Occasionally -- when the bosses will let me -- I take a day to network, learn and maybe pick up a story idea by attending a biotech or healthcare investment conference. Many firms put on the events for their clients and they often invite reporters to hang out. ... The PR guy told me a couple of sessions during the day would be "closed" to me. It wasn't clear what the closed sessions were all about, and so my curiousity was piqued...   Read More

Amgen is in major belt-tightening mode. Still it held its annual shareholder shindig at the swanky Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village, CA. The 400-500 investors who showed up were treated to valet parking, soft drinks, and a nice spread of cheeses, vegetable crudite, fruit and sweets    Read More

After the closing bell yesterday, Merck announced that it plans to get rid of 12-hundred or around 15 percent of its sales reps. Like Schering-Plough, the company is having to adjust to lower sales of its Vytorin and Zetia cholesterol drugs and on top of that the Food and Drug...   Read More

While thumbing through “Parade” magazine yesterday, the fluffy publication that you find tucked inside some Sunday newspapers, I noticed an ad for Pfizer’s stop-smoking drug Chantix. It caught my eye because the company had stopped doing what’s called “branded” advertising for the pill earlier this year because of new safety concerns...    Read More

It's the kind of artwork I'm sure they weren't happy to see at Pfizer spacer headquarters this morning. The torn company logo on the front page of the Newark Star-Ledger business section above the headline, "Signs of Wear and Tear."    Read More

I didn't post yesterday because I was in Philadelphia shooting a story for an upcoming episode of "The Business of Innovation" on CNBC. It's a piece about big pharma and we went to Philly to interview the still very busy former CEO of Merck (two CEOs ago), Dr. Roy Vagelos.    Read More

Investors are finding no solace in Merck's reaffirmation that it'll still hit its earnings numbers this year. Instead they're punishing the stock after the company announced what everyone is calling a surprise and a significant setback.    Read More

It's a big day for pipeline progress...or not. Late Friday, Merck and Schering-Plough announced that the Food and Drug Administration won't approve their combo Claritin-Singulair combo pill for allergies.    Read More

The morning after Amgen reported its first quarter earnings my inbox runneth over with analyst research reports on the biotech behemoth. The company beat the Street by eight cents a share. But the focus remains on the anemia drug franchise.    Read More

I usually cover pharma earnings from my desk at CNBC HQ in Englewood Cliffs, NJ. But because Merck made a rare offer to interview its Chairman and CEO Dick Clark exclusively this morning I'm out at Merck's idyllic HQ campus in central NJ.    Read More