$3.48 billion in 90 days from Hepatitis C pills

Gilead Sciences' new blockbuster drug for Hepatitis C, Sovaldi

Gilead Sciences (GILD) is one of the few biotech companies I see out there with great fundamentals for growth. During yesterday’s earnings report for Q2 2014, the company posted total revenue of $6.54 billion compared to $2.77 billion the same quarter last year, a massive +146% increase.

$3.48 billion or 47% of that came from their new Hepatitis C drug, Sovaldi, which can cure 80% of patients with minimal side effect. More than 3 million Americans have Hepatitis C, but only 70,000 patients initiated treatment with Sovaldi since its launch date, December 2013. The demand is mind-boggling, but the cost of each pill is $1,000 or $84,000 for a common three-month course of treatment.

On the downside for the company, few (three so far) medicaid programs are starting to restrict use of this drug due to the high price it is charging. There is also a wide public outcry calling on the drug maker to lower the price of Sovaldi.

Year to date as of June 30, 2014, Gilead Sciences generated total revenue of $11.28 billion compared to $5.05 billion same time last year, a whopping +123% improvement. $5.75 billion, or 49%, of that came from the sales of Sovaldi. The company finished at net income of $3.66 billion, or $2.20 per diluted share, compared to $772.6 million, or $0.46 per diluted share, same time in 2013, which is a staggering +374% improvement.

The growth potential of this company is phenomenal, but the price of its Hepatitis C product will probably not stay at its current high for a long time. The benefit of lowering the price is that it will undoubtedly give them a larger market share into the 3 million patients the country has. The question is: how much lower?

Gilead Sciences is a company with a high-buy rating for long term, mainly due to its relatively lower P/E ratio, 6 high-demand and successful antiviral products in the market (Sovaldi, Atripla, Truvada, Complera/Eviplera, Stribild, and Viread) each generating over $470 million during half of this year already, numerous drugs under development in their pipelines, and an average of 10,000 deep-pocketed baby boomers retiring everyday.

Is Amazon biting off more than it can chew?

Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO of Amazon.com Inc

Since the early days of selling books online, Jeff Bezos, founder & CEO of Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), has always guided his company by three common principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, and long-term thinking. While these three philosophies have turned his company into a dominant online retail giant and continues to show robust revenue growth, his extreme vision and excessive 'long-term thinking’ over profitability is literally testing the patience of Amazon’s big shareholders.

During last week’s earnings report for second quarter 2014, the Seattle based company posted a pleasant 23% increase in total revenue to $19.34 billion compared with $15.70 billion in second quarter 2013. However, in a rather more common practice, it posted a net loss of $126 million in the second quarter 2014, or $0.27 per diluted share, compared with net loss of $7 million, or $0.02 per diluted share, in quarter two 2013. This was not a surprise as investors have been accustomed to it, and they would rather continue to lend time to Jeff Bezos than pull out prematurely.

What shocked most of the shareholders was the financial guidance Amazon gave for its current quarter. Despite the 15% - 26% improvement in total revenue, the company expects its operating loss to be up to $810 million compared with $25 million loss for the same quarter last year. Following the announcement of its guidance, its stock price plummeted 10%. In addition to its sophisticated online retail platform, the company continues to spend billions on several new projects includingFire TV streaming-box, Fire Phones, Amazon Studios for Netflix-like movie streaming, Amazon Fulfillment Centers across the world, Amazon-Fresh grocery delivery, Kindle Unlimited e-book subscription, Prime Music to offer prime members unlimited & ad-free access to over a million of songs, and the list goes on.

Amazon's portfolio of revenue streams

This is a company of everything trying to achieve all through heavy reinvestment of capital to meet what is on the founder’s mind. At current stock price, Amazon is valued at over 500 times more than what it is actually worth today. This tells us that investors are in it due to their expectation of higher earnings growth in the future. However, to sustain that, sooner than later, the company needs to return some capital and stop feeding the milk back to its endless cows.

I have no doubt that genius Jeff Bezos will eventually figure out the full algorithm of his grand visions – and yes, one day, he will revolutionize the entire retail industry just the way he did with the creation of the online retail platform. However, he might also have to envision a strategy of soothing his shareholders by letting them taste a flavor of profitability here and there. During this time of uncertainty where the market is begging for a correction, I would not put a penny in this retail giant until I see bottom line profitability as well.

