This area will be a crucial driver of future growth, as the population of the developed world ages and as nervousness over being sued encourages doctors to back their diagnoses with scientific scans.The company stuck to its line on the flotation of AP Biotech, its life sciences joint venture: no chance in the current, depressed market. It is more likely now that it will simply buy out Pharmacia, its partner. Operating profits at the unit were down 6 per cent on last year, when the mapping of the human genome sparked unprecedented effort in gene sequencing. But AP Biotech’s research costs have peaked and growth should resume.A rise of 20p to 585p yesterday puts Amersham on 23 times this year’s expected earnings It is a good stock at a reasonable price. Buy.SmartlogikSmartlogik’s FIRST set of figures as a standalone business are nothing to write home about. In the three months to 3 June, sales from continuing businesses came in at £1.7m – down from £2.2m in the first quarter. Second quarter operating losses totalled £6.8m.The company, which sells search engine-style software, claims the dip in sales was due to disruption surrounding its restructuring and transformation from the old Bright Station and the exit of Dan Wagner, the colourful founder who was widely disliked in the City.However, its technology is similar to that of Autonomy, which has repeatedly warned that its customers are taking longer to decide whether they want the kit.

The risk is that, since Smartlogik is moving away from quarterly reporting, investors will have a long wait to find out how deeply market conditions are biting.Thanks to a £12m fundraising last month, immediate cash concerns have been eased and management believe it can comfortably last out to profitability. But they won’t say when that might be.Smartlogik still has to shake off its chequered history, which won’t be easy at a time of difficult economic conditions. The the stock is trading on just 1.4 times forecast sales of £10m for 2001, but there is no hurry to buy. The new Smartlogik has a smart management team but the jury is still out.. When all else fails, go cap in hand to the Government. The warning from Equitable Life that the taxpayer may have to bail it out if policyholders reject a compromise deal to cap its guaranteed annuities nightmare is but the latest episode in an increasingly sorry and alarming saga.

It also stands uneasily with the Equitable chairman Vanni Treves’ repeated and unequivocal assurances that the life fund is, has always been and will remain solvent

When all else fails, go cap in hand to the Government. The warning from Equitable Life that the taxpayer may have to bail it out if policyholders reject a compromise deal to cap its guaranteed annuities nightmare is but the latest episode in an increasingly sorry and alarming saga. It also stands uneasily with the Equitable chairman Vanni Treves’ repeated and unequivocal assurances that the life fund is, has always been and will remain solvent.
The case for making the taxpayer pick up the bill for the past mistakes of Equitable’s previous management rests on the extent to which the authorities were culpable or negligent in their supervision of the business when guaranteed annuity rate policies (GARs) were being sold In this respect the jury is still out. The performance of the Department of Trade and Industry, the Financial Services Authority and the Treasury both before the disaster struck home and since the extent of the damage became known has hardly been exemplary. But that does not mean the state should now have to organise and fund a lifeboat to rescue Equitable, no matter how much sympathy there might be for the 90,000 GAR policyholders and the 350,000 non-GAR policyholders most closely caught up in the debacle. Unlike the Bank of England’s rescue of secondary banks in the early seventies or the Federal Reserve-organised salvage job on Long Term Credit Management at the height of the emerging markets crisis, there is little evidence that Equitable’s collapse would pose a systemic risk to the whole life sector.It scarcely needs saying that Equitable is in a mess and largely one of its own making.