At the risk of being ganged up on by the "Elanians" who will take umbrage with the fact that the biopharma team at Cowen and Company is not initiating coverage of the Irish drugmaker with a "screaming buy," I am blogging about the analysts' 50-page call on the stock today.    Read More

Shares of Merck, which have lost more than a third of their value so far this year, are under continued pressure this morning. They were at 60 bucks in early January. Today they're trading around $37. Big pharma analyst Rupesh Patel at UBS is downgrading the Dow component from Buy to Neutral because he thinks it's gonna be "range-bound near-term"...    Read More

Ahead of the long holiday weekend I thought this would be as good a time as any to once again go through the "Pharma's Market" mailbag. A couple of blog readers complained about my "short" story about Amgen.   Read More

In the world of nearly 400 publicly-traded biotechs, analyst coverage is especially important. Many of the firms are micro caps and when an analyst initiates coverage it can help put a baby biotech on investor and reporter radar screens.    Read More

When combing through Barron's over the weekend I always make it a point to check out the "Short Interest" tables when they appear. I'm curious, in particular, about the ups and downs in Dendreon. Right now it's 39th on Barron's list of the Top-40 largest short positions.    Read More

On another ugly day for the stock markets, beaten down shares of Dow component Merck rallied. The stock started picking up steam after the news broke late this morning that its late-stage experimental migraine headache drug essentially works just as well as an existing drug, but with fewer side effects.   Read More

FBR's Christopher Warren is out with a research note to clients this morning saying that Boston Scientific is doing deals. He writes that BSX is "reportedly bundling $1,100 (that's right, $1,100) Taxus stents with defibrillators and ultrasound devices."    Read More

Credit Suisse is out today with a "fat" report on obesity. Nearly 200 pages. But besides its size, the research also stands out as one of the most unique pieces of Wall Street analysis I've ever seen.    Read More

For the second time in three days the Food and Drug Administration has delayed making a decision on drugs that it had put on a fast track. First, the agency put off a ruling on Lilly's bloodthinner Effient and then this morning Merck announced the FDA is not ready to approve its cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil for older women.    Read More

Tree huggers (just a colloquialism, not a dig) will be glad to know that biopharmaceutical companies submit their Food and Drug Administration filings for drug approval electronically these days.    Read More