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• JNJ, Genentech: What's Ailing Them (And Their Stock) Tuesday, 16 Oct 2007 | 11:44 AM ET

  

  If you saw the headline, you would've thought that Johnson and Johnson might help power the Dow today. The hybrid pharmaceutical, medical device and consumer healthcare products company handily beat the Street and raised its guidance for the year.

• Genentech: What's Really Behind The Earnings Monday, 15 Oct 2007 | 5:02 PM ET

  Late last week, I blogged about keeping an eye on the Lucentis sales number when Genentech reports earnings. Well, the company is just out with its release and, sure enough, revenue from the drug for age-related macular degeneration (AMD) fell sequentially from the second quarter to the third quarter.

• Alzheimer's Blood Test: Would You Take It? Monday, 15 Oct 2007 | 1:52 PM ET

  

  This morning on "Squawk Box" and "Squawk on the Street" I reported on a new study showing that a simple blood test might predict whether you will develop Alzheimer's Disease. The report, which appears in the scientific, peer-reviewed journal "Nature Medicine...

• Biogen Idec: First Of A Biotech Buying Binge? Monday, 15 Oct 2007 | 12:52 PM ET

  

  For quite some time now analysts and investors have been speculating that big pharma would go on a biotech buying binge. So, will the announcement by Biogen Idec late Friday that it's putting itself on the market be the spark that ignites an M & A explosion in the sector? Perhaps.

• Pfizer's Response On CEO Kindler's Contributions Friday, 12 Oct 2007 | 4:36 PM ET

  I blogged earlier today that I'd reached out to Pfizer for comment regarding Jeff Kindler's contribution to Sen. Hillary Clinton and would let you know if or when I heard back. Well, this just arrived in my inbox from Jack Cox with Corporate Affairs:

• Pfizer's Kindler: Does He Want Hillary In White House? Friday, 12 Oct 2007 | 4:34 PM ET

  Peter Rost, who burst onto the business news landscape a few years ago as a Pfizer whistleblower and the subject of a piece on CBS' "60 Minutes", is enjoying a new career as a blogger and a reporter for Brandweek. And late yesterday he's blitzing some of his reporter contacts with this item about the apparent 180-degree change presidential politics at the world's biggest pharmaceutical company.

• Genentech: Is Bottom Line Pushing Use of Lucentis? Friday, 12 Oct 2007 | 4:11 PM ET

  

  It didn't take long. Yesterday, I blogged that I'd be curious to hear what the response of doctors might be to Genentech's new crackdown on the use of Avastin instead of Lucentis for age-related macular degeneration. Today, the American Academy of Opthamology put out a press release saying the new policy "could have a significant impact on the care of patients with (AMD)."

• Genentech: Did I Bury The Lead About Avastin? Friday, 12 Oct 2007 | 11:27 AM ET

  

  Yesterday I reported that Genentech had quietly buried on its web site www.gene.com the announcement of its new crackdown against using Avastin instead of Lucentis for adult-onset blindness. From the homepage, I had counted four somewhat counterintuitive clicks to get the link to the letter detailing the new policy.

• Genentech Update: Keeping Cheaper Avastin From Patients? Thursday, 11 Oct 2007 | 5:34 PM ET

  Shortly after writing my last blog entry on Genentech's new ranking and part of the reason for its fall being blamed on the Lucentis/Avastin eye drug controversy, I came across this news item on The Wall Street Journal's Health Blog.

• Genentech Drops In (Industry) Poll, New Number One! Thursday, 11 Oct 2007 | 2:22 PM ET

  

  What a week for upsets. First, the 35-game home field winning streak of my USC Trojans comes to an end at the hands of the 40-point underdog Stanford Cardinal. Then, today, Genentech's six-year reign at the top of a big industry survey is over. Boehringer Ingelheim is the new number one!