Catching Up & Rolling

Hi readers,

The last time I blogged here was exactly 2 years, 7 months, and 19 days ago. Is there a sequence there? I don't see any, but one may ask: what could possibly take place in any person's life, especially to those going through the 20-something journey in the western world? The answer I have for you is that it could range depending on what really drives you inside. To a large extent, what you get back is a direct consequence of what you put in -- and I am a big witness of that having gone through lots of transitions full of learning moments and growth. It was a time when I challenged myself to the fullest through two words that still continue to push me: assertiveness and momentum. These two words were cemented in me after my January 2010 visit and meeting with several bright and successful entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, California -- a one month class trip organized by Bradley Miller (Associate Professor of Computer Science) which was also attended by 8 more students from Luther College, Iowa. I have shared most of my experience from that trip in my previous blogs here. For those 2 years, 7 months, and 19 days though, I will summarize and reminisce on them in the next few blogs as part of my plan to continue blogging at least once a week. As I continue to push the limits and optimize my ability, of-course while living in the moment, a range of topics and reflections that I perceive in my daily walk of life will have the platform to express themselves in written form. Hopefully, you will feel the energy in my journey as I pursue my long-term dream of being there for the macro society...at least, that is the vision.

 Let me rewind for a couple of years, then we will move forward.

To be continued...

2010 Nobel Peace Prize Forum — 'Striving for Peace: A Question of Will'

Two days in two words = "very inspiring!!" I attended the 22nd Noble Peace Prize Forum at Augsburg College. It was a great pleasure to meet President Martti Ahtisaari, the 2008 Noble Peace Prize laureate at the 2010 Noble Peace Prize Forum in Augsburg College. Being able to listen and talk to a person that has resolved international conflicts and contrubuted to world peace..was just so priceless. This is a man who spent more than 3 decades resolving many conflicts in Namibia, Kosovo, Indonesia and Iraq. He spoke about his life experience and the ways to approach general global issues pertaining to conflict and the making of peace. " All conflicts can be resolved. Wars & Conflicts are not inevitable. They are caused by human beings....peace is a question of will"-- Martti Ahtisaari.





I was also fortunate enough to meet and talk to the other plenary speaker Kjell Magne Bondevik, former Prime Minister of Norway from 1997-2005. In his speech, he also focused on the issues pertaining to global conflicts and the involvement of Norway to world peace. I was able to talk to him right after his speech to get some of my questions answered. Since he also focused on missionary works and their contributions in developing countries, I asked him about his thoughts on missionary works in terms of creating a huge culture of dependence amongst many 3rd world societies. He thought not many countries have been able to escape this culture of dependence, but a well-skimmed missionary work is one way of elevating conflicts.





This was not the end of the two fabulous days. Leymah Gbowee, a trauma counselor during the civil war in Liberia who worked with the ex-child soldiers of Charles Taylor's army, was also present. Her speech was one of the most touching and inspiring speeches I've ever heard. She is currently creating so much awarness and taking measures for numerous oppressed women in African countries. She is the current executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa, based in Accra. There is an award winning documentary called "Pray the Devil Back to Hell", which tells the story of the women's peace movement in Liberia and shes is the central character of this documentary so I'm going to watch it very soon.



I was invited to present the "Collaborating on Irrigation to Fight Hunger" Project that my colleagues and I implemented last summer in Ethiopia. So it was great to share it with people who came to my presentation including Richard Torgerson, President of Luther College. I was also very happy to meet Elias Wondimu, a fellow bright Ethiopian Publisher and Editorial Director of Tsehai Publishers, The Marymount Inistitute Press and African Academic Press. He came to my presentation and gave me so much compliments. Afterward, we had coffee drinks and general conversation about our backgrounds and interests.





It was a very uplifting and inspiring event. I look forward to the 23rd Noble Peace Prize Forum, which is to be held at Luther College on the 5th-6th of March 2011. President Barrack Obama might come so mark your calenders.

Facebook, Microsoft & Intel

My day at Silicon Valley was yet another reminder of how fortunate 'm to be where i'm.
I was able to see all these big corporates that run the global technology and media industry.
We started by visiting Facebook, a social web media that has become an addiction to millions of people worldwide. It was incrediable to see the company and more over hear about the operation of the company from Dave Fetterman, who leads the Facebook mobile technology team. He is a very open and intelligent young man with so much energy. We talked more about mobile applications via Facebook. It was also great to hear his background stories and how he was able to end up in the leading social web media company, Facebook. After our discussions, we had a tour around Facebook and saw all the smart people sitting behind huge desktops- doing their codes and programing.It's almost the same as Google in terms of the diversity of the workers- there were so many Asians, particularly from India.

After eating lunch, our next stop was Microsoft Cororate. We had the best reception here and were treated as businessmen than students. We were received by a "secretary" and were taken straight to the huge conference room where food, pens and notepads were ready for us. A few minutes later, (guess who shows up?) the Vice President of Microsoft Corporate, Dan'l Lewin. I think he gave us the best speech in terms of how big companies operate relative to smaller companies. He raised many points regarding strategic management, marketing structure, product management and principles to be followed. The advice he gave us at the end of his speech will always stay in my mind - "Life is more like 10% of what you are presented with and 90% what you do with it." After his interesting speech, they let us watch a documentary about the future of technology, which looked real and interesting. We were also able to see some of the latest technology that Microsoft is developing. One of them was a table looking touch screen with lots of functions that left me flabbergasted. Ah well, where there is quality education there is money hence the possiblity of creating such technologies.

