by Becca Cobb

Not all of us are finance gurus. Some of us simply have a savings account, maybe a few GICs or even a mutual fund – heck, perhaps even some gold bars or silver coins. When it comes to playing Wall Street, it’s a whole other world for the average person.

The latest craze in the stock market world is binary options, types of options where the payoff is either a fixed amount of some asset or nothing at all. There are two specific kinds of binary options: a cash-or-nothing binary option and an asset-or-nothing binary option.

Binary options have grown in both popularity and scrutiny over the years. Those closely affiliated to the industry and some financial experts say it’s a dangerous way to trade because of two reasons: you don’t need to know a lot when you embark on trading in the market and there is a negative cumulative payout involved.

Analysts opine that the best way to determine if binary options are successful for you is to do the following: analyze the win/loss ratio, win size versus loss size, net income, net profitable trades and maximum losses in a row.

When global markets plummeted and took a beating in 2007, successful businessman and revered financier Oren Laurent established Banc De Binary in 2009 in light of the market insecurity and volatility. Since then, Banc De Binary has been the solo binary options company in the European Union. Recently, it has been authorized and registered by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority (FSA) and the EU regulatory bodies in the 27 member nations.

Located in Limassol, Cyprus, Banc De Binary has become one of the top investment firms with an innovative and original online platform. It boasts about the financial tools that allow hundreds of thousands of clients to prosper in a difficult market.

Aside from its financial instruments, it also maintains several other features, such as publishing the latest industry news, support from its professional brokers, updates of technical analyses and a sublime overall customer experience.

Three years after opening its doors, Banc De Binary has expanded into 80 countries across the globe and is serving clients all day every day. It is in the midst of growing its already large book of clients. In order to do this, it continues to improve on its assistance, services and status.

“We have long voiced our desire to expand in these markets and through the obtained license and the registration of Banc De Binary in UK, Germany, Spain and Italy now we can serve investors throughout Europe,” said the Banc De Binary CEO in a media release last month. “Our clients can be assured of the highest level of professional standards, customer service, financial security and transparency in their transactions with us.”

The firm’s website contains a variety of functions to aid and improve the trading experience. Some of these features consist of an introduction to binary options, fundamental analysis, profit strategies (risk management, trading strategies, trading fundamental events), how to select the best broker and market reviews. It also has an up-to-date, comprehensive blog that covers industry news, helpful videos and important tips.

After a couple of superb years, Banc De Binary has been given several distinctions and honors from industry leaders for its excellence, including winning outstanding awards for best customer service, best brokerage and best platform of the year.

The minimum deposits are $250 with payouts averaging about 81 percent. Presently, it does not permit clients from the United States. Experts believe the company is reputable and successful as it has received on average four-star reviews from several finance venues.

by Aaron Falk

In the world of ecommerce, consumer is king. As the economy continues to remain sluggish, recent data has showed that both consumer confidence and consumer spending is up – some consumers are even digging into their savings to shop.

Recent reports suggest that online retail sales continue to post significant gains and are projected to account for nine percent of total retail sales. As consumers persist in heading online – one survey found that more than 38 million Americans shop while they’re on the toilet – the traditional bricks-and-mortar business model is becoming an antiquated framework.

Even the future of online shopping is changing. In December, IBM published its annual “5 in 5” report in which it highlights the next era of computing, which, in this case, was cognitive computers. With cognitive computing, consumers can feel the fabric on a set of sheets their interested in purchasing.

“Bricks and mortar stores face an accelerating trend of e-commerce and must shore up their foundation in the face of digital competitors and in light of consumer sensitivity to rising gas prices,” stated Mike Martin, president of UnbeatableSale.com, in a press release. “The buying-cycle is closing – consumers have the ability to research pricing and products unlike ever before.”

Since its foundation in 2004, UnbeatableSale.com has become one of the top online retailers by offering the best deals, the best sales and the lowest prices on millions of items for its millions of customers. Located in Lakewood, New Jersey, the company offers savings of between 30 percent and 70 percent on high-quality products on their website.

UnbeatableSale.com has transitioned into the epicenter for savings on the latest items, whether it’s the newest video games, refrigerators, tablets, home decor and millions of other products. With a management team that has more than 50 years of experience combined, the company always reviews its inventory to ensure that it is keeping up with changing consumer demands and needs.

To provide the easiest shopping experience, UnbeatableSale.com offers an array of features: lists and detailed descriptions of items, easy-to-understand instructions, price-match guarantees, an online order tracker, a 30-day returns policy and fast and courteous customer service.

