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

There's no money left under the pillow, but Amgen execs and directors have been handed a gift. One of the most outspoken, large, individual investors in the biotech company who's been calling for the Board and CEO to go won't be attending its annual shareholder meeting after all.   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

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

The irreverent producers of "Squawk on the Street" who are stationed in the pod next to mine here at CNBC like to call it "Pharmapalooza." They're referring to weeks like the one coming up when nearly every big drug company reports earnings.    Read More

Dow component and healthcare conglomerate (drugs, consumer products, medical devices) Johnson & Johnson beat and boosted. That's Wall Street jargon for earnings coming in higher than expectations and the guidance for the rest of the year being raised. So, why did the stock go down?    Read More

Following are the day’s biggest winners and losers. Find out why shares of Amgen and Home Depot popped while Rite Aid and First Marblehead dropped.   Read More

Genentech stock is on a tear this year and analysts are expecting double-digit sales growth for most of the biotech's key drugs this quarter. Can Genentech keep it up?   Read More

The Star-Ledger of New Jersey this weekend did a story that I think provides the best insight and backstory about what happened last week at the highest levels of Schering-Plough.CEO Fred Hassan was in Miami when doctors dropped the bomb on Vytorin and Zetia at the American College of Cardiology meeting.   Read More