announcement out , page-23

I found the fonda results a little misleading.

Yes, volumes may well be affected by "seasonal buying patterns", but that's only half the story.

Total volume dropped -5% in hospital and -8% in retail.

DrR dropped -5% in hospital and -13% in retail. By comparison, Apotex only dropped 1% in hospital and rose 3% in retail.

If it's as simple as seasonality, Apotex would also have declined. Instead, they've continued to pick up GSK hospital share and taken DrR retail share.

One swallow doesn't make a summer, but you have to ask why DrR continues to sell less than 1/10th of Apotex in hospitals.

To balance that, the Merck partnership is terrific news... particularly with HA-Erbitux sitting ready for a PhII/III. Erbitux can't be too far away from falling over the patent cliff.