Amgen (AMGN) presented at the Merrill Lynch European Conference, and it was one of the most level-headed presentations that I have ever been exposed to. These folks are good! They went through the Medicare decision very carefully, and said that they will let the angry doctor groups like the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) carry the fight to overturn it. After the Congressional recess, the Senate voted 100-to-0 for a "Sense of the Senate" resolution to overturn it. Those doctors are organized! During the recess, they brought Senators in to see their treatment facilities, and then pointed out that they will have to ask aging, often infirm cancer patients to take periodic 100-mile roundtrips from a radiation clinic to a hospital to get a blood transfusion.

The company also said that with very few exceptions, the private payers are not following the Medicare guidelines, but are sticking to ASCO guidelines. Regarding the September 11 meeting on the use of Epogen and Aranesp for kidney dialysis, they were very pleased with the outcome. I know you may have read some other newsletter editors advising buying puts on AMGN before that meeting because "they are going to get creamed again," but they were wrong. The stock has been up $2 to $3.50 a share since the meeting.

Another of the bear stories is that Amgen has a weak pipeline. So, management mentioned upcoming data on three different products in Phase III trials, with numerous Phase II programs behind that. The company is going to do another "open the kimono" meeting in February in New York, spending a whole day discussing all their clinical work. The last time they did this, the stock took off.

The patent trial against Roche is also underway. I thought Roche would settle rather than proceed with what looks like a sure loser, but to each their own. Amgen management seemed very confident of victory, as they should be.