Fiesta ECOnetic to a convincing class win and also claimed first place in the overall regularity standings. They led home the team of Alain Jongerlynck and his son Greg, who finished second in the fossil-fuel category, just 40 points behind their team-mates. The third Fiesta ECOnetic driven by Gaël Brianceau and  Stéphane Césaréo finished fourth. With this convincing team performance, Ford France secured first place in the final manufacturers standings.

“We are particularly pleased with this result,” commented Alain Jongerlynck, who drives for, and also manages the “Drive Classic” team. “Pascal (Aimé) had great confidence in the outstanding fuel economy of the Ford Fiesta ECOnetic plus its excellent chassis. On the final night, Pascal decided to go for performance while we chose the opposite strategy, focusing primarily on fuel consumption. In the end, these two approaches complemented each other and there was barely anything between us at the finish.

“We both achieved very similar fuel consumption. Over 540 km of competitive stages, we used a total of 18.77 litres of fuel,” Jongerlynck added. “This equates to an average of just over four litres per 100 km – in spite of the fact we were running over mountainous rally stages, and had to achieve a challenging target average speed. The last night was particularly difficult in fog and rain.”

Ford France Managing Director, Jean-Luc Gérard, said: “This winning performance was achieved with standard production Fiesta ECOnetic cars, and demonstrated the model’s potential for outstanding fuel economy. Competing in the Monte-Carlo Rally for AEVs highlighted not only the engine’s exceptional energy efficiency but also its power and torque, coupled with a chassis that delivers impeccable handling.”

The Ford Fiesta ECOnetic is powered by the Ford 1.6-litre Duratorq TDCi engine, fitted with a standard particulate filter. It develops 90 bhp and 204 Nm of torque at 1750 rpm, while emitting just 98g of CO2. Compared to the previous generation Fiesta, the new ECOnetic model uses 160 litres less fuel over a distance of 20,000 km. In the extra-urban cycle, it achieves fuel consumption of just 3.7 l per 100 km.

Fiesta’s impressive list of awards and accolades include ‘Car of the Year’ in two major British automotive publications, and has been voted National ‘Car of the Year’ in Scotland, Croatia, Greece and Ireland. Following nominations from readers of Spain’s Car and Driver magazine, Fiesta was given the ‘Woman’s Car 2009′ award.

With European sales in January and February totalling 59,600 the Fiesta is the best-selling Ford model in Europe so far in 2009. Since it made its debut in August 2008, sales of the new Fiesta have totalled 120,300 and the car is already making a significant contribution to Ford of Europe’s market share improvement.