Our last stop was Intel, which made 2.5 billion profit in the last quarter of the year-amazing-. We were hosted by a brainy looking tall man, Neal. He showed us around for a little bit and then he took us to a room that looked like one of the classrooms in Olin Building. I think it was an interesting discussion time for the Computer Science students than the business students, because Neal went on deep talking about the microchips they produce and connect. We left Intel to face the heavy rain outside. After taking a couple of pictures we went back to our hotel- and 'dressed up' for our last night at Silicon Valley. We had an amazing food and white wine -thanks to Brad!!- in an Italian restaurant. Such practical experiences come once!!
I've seen and learned a lot in a short time!! Thank you!

Perfect Day! Google

We started our day by visiting the Googleplex- much thanks to Craig Cornelius, a former Luther College Professor, who took good care of us from start to finish. This company is very enormous and has a very diverse employees. We started our visit by having a tour around the buildings. It definitely looks like a postgraduate university. They have cafeterias with free food ranging from Italian to Chinese to Indian. They also have buildings for different purposes that one would not find in other corporates. Swimming pools, fitness centers, shop, volleyball filed and even laundry rooms are some of the many things i saw at the Googleplex. Now who doesn't want to work for Google? It was raining so we couldn't get to see all the buildings. Craig had arranged a place and some Google workers to talk to us so we went to a small conference room. Our first speaker was Davidson Young who mainly takes care of university relations and recruitment of new employees for internships and jobs. One thing he mentioned that stood out for me is that besides our academics, we need to be involved in many activities that will make us stand out from the rest. This means most of the workers at Google are bright and were superbly active in their own fields before joining this growing corporate. Our second speaker was Michael Braderman who is heavily involved in Google Enterprise. He had worked for media companies like Myspace and Apple so it was remarkable to hear his stories and what he does. The next speaker was Xuefu Wang who is involved in Google books. His presence was a reminder of the rich international diversity of the company. He told us some of the challenges they face in terms of copyrights, language translation and character recognition. The next speaker was Jessica Pfund who is involved in Google Maps. She seems to have to so much interest in map. It was great to hear her background story and also some of the challenges she and her colleagues face in the Google map department, which still needs so much work.
Our last speaker was Rick Klau who is involved in blog project (the website i am now using to type this blog.) This website is still in the development stage so I hope to continue utilizing the upcoming features. Google's lunch in Charlie's Cafe was so delicious. We ended our stay at the Googleplex by visiting more buildings and finally buying some items from their store.
















Our next destination was the Computer History Musuem. I saw huge computers, printers, calculators and alikes. It's crazy how we've come so far in terms of technology-most things are now portable and fast. The place is setup very well- making it possible for visitors to grasp the history of computers easily.

Our last destination was The Menlo Circus Club, where we mate a successful Luther Alumni, Al Brudos, from class of 55 (wow!!). He has so much experience in the venture capital world. It was so remarkable to hear his stories and valuable advices. When the experienced people talk to us, they make the "road" look so easy, but i know it's hard out there and i think this trip has made me understand the 'road' much better.

Benetech and Sierra Ventures

Around mid-day, we mate the founder and CEO of Benetech, Jim Fruchterman. Benetech is a non-profit company that creates new technology that serve humanity. They have segmented thier business in three main arenas and these are; literacy (mainly for disabled people), environmental conservation and human rights. This company does not only outsource jobs in more than 4 places outside the USA, but also are globally connected with many people as they bring huge benefits and positive difference to thousands of people around the world. The company is a non-profit, but it's managed and run as a normal corporate business, which I think gives the company a great balance.
I will definitely try to learn more about his company and possibly help them out as I share the same passion - helping a society.

After having lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant, we headed to Sierra Ventures to meet Robert Walker, the most interesting man I've met in this trip. He is the principal of the company and he seems to have a very deep knowledge about semiconductors, lightning displays, energy and generally physics. He has a very rich experience of working for other companies before he joined Sierra Ventures and it was interesting to hear his stories. Like many other successful people we met at Silicon Valley, Mr. Robert seems to be so open and curious about meeting new people.
I've mate two of the many very smart people at Silicon Valley and I've learned so much from their experiences. Thanks Brad Miller!

We had a tour around Stanford University. I really liked their bookshop, which is massive and very organized with so many types of goods including Laptops and XBOX games.

At night we had a delicios (perhaps my best in this trip) dinner in Indian restaurant with a special guest. I will talk more about him tomorrow after my stay at the Googleplex. -Very Excited!