Until we see some resolution of these issues, I think Merck and Pharmacia’s stock will remain under pressure,

They have been down so much, so they are kind of rebounding,

It’s a disaster for Merck, coming at the worst time.

without a doubt the value of the deal will change.

We are increasing our view of the likelihood of severe hurricanes and the severity of the loss in the event of those hurricanes.

They were not going to settle one thing, and now they have a global settlement.

I had feared there would be a reaction to the events of last year and some risk carriers would simply abandon the use of modeling, but what we have found is that the underwriters are...

The Texas jury (verdict) may have triggered a new strategy, which is, let’s settle the most obvious cases because you don’t want to keep losing case after case because that feeds into itself.

It’s such a diversified company that a single business or a single product doesn’t represent a meaningful percentage of the company’s total revenues.

I think the whole liability situation becomes manageable for Merck.

I don’t expect liability to be a (big) issue.

The combined company can eliminate 25 percent of duplicated cost,

That’s a very big negative overhang on the drug sector.

Now they have a global settlement.