UnbeatableSale.com offers thousands of brand names and also operates several niche brands: Comfort Market, Greater Medical, Halloween Mall, Pet Shop, Fun Toy Mall, Techno Outlet and Boncui.

Since being established, the company has earned a number of accolades, including being an accredited BBB member for close to a decade and being given a top A+ rating. The website has also been ranked 287^th in the Internet Retailer Top 500 guide and placed on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private American companies in 2009 and 2011.

In 2010, the company posted a three-year growth of 170 percent, or $17 million, with just 60 employees, up from a workforce of 40 three years prior. Last year, the company announced that it set records with big brand partners even in this tough economy.

“The 21^st Century consumer is online all the time, adding pressure to retailers to be where their buying audience is, when they need to be, with the products these shoppers are looking for, to make the sale,” said Mike Martin, UnbeatableSale.com president, in a press release.

“UnbeatableSale has proven its value as a partner to some of the biggest names in retail such as Barnes & Noble and Best Buy Co. Inc. – by offering a cost-effective, easy solution to implement that taps into a wider and deeper product mix, with more ways to find relevant products at the most competitive better prices, with higher quality support and technologically sophisticated systems. Top tier retailers in growing numbers are drawn to UnbeatableSale to meet their sales targets and expansion goals in multiple areas.”

Just like others involved in ecommerce and its competitors, UnbeatableSale.com has generated a large number sales and continues to grow with each passing year.

With tax season here, fewer Americans expect to get a tax rebate from their tax return this year. But if you’re one of the millions of Americans receiving a refund, UnbeatableSale.com encourages people to check out its blog post of 12 ways to spend your tax refund, which was published early last year.

by Ian Innes

Let’s face it. Not all of us are or will become the Cincinnati Kid, Ida Summers or Edward Thorp. That alone shouldn’t stop a person from entering the exciting world of gambling, even if it is in the comfort of your own home (and you’re in your pajamas).

Since the dot-com expansion, online gambling has grown in popularity and revenues. According to various estimates from different organizations and institutions, online gambling has morphed into a $30 billion industry with millions of players around the world.

The industry has significantly increased in profits as well as innovation since its foundation in 1998. The latest study found that there were roughly 1,200 online gambling websites that provide various games, whether it’s just for fun or for money. Things like poker, bingo, mobile gaming, sports betting and much more are easy to find and easy to access, but how can one discover the top websites?

Casino.org has become one of the top websites to visit when it comes to directories of safe, secure and trustworthy gambling venues. Opened its doors in 1995, the directory has produced a long list of the best online casinos today. The catalogue includes helpful information, such as the best welcome bonuses, the percentage of payout, reviews and the website’s location.

Another feature the company maintains is a section for the latest casino news and blog posts that provide tips and other important information, like the newest websites available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and other nations.

Internet security is an important concern for any web user. Online gambling is no different and if visitors are worried about their safety and even being the victim of fraud, Casino.org maintains a logo that is placed on websites. This means, visitors can be assured that the online casino has been reviewed and ranked, which is is performed by a “trusted expert” at Casino.org. What’s also important to know is that it only lists websites with various tested and trustworthy anti-spam and security credentials.

“Since 1995 Casino.org has been trusted by tens of thousands of online casino players around the globe to rate and review online casino sites,” the website states in its description. “They depend on our impartial, clear and well researched advice to find online casino sites that offer a great experience and a fair environment. With Casino.org bookmarked, you can relax in the knowledge that you have access to the best online casino resource on the Internet.”

Financial incentives are a huge part of visiting Casino.org. The company states: “Our readers have won over $5.5 million by playing in online casinos recommended by Casino.org, and that number continues to grow larger every day.”

Various members of the press have featured Casino.org in the news, including Playboy Magazine, the Chicago Tribune, Wired magazine, the Wall Street Journal, CNN, PBS, GQ and a vast list of other news outlets and publications. It also has a social media presence on Facebook and Twitter.

We’re not all gambling enthusiasts. So if you’re not the gambling type and you prefer to not take the risk or you even want to practice before trying your luck at the tables; it offers 52 free games, like slots.

Some of us have the urge to smoke a cigarette at midnight, while others have the craving to order Chinese food at 3 a.m. Another group of people may have the itch to try the slots or enter a game of poker at 1 a.m. With that being said, turn on your computer, type in Casino.org on your web browser and find the best websites with the biggest jackpots and the top gameplay.

by Frank Bergman

What does the future of the cloud industry look like? Several technology industry experts came out this week and spoke to CloudTweaks.com regarding their cloud computing analysis and predictions.

