Vanguard Health Care ETF

In 1Q17, Abbott Laboratories’ (ABT) Nutritional segment reported revenue of nearly $1.6 billion, a year-over-year (or YoY) fall of ~1%.

According to estimates by Evaluate Pharma, a whopping $120 billion in sales was lost to patent expirations between 2009 and 2014.

Wall Street analysts expect that Universal Health Services (UHS) will report higher net profit margins in 3Q15 compared to margins in 3Q14.

Johnson & Johnson’s gross profit margin decreased to 64.1% in 4Q17, a ~5% decrease compared to 69.1% in 4Q16.

Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals’ therapeutic candidate ARO-LUNG1 is being developed for an undisclosed disease of the lung. This is the first candidate to utilize the company’s TRiM platform.

In 3Q17, Eli Lilly’s (LLY) Alimta generated revenues of $514.5 million, a ~10% increase on a year-over-year (or YoY) basis and a 3% decline on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

Eli Lilly’s cardiovascular franchise includes the drugs Cialis and Effient, but for 3Q17, both drugs reported lower sales.

Renewed tensions arising out of North Korea’s missile launch on Tuesday had a major impact on volatility. Asian markets have declined more than 1% as risk aversion dominated markets.

Some companies benefit in times of uncertainty, and some sectors provide cover for investors.

ABBVie anticipates upadacitinib to be commercialized by 2019. If approved, AbbVie’s upadacitinib will directly compete with Pfizer’s (PFE) Xeljanz.

In 2016, Bayer owned ~51,000 valid patent applications and patents relating to ~5,000 protected inventions worldwide.

Follow-up data were released from the Checkmate-205 study. It evaluated long-term effects of PD-1 inhibitors in patients with classical Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Thermo Fisher Scientific (TMO) has a presence around the globe, but around 80% of its revenues are generated from developed markets.

The US medical device industry is a global leader. Its market was valued at ~$140 billion for 2016. It represents ~45% of the global market.

The US economy is dealing with rising healthcare costs. The national healthcare expenditure grew 5.8% to $3.2 trillion in 2015 or $9,990 per person.

Keytruda, a prescription medicine classified under Merck’s (MRK) immunooncology franchise, is used to treat non-small cell lung cancer as well as melanoma.

In 4Q16, Eli Lilly (LLY) reported Basaglar sales of $40 million from Japan and several European markets.

This year, the healthcare sector seems to be receding, and the utilities sector seems to be in good gear. This is a sign that the early bear phase is over.

To extend cost-effective, high-quality medical devices and therapies, Medtronic aims to organize its marketing and sales teams around physician preferences.

The Global Established Pharmaceutical segment deals with products that have or are expected to lose market exclusivity through 2015 in most major markets.

Pfizer (PFE) is one of the oldest and largest pharmaceutical companies in the US. The company deals in two major business segments.

With a market capitalization of $35.1 billion, Aetna (AET) is one of the largest insurance providers in the US.