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Atlanta's Weekly E-Magazine
Jan 4th - Jan 11th, 2002
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Atlanta's Winter Wonderland
World News
Market News
Our thanks to gotlaughs.com for sharing this classic with the WORLD.
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BEST IPO IN 2000
EVEN BETTER IN 2001
FAR BETTER IN 2002
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Last Christmas (December 2000) I introduced our readers to the best IPO of the year 2000. The John Hancock Financial Services (JHF). It was introduced to the public on January 27, 2000 and closed that day @ 17.625.
On December 22, 2000 when I introduced the stock to our readers, the stock had climbed up to 36.0625. Thatwas a 104.6% appreciation in less than a year's time. Considering that it had also paid a dividend of 30 cents per share that December, the appreciation stood at 106.3%.
A year later, January 3, 2002 we find that stock @ 41.90. That is a 237.7% appreciation since its introduction two years ago. Last month, it paid a dividend again, 31 cents per share. Adding the dividend on to the current price, the appreciation stands at 239.5% in two years. That is a phenomenal growth in two years during a southbound stock market for the past two years. And the prospects for 2002 look even brighter.
John Hancock and Met Life have jointly been selected by the federal government, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to provide Long Term Care Insurance coverage to all federal employees. This is the largest federal group coverage known in insurance circles. John Hancock is recognized among bankers and brokers to have the best designed and most competitive priced Long Term Care Insurance program. No wonder the company was selected along with Met Life to become the principal and sole providers for the federal government.
Next Christmas I'll come back and make the same comparison. Chances are the price will be above 41.90.
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Editor's Corner
SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROMISES SUCCESS
IN ORGAN TRANSPLANTS
For years there have been several attempts to transplant pig organs into humans, however all attempts were met with a powerful rejection by the immune system whenever pig tissue was transplanted. For years this failure remained a mystery.
According to the Associated Press it is reported that a research firm in Blacksburg, Virginia which happens to be a subsidiary of PPL Therapeutics in Scotland which helped clone "Dolly" the sheep with the Roslin Institute in 1997, has now discovered the cause for the rejection. It appears that a pair of genes in pigs puts a sugar coating on the surface of pig cells. It is this sugar coating that triggers the powerful rejection whenever
swine tissue is transplanted. The objective now is to remove both genes, so that the swine tissue will not be rejected.
"This is the first step in overcoming the rejection of pig organs in humans," said David L. Ayares, vice president of PPL Therapeutics. "We still need to make some modifications to create the ultimate pig." According to Ayares all the cloned pigs are female, but the male pigs with the altered genes are expected to be born later this year. The animals would then be bred in hopes of producing offspring which will be the perfect animals with both target genes removed from their gene structure. "This has been a major hurdle," Dr. Jay Fishman, director of transplantation and infectious disease at Massachusetts General Hospital, said of PPL announcement. The major problem has been finding a way to cause the recipient's immune system to regard the transplanted organ as its own and not as foreign tissue that must be destroyed.
At least six labs have been searching for a way to manipulate pigs so their organs could be used to replace ailing human hearts, lungs and livers. Ayares said PPL will take several years to figure out how to deal with adverse immune reactions and conduct trials with primates. If successful, PPL could begin human clinical tests using harvested pig hearts, lungs, livers, kidneys and pancreases by late 2005. This will be a major accomplishment in the advancement of medicine, saving thousands of lives who are waiting on a long list of candidates for organ transplants.
James C. Stathis
Associate Editor
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Judy
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