Bill Claybrook, marketing research analyst, said Software as a Service (Saas) will become very important to consumers throughout the year, especially in the mobile market. Mark Eisenberg, a tech consultant, sees Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) as a dominant force in the market. Meanwhile, Dan Sullivan, author and systems architect, believes an increasing variety in the tech world for consumers.

Whatever viewpoint technology experts have, the cloud industry is a booming market. According to research by Gartner, the public cloud services market could grow by $20 billion, or 18 percent, in 2013 to a total of $131 billion, Projections suggest that cloud spending could very well top $677 billion.

Security is a major factor, however. “Ultimately users are looking for confidence and reassurance that their data will be secure in the cloud, and that their chosen supplier is trustworthy and capable of supporting their business needs,” said Richard Pharro, chief executive of the certification organisation, APM Group, in an interview with Computer Weekly.

Echopass Corporation is a firm that is assisting in the enormous growth of the cloud industry by creating cloud-based contact center solutions. The IP-based call and contact center for public agencies and businesses that vary in size offers a range of services through its EchoSystem service integration platform.

Through the combination of leading partner technologies and services, it has become one of the leading SaaS providers in the cloud market. For more than a decade, Echopass has aided businesses with roughly 20,000 agents in different infrastructure environments, sites and complex applications.

Based in Pleasanton, California, Echopass provides an assortment of cloud-based contact center benefits, including quick wait-times, reductions in costs, improved business acumen and a conversion in IT and business applications and many more advantages.

Since its foundation in 2000, Echopass has rejuvenated firms’ relationships with its clientele. This is an important aspect, especially considering that research has suggested that customers are willing to spend more money and time with a company that provides a positive customer service experience. Some of the issues it can resolve is to handle customers efficiently, accurately and rapidly.

It does this by implementing several features, including integrated multi-channel access, chat and co-browse integration, flexible callback options, social media integration, mobile access and last agent routing

For the past five years, Overstock.com has saved more than $26 million because of the services offered by Echopass. Much of these savings came from the use of the organization’s cloud-based contact center.

With these results, the industry is putting Echopass under a microscope. Frost & Sullivan named Echopass as North American hosted contact center market share leader for the second consecutive year.

“As enterprise deployments are poised to grow faster in the next few years, the hosted sector is becoming more segmented by size and complexity of deployment,” said Keith Dawson, Frost & Sullivan Principal Analyst, in a press release. “In a fragmented and highly competitive market space, Echopass is one of the longest-tenured pure contact center hosting companies to come out of the ASP segment.”

The Echopass website consists of an extensive page of resources that helps visitors understand intricate issues and topics related to the cloud industry. Some of the features include analyst insights, webinars, videos, business solutions and whitepapers.

by Bill Richards

From Google’s Florida, Panda and Penguin algorithms to search engines becoming more social (see Bing partnering with Facebook), the search engine optimization landscape has completely changed since the days when search engines first launched in the late 1990s.

With millions of websites competing for the top spot in their respective keyword phrase, niche or topic, the SEO industry still continues to grow, but there are different factors involved than there were back in the early 2000s when keyword phrasing was the ultimate decider.

Moving forward, webmasters must focus on generating frequent and unique content that can give visitors pertinent and inimitable information instead of rehashing content, repeating keywords and asking other fellow webmasters to link to the webpage. They also must establish a significant social media presence as this is another element that will be taken into account.

Is there any advice that web experts can give? Well, perhaps web developers should avoid the SEO-death talk and instead concentrate on how SEO will be here to stay and to generate new ideas to provide benefits to Internet users and offer a different type of landscape for visitors, customers and potential clients.

One firm that has been a staple in the SEO industry is Submit Express, a company that specializes in SEO, Internet marketing, web writing and other marketing services. Established in 1998 at a time when there was growing competition, Submit Express has become a household name in the SEO industry.

It was originally established by Pierre Zarokian, an Armenian computer science and web developing specialist, who became interested in how search engines determine page rankings and decided to start up Submit Express in his parents’ garage without any investment.

Located in Burbank, California, Submit Express offers a large number of marketing services, including opt-in email advertising, link building, Pay Per Click (PPC) search engine placement and local SEO. It also provides a number free webmaster tools, such as sitemap submission, link popularity check, pagerank checker, keyword traffic estimator, meta tags analyzer and many more.

