ALSO NOTED: RFID standard emerging?; Bausch & Lomb posts $15M profit

> Pharmaceuticals companies are using radio frequency identification (RFID) technology to track their products, but they can't settle on one standard frequency to use. The decision might be made for them eventually, though; as more and more retailers adopt RFID, more drugs will need to be tagged--and retailers tend to use UHF signals. Article [1]

> Flush with its second-quarter profit of 27 cents a share--an almost exact reversal of the 28 cents per share loss in 2Q of 2006--Bausch & Lomb announced that it's still predicting 2007 sales of about $2.5 billion, which is an 8 percent increase over last year. Article [2]

> Hospira reports a 29 percent increase in second-quarter sales over 2006, largely due to its acquisition of Mayne Pharma. Other contributing factors to the $869.4 million top line include smart currency trading and "favorable" pricing in the U.S. The bottom line wasn't so pretty: Hit by acquisition expenses, net income fell by 43.4 percent, to $30.7 million. Release [3]

> Barr Pharmaceuticals announced net income of $45.3 million on sales of $637 million, which is a far cry from the $82.3 million in profits on $352 million in revenues for the same quarter last year. But the drop could be a one-time thing; the bottom line got slammed by expenses related to Barr's buyout of PLIVA. Release [4]

And Finally... We call this long overdue, but the Chinese would probably say better late than never: China says it will spend $1.2 billion to improve food and drug supervision. Article [5]