Amgen (AMGN) reported after the close on July 27. They did $3.73 billion in sales and $1.12 a share, above Wall Street's expectations for $3.68 billion and $1.06. Of course, the main issues overhanging the stock are Medicare reimbursement and any possible further FDA action against Epogen and Aranesp, but I don't expect them to be able to say much about either of those yet.

In the Sicko department, on July 2 Blue Shield of California changed its reimbursement policy for Aranesp and Epogen from coverage for patients with hemoglobin levels of 11 grams per deciliter (gm/dl) of blood or less, down to 9 gm/dl or less. (Patients with heart conditions would be covered at 10 gm/dl or less.) Essentially, they tried to get doctors to wait to give the medication until an anemic cancer patient's hemoglobin level fell to levels closer to the cutoff for needing a blood transfusion. Doctors protested loudly, and yesterday Blue Shield reversed part of the policy by raising the level to 10 gm/dl for everybody. Blue Shield has three million members in California, and I expect doctors to continue to prescribe Aranesp and Epogen as needed. These two drugs were the top selling biotech drugs in 2006, with sales of $7.2 billion, and Johnson & Johnson's Procrit (Epogen by another name) was fifth with $2.9 billion in sales. This is all about money, not good medicine.