For more than a decade, it has aided more than 5,000 companies with their SEO needs and more than 25,000 companies in relation to premium search engine submission service. In total, its free submission and webmaster tools have generated approximately 20 million visitors (at the time of this writing).

Over the years it has initiated new features. In 2008, it launched a foreign language SEO service that is comprised of French, Russian and Spanish. A year later, it started a popular content writing service called iClimber. By rejuvenating the popular web phrase “content is king,” iClimber offers website copywriting, Twitter posting, press release writing and distribution, article writing and submission and blog and forum posting.

As the company maintains a staff of 30 or more experienced professionals involved in project management, web copywriting, Internet marketing, website development and much more, Submit Express is searching to innovate the SEO marketplace and capitalize on its massive successes.

One way it has continued to be a premier company in the SEO market is its page rank on the Google search engine. For years, it has been ranked No. 1 and placed in the top 10 rankings for top keywords such as “search engine optimization,” “search engine placement,” and “search engine submission.”

Due to its helpful nature, various functions and features, free tools and thriving services, it has received quite a number of awards and accolades.

This year, TopTenReviews gave Submit Express gold and excellence awards. In 2007 and 2008, it was named as one of the fastest-growing companies on the Inc. 5000 list. Also in 2008, it made the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list as one of the fastest-growing technology companies in the United States.

by Becca Cobb

Gartner, a research firm, published findings from its latest report regarding the public cloud market. It projects that the cloud industry will grow by more than 18 percent internationally this year alone to $131 billion.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), including cloud compute, storage and print services, is the fastest-growing segment of the cloud industry. It is expected to increase 47.3 percent to $9 billion this year.

Between 2013 and 2016, $677 billion will be spent on cloud services. Cloud advertising will account for about 48 percent of the total market. This means approximately $310 billion will be allocated to advertising budgets.

“The continued growth of the cloud services market will result from the adoption of cloud services for production systems and workloads, in addition to the development and testing scenarios that have led as the most prominent use case for public cloud services to date,” said Ed Anderson, research director at Gartner, in a press release. “Evidence of this growth is found in the increasing demand for cloud services from end-user organizations, met by an increased supply of cloud services from suppliers.”

With the cloud industry generating tremendous growth, the number of companies and providers involved in the market continues to expand.

PayPerCloud is a firm that offers cloud hosting and specializes in creating High Availability Cloud Hosting Infrastructure and extending Cloud Enabled Software Applications. They work with companies that look for an enterprise-level of steadiness and communications, but without the excessive costs involved.

Located in Folsom, California, PayPerCloud offers a wide range of products and services to ensure cloud needs are met and that their data and information are secure. Some of its services offered include hosted exchange, customized private clouds, software applications, consultation and managed private clouds.

With expert technical support staffs, a management team that consists of professionals with more than 75 years of experience in the field, PayPerCloud ensures complete customer satisfaction. It guarantees immediate technical support availability, it does not oversell its servers and it refrains from cutting corners because of price.

As more people become concerned about online privacy and security, PayPerCloud offers consistent certainty that its servers are updated by its team of security experts and that it sustains the latest capabilities made available to its software.  It has a highly functioning network and leading companies connect to its software. Many private enterprises have used its services, including Jell Networks, UBM, Pathlogic, Smarsh and Western Networked Insurance Services.

Some may not understand the difference between a private cloud and a public cloud. However, there are quite a number of features available with a private cloud that protects and defends a client’s sensitive information. Customers have identified an imperative feature: more security requirements, which has been a requisite because of new and heightened regulations. Other clients have found that its solutions are accessible because of Web Farms and SQL Clusters.

In October, PayPerCloud made headlines when it introduced the Vaultscape Free Online Backup. This function allows companies to attain reliable backups in order to shelter off-site backup servers rather than vulnerable on-site tapes.

“You can’t get a more cost effective online backup solution. Free is a pretty great place to start,” said Miles Feinberg, PayPerCloud CEO, in a news release. “With 2GB free forever, we believe that our customers will appreciate the security and peace of mind that comes with knowing their data is protected. The Free offer allows customers to try out the system for free for as long as they want with no obligation. We are confident that as their needs increase they will stay with our solution to protect their valuable electronic assets.”

