Life companies

McKee-McKee Biochemistry The Molecular Basis Of Life, Third Edition 3. Water The Medium of Text 1 The McGraw-Hill Life Companies, 2004... 

The UK government was probably a little reticent about issuing these bonds to start with, perhaps explaining the initial restriction that they could only be held by pension funds, or the pensions accounts within other businesses (e.g., annuities at life companies). This restriction was lifted after one year. 

Institutional investors in the gilt market including fund managers, pension funds, and life companies. 

Usually a company will have a portfolio of assets which are at different stages of the described life cycle. Proper management of the asset base will allow optimisation of financial, technical and human resources. 

Introduction and commercial application Safety and the environment have become important elements of all parts of the field life cycle, and involve all of the technical and support functions in an oil company. The Piper Alpha disaster in the North Sea in 1988 has resulted in a major change in the approach to management of safety of world-wide oil and gas exploration and production activities. Companies recognise that good safety and environmental management make economic sense and are essential to guaranteeing long term presence in the industry. 

Although a single project manager may direct activities throughout a project life, he or she will normally be supported by a project team whose oomposition should reflect the type of project and the experience levels of both company and contractor personnel. The make up and size of the team may change over the life of a project to match the prevailing activity levels in each particular section of the project. 

The project cashflow s constructed by performing the calculation for every year of the project life. Atypical project cashflow is shown in Figure 13.9, along with a cumulative cashflow showing how cumulative revenue is typically split between the capex, opex, the host government (through tax and royalty) and the investor (say the oil company). The cumulative amount of money accruing to the company at the endof the project is the cumulative cash surplus or field life net cash flow. 

Data-Star. This is Europe s leading on-line database service (39) and covers worldwide business news, financial information, market research, trade statistics, business analysis, healthcare / pharmaceuticals, chemicals / petrochemicals, chemical industry, biomedicine /life science, biotechnology, and technology, with an emphasis on Europe. It was originally formed as a joint venture among BRS, Predicasts, and Radio Suisse (the Swiss telecommunications company) (37). Data-Star offers access to about 300 bibliographic, abstract, directory, and fuU-text on-line databases, of which approximately 150 are also available on Dialog (40). 

Responsible Care is the incentive sponsored by the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA). Any CMA company must embrace the philosophy of continuous improvements of health, safety, and environmental efforts accompanied by an open communication to the pubHc about products and their production. Thus the total impact of any product on the environment, from the extraction of raw materials, their beneftciation, transportation, production of final product, and disposal of the product at the end of its useful life, must be taken into consideration. 

In 1993, the United States medical device industry employed 282,000 people, averaging a growth rate of about 4% since 1975. Research and development spending in this industry outpaced that in virtually every other industry. Over 7% of sales were spent on research and development in 1993, amounting to a Httle less than 3 bHHon. This rate reflects both the rapid rate of innovation and short product life-cycle. Medical devices become obsolete far more rapidly than pharmaceuticals (qv), forcing companies continuously to be innovative. 

Radioactive tracers account for about 20% of the worldwide market for consumables and reagents for life science research. In 1994 the value was estimated at about 300 million. The principal fuU line manufacturers are Du Pont—NEN Research Products (Boston, Massachusetts) and Amersham International (Amersham, U.K.). These companies share roughly equaHy about 85% of the radiochemicals worldwide market. In addition to an extensive line of catalog products, these suppHers offer custom labeling and custom synthesis services. The rest of the market is shared by producers of a limited range of products or services, such as ICN Biomedicals (Costa Mesa, California) and American Radiolabeled Chemicals (St. Louis, Missouri). 

Eastman Kodak has identified 10 core competencies and developed a process for their management and utilization within the company (29). Similarly, Eaton Corporation selected seven core technical competencies, ranked them in importance, assessed their importance vs the known state-of-the-art for the industry, and developed action plans to extend the life of each (30). Eaton subsequently found the company could bring to market products designed with proven building blocks, thus minimizing risk and the need for additional capital equipment. In addition, the competencies were found to be reservoirs of proprietary advantage that had not previously been put to work. 

Regulation. Dental implants are regulated by the Food and Dmg Administration. AH dental implants faH iato the FDA class III which covers devices that are life sustaioiag, life supportiag, or are implanted iato the body and have the potential to cause unreasonable risk, illness, or iajury. Devices ia class III are requited to have appHcatioas for premarket approval (315). There are 15 to 20 companies that have FDA marketing clearance for specific dental implants, based on substantial equivalency to implants marketed prior to 1976, and approximately one third of these companies are foreign. Marketing clearance is not the same as premarket approval. 

Raw material costs should be estimated by direct computation from flow rates and material prices. The flow rates are deterrnined from flow sheet material balances. The unit prices are obtained from vendors, company purchasing departments, or the Chemical Marketing Reporter. For captive raw materials produced internally, a suitable transfer price must be estabHshed. Initial catalyst charges can be treated as a start-up expense, working capital component, or depreciable capital, depending on the expected catalyst life and cost. Makeup catalyst is frequendy treated as a raw material. 

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