Dapoxetine

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 28, 2003

Not only can healthcare companies save your life, but they can also generate some hefty profits. Give your investment outlook a complete physical and discover the All-Stars` top recommendations from the HMO and drugs industries. Here are the top recommendations in the Medical sector: Caremark Rx, Inc. (NYSE:CMX), UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH), WellPoint Health Networks Inc. (NYSE:WLP), Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPDI) and Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation (NYSE:MRX). Discover the full story at Zacks.com http://allstartoppicks.zacks.com

What Do The All Stars Recommend:

Caremark Rx, Inc. (NYSE:CMX) provides clinical care and pharmaceutical health care services to millions of people. Thanks to increased revenues, a strong mail-order mix, and increased use of generic drugs, CMX reported record third quarter earnings in late October of 31 cents per common share. That result was +63% better than last year's result of 19 cents and surpassed Wall Street's expectation. Net revenues in the quarter improved by +24% to $1.7 billion from the year-ago quarter, primarily due to new contracts that started in July and continued strong demand for specialty mail products. Due to the third quarter results, CMX raised its 2002 earnings guidance to $1.15, versus its previous expectation of between $1.06 and $1.08.

UnitedHealth Group Inc. (NYSE:UNH) offers health care coverage and related services to help people achieve improved health and well-being through all stages of life. The company put together record revenues and earnings in the fourth quarter 2002, as results were driven by strong performances across its operating businesses. Net earnings jumped by +45% to $1.20, compared to 83 cents from last year. That result surpassed Wall Street's expectations. Revenues in the quarter jumped by +11% to $6.7 billion, reflecting balanced growth and expansion across the company. UNH expects a strong overall performance in 2003, with continued sequential quarterly earnings gains.

WellPoint Health Networks Inc. (NYSE:WLP) is one of the nation's largest publicly traded managed health care companies. The company offers a broad spectrum of quality network-based managed care plans. WLP sees the advantages in generic drugs and, earlier this month, announced a new generic encouragement program called GenericSelect(SM). The program allows most commercial members to obtain select generic drugs at a discount of up to $10 off their co-pay for their first prescription when they begin a new drug therapy with a GenericSelect(SM) drug. In addition, the company's third quarter earnings surpassed both Wall Street's predictions and its year-ago performance as WLP generated strong cash flow and watched membership in its medical plans increase to 13.1 million from 10.3 million last year. WLP will report its fourth quarter earnings results on February 11.

Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc. (NASDAQ:PPDI) and its subsidiaries provide a broad range of research and development and consulting services in the life and discovery sciences segments. The company sees a very encouraging 2003 with earnings per diluted share, not including any dapoxetine milestone payment, rising by 25% to 28% over expected 2002 results to between $1.56 and $1.62. Furthermore, net revenue in the quarter, excluding reimbursable out-of-pockets, should enhance by 22% to 24% over 2002. PPDI will report its fourth quarter and year-end 2002 financial results on January 29.

Medicis Pharmaceutical Corporation (NYSE:MRX) is an independent pharmaceutical company focusing exclusively on the treatment of dermatological conditions. Medicis offers prescription, over-the-counter and physician-dispensed dermatology products. The company has a solid stable of core brands that performed extremely well in the second quarter of fiscal 2003. In that quarter, MRX reported earnings of 55 cents per diluted share on net revenues of $59.5 million. The earnings result surpassed the year-ago total of 47 cents while revenue improved from $53 million. MRX said that it remains focused on expanding sales of its core brands, while pursuing interesting business development opportunities and supplementing its research and development pipeline with additional therapies to benefit to its universe of physicians.

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