Pricing plans vary, but some monthly packages start from as little as $1.95 – there are free plans available, but it depends on what visitors are looking for. When it comes to cost, one aspect is being praised after had instituted an attractive option for clients: an affiliate and partnership program; monthly plans can be free and customers can earn eight percent each month with referrals.

by Aaron Falk

Amvona was founded in Boston, Massachusetts during the year 1999. At first, it was an online photo equipment retailer and maintained a social networking model in order to sell photo accessories developed by the company. Prior to the end of its operations, the company sold more than one million photo accessory units to approximately 300,000 customers across the globe.

Amvona’s photo sharing community had given photographers and similar artists a venue to share their photography and images as well as connect with other amateur and professional photographers in the industry.

Amvona’s photo sharing community was so popular that Alexa ranked the company as one of the top 10 online photo retailers in 2005. Google Analytics illustrated that it had exceeded roughly 750,000 unique visitors every month. The company stopped selling photo equipment in 2010.

From a successful photo accessories retailer, it transformed itself into a wildly successful and popular blog. It reports, analyzes and opines on the matters of economics, investing, faith and technology. As the venture continues, Amvona has published numerous articles, and many of them have been republished elsewhere around the web with a tremendous amount of audiences.

Amvona is an unusual blog. It had some really big hits, with over one million views across all sites and all republications for certain blog posts. Some of the publications to feature Amvona’s work are Gurufocus, Seeking Alpha and ZeroHedge. One of Amvona’s most successful pieces was on the Bevilacqua case, which has been cited on Salem Deeds, the website of the county of Salem, Massachusetts. It is unusual for a municipal government to publish work from a blog. On October 18th, 2011, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court presented its decision in the Francis J. Bevilacqua, Third vs. Pablo Rodriguez case. The ruling essentially made foreclosure sales in Massachusetts over the last five years wholly void. Equally impressive, attorneys contacted the site asking for advice. Additionally, the Amvona article was first to suggest that the Occupy Wall Street movement should occupy homes.

The blog has the latest news regarding the confirmation of Chuck Hagel as the new Secretary of Defense, Miller terminating its license agreement with Molson Coors Canada and Pope Benedict’s contributions to Christian unity.

by Aaron Falk

Making the decision to purchase an apartment building or commercial property can be one of the most financially rewarding moves. As the Great Recession has shifted consumers’ purchasing behaviors, akin to the Great Depression, more and more people are looking at cost-effective means.

A large number of the United States populace has decided to take public transit instead of acquiring a $12,000 vehicle, families are eating more at home rather than spending $100 at a restaurant and men and women are renting as an alternative to a $250,000 home mortgage. Bloomberg News has referred this to the “Recession Generation.”

What does this mean? People are starting to live within their means and discovering frugal ways to accumulate wealth, save more and not get into debt. One prudent aspect is living in an apartment where tenants pay a monthly fee that includes everything (hydro, gas, utilities, amenities, etc.).

As houses, property taxes and monthly utilities go up in price and the mortgage business jumps, businessmen and women as well as corporations may look into acquiring even more property to meet the demand of those seeking to rent. According to IBISWorld, the low homeownership and perpetual unemployment rate has led to the apartment rental industry to become a $127 billion a year industry.

Even though it may prove to be difficult to obtain a vast loan for an apartment complex, there are financial entities out there looking to make the entire process as simple as depositing money at an ABM, paying a bill online or accessing your bank account on your mobile phone.

Apartment Bank, a division of the Bank of Internet (BofI) Federal Bank, is an institution that offers traditional banking and loan services completely online without all of the exorbitant fees involved due to physical branches. The company makes the whole occurrence of obtaining a loan simple. Those looking for fixed-loans can enjoy less paperwork, extra money in their pocket and more time on their hands.

In order to receive a loan, potential customers have to undergo a six-step process: contact, speak to an expert, get the process initiated, conclusion of the arrangement, loan funding and an assurance of future contact to provide customers with rewards and “cool perks.”

The organization’s Apartment Loan Program, which closes the loan application as quickly as possible, offers a variety of benefits: apartment buildings with five or more units, loan amounts ranging from $250,000 to $10 million, secondary financing, different prepayment options and flexible loan terms. There are other loan details that are given, but they’re rather simple to understand.

“We have historically reached our customers through multiple brands targeted at specific products or customer segments. Although Bank of Internet USA has always been our flagship consumer direct Internet brand, we currently serve our consumer direct banking customers through multiple brands, our multifamily lending customers through ApartmentBank.com, and the financial advisory community through BofIAdvisor.com,” said Gregory Garrabrants, President and Chief Executive Officer of BofI, in a press release.