• Medtronic: The Cents of Making Stents Thursday, 11 Oct 2007 | 10:42 AM ET

  

  Late yesterday an FDA panel of outside experts unanimously recommended the agency approve Medtronic's drug-coated stent called, "Endeavor". Unlike drugs, there is no telegraphed date for an agency decision, but analysts think the FDA will approve the device by the end of the year or early next year.

• Glaxo Buys into Synta, Investors Sell Wednesday, 10 Oct 2007 | 1:08 PM ET

  

  Melanoma -- a type of skin cancer -- is the most common form of cancer. It can spread very quickly and the prognosis often is not good. The American Cancer Society estimates that nearly 60,000 new cases of melanoma will be diagnosed this year and more than 8,000 patients will die. You can find out more about it on the ACS's website.

• Big Biotech Earnings Surprise? Genentech & Amgen Tuesday, 9 Oct 2007 | 11:01 AM ET

  As we head into the thick of earnings season some analysts are putting out their preview notes for clients. And a couple of interesting ones about the kings of biotech, Genentech and Amgen, have come into my inbox over the past couple of days. Genentech reports after the bell next Monday, October 15. And Amgen comes out, also after the bell, ten days later on the 25th.

• Comings & Goings at Pfizer & Glaxo Monday, 8 Oct 2007 | 1:30 PM ET

  This morning, the world's second biggest drug company, GlaxoSmithKline, announced that Andrew Witty will replace JP Garnier as CEO at the end of next May. It's been known for a while that Garnier would be retiring next year, and the question was who would be tapped to succeed him.

• Cepheid: The Google of Biotech? Friday, 5 Oct 2007 | 2:08 PM ET

  This morning Bear Stearns put a $700 price target on shares of Google. But that's not the only stock getting a new stratospheric price target by an analyst. Michael Shulman is not Bear Stearns--he writes a newsletter for subscribers called, "ChangeWave Biotech Investor" and he maintains a blog. And in his weekly message yesterday Shulman moved his price target on Cepheid spacer from $40 to $110.

• Fund Manager Picks Biotech, Pharma Stocks Friday, 5 Oct 2007 | 11:44 AM ET

  Scott Richter, portfolio manager with Fifth Third Asset Management, oversees the Fifth Third Disciplined Large Cap Value Fund. The fund is up 8 percent year-to-date and 13 percent over the last three years. The strategist offered CNBC viewers and CNBC.com readers a few of his favorite stocks in the health care and biotechnology sector.

• Pfizer's Inside R&D Move: Are Investors Buying It? Thursday, 4 Oct 2007 | 1:25 PM ET

  Close on the heels of announcing the hiring of a Chief Talent Officer, Pfizer this morning named a new head of Global Research and Development to replace John LaMattina who had earlier said he'd be leaving the drug company. It was on LaMattina's watch that Pfizer's next potential breakout blockbuster drug, torcetrapib for cholesterol, failed in a late-stage clinical trial.

• Pfizer's Got Talent! (Auditions In A City Near You) Wednesday, 3 Oct 2007 | 10:39 AM ET

  

  Pfizer put out a press release this morning announcing that it has added another office in the C-Suite. The world's biggest drug company has hired a CTO. What's a CTO, you ask?? Well, it doesn't stand for what you might guess--Chief Technology Officer. Nope, Pfizer has created the position of Chief Talent Officer.

• Tylenol And The Thalidomide Scares: Moving Forward Tuesday, 2 Oct 2007 | 4:35 PM ET

  

  This week it's 25 years since the first of seven people in Chicagoland died after taking Tylenol laced with cyanide. The scare led to new industry-standard, tamper-resistant over-the-counter drug packaging and became an enduring textbook case for corporate crisis management.

• Dendreon, Other "Cancer Biotechs" Get Investor Ratings Monday, 1 Oct 2007 | 3:38 PM ET

  Team Biotech at the boutique firm of Rodman & Renshaw is picking up coverage today of the highly controversial therapeutic cancer vaccine space. In a 330-page research packet for clients analyst Ren Benjamin provides a nearly 200-page primer on the technology and then individual notes on four therapeutic cancer vaccine companies.