For customers to receive these advantages, they have to meet four standards put forth by Apartment Bank: a credit score, an appraisal, a specific down payment and a detailed building type.

There are seven professional and experienced loan officers located in California (six) and Illinois (one): David Boyles, Rick Carpenter, Fred Cebalo, Carlos Cesena, Keith Nisenson, Fred P. Ornelas and Mike Posner. These experts will help clients attain exactly what they wanted in apartment and commercial mortgages.

With the mortgage industry up 30 percent last year and millions of Americans conducting their banking needs, managing their finances and being satisfied with these online services, Apartment Bank, an FDIC insured and publicly traded company, can be an innovative entity and capture a significant portion of the market.

Cisco (CSCO) has made the right decision in choosing to concentrate its innovation on open standards and open source. At the base level, Cisco’s technologies will be available on the open source platform while the company will continue to add value from the top. This is a very successful business model as limited versions of software programs and networking products can be made available to smaller businesses and developers, while professional grade products and services can be sold at premium prices to medium and large businesses.

By choosing to keep base level technologies on an open source platform, Cisco is effectively increasing its long-term profitability. A networking ecosystem that is premium at the upper levels and open source at a basic level will have a great appeal among developers, small, medium and large businesses.

Moreover, small businesses that need assistance from Cisco’s experts can go ahead and purchase networking solutions at an additional cost. The best part is, Cisco’s technological integrations can be used in any type of the industry, enabling production lines that are monitored by means of an intelligent network, with benefits for production management, product quality and cost reduction.

Cisco also announced a plan for global availability in the fourth quarter of 2012, bringing a teleconferencing and networking solution that incorporates tools for effective online meetings, both in the office and in mobile environments, albeit in a private cloud environment. To continue reading, click here.

In the first week of December, Chevron (CVX) announced that it will spend almost $37 billion in 2013 across the world. The increased capital budget spending will be used for oil exploration and building huge capital projects. The figure is a 12% increase from 2012 spending budget and an astonishing 70% increase since 2010. Based on my research, Chevron is taking the right steps to increase its profitability in the coming years. The increased capital spending will help Chevron to consolidate its existing assets and to discover profitable avenues which will increase the company’s revenue in the long run.

Of the $36.7 billion that is slated to be spent in 2013, $33 billion will be spent in exploration and production of oil and gas. Of the $33 billion, $7.5 billion will be spent in the U.S., $3.4 billion in West Africa and shale regions across the world, $2.7 billion for refining and other downstream operations and another $3.3 billion for expenditures of Chevron’s affiliates. Chevron will concentrate on Gulf of Mexico projects, operations in West Africa and the Gorgon LNG project in Australia, all of which are located in stable countries that do not have major risks.

The money that Chevron has decided to spend in 2013 will likely be used to build infrastructure and facilities that will help the company to transport what it drills. It is also important to note that Chevron wants to increase its worldwide oil and gas production to 3.3 million barrels per day by 2017. If Chevron wants to grow further, it will have to discover newer oil fields and consolidate existing oil fields, infrastructure and drilling facilities. To continue reading, click here.

Pfizer’s (PFE) current pipeline makes it a more attractive investment option than its peers and rivals. The company has 78 drugs in its pipeline currently. 53 of these drugs are in Phase 1 or Phase 2 trials. Eight, however, are in registration, and another 17 are approaching registration in Phase 3 trials. In just the last three months the company has seen four of its drugs approved for sale by the FDA.

By comparison, Merck (MRK) has 32 drugs in trial stages, and three under review. Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) has a total of 16 drugs in clinical trials with two in registration. Both of these companies have particularly weak pipelines, although Johnson & Johnson does not depend as heavily on its pharmaceutical business as Merck does. Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMY) has seven drugs in the registration phase with an additional 46 drugs in the clinical trials stage. Eli Lilly (LLY) has a healthy 62 drugs in clinical stages. But Eli Lilly is in trouble given that its best-selling drug Cymbalta is on track to lose patent protection in the first half of 2013. Cymbalta provided Lilly 22% of its revenue in 2011 and losing patent protection will see Cymbalta sales decline by two-thirds or more.

Pfizer’s recently approved drugs will go a long way towards making up the $9 billion a year in sales that Lipitor, which has lost patent protection, provided. The rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz is expected to provide more than $2.5 billion in sales a year. Xeljanz is a pill taken twice a day that functions by inhibiting molecules known as “Janus kinases”, crucial to the joint inflammation that characterizes rheumatoid arthritis. To continue reading, click here.