Shares of pharmaceuticals developer Schering-Plough (NYSE: SGP) ticked slightly upward in morning trading, extending a short resurgence in interest for the company's battered shares that began last month -- though lately, similar such moves in the company's stock have been cause for little more than the sniffles.

The company turned in full-year financial results today, and they looked pretty solid. Revenues grow 14% to $9.18 billion, while operating income, net income, and research and development expense all rose at about a 20% clip. With fourth-quarter EPS coming in at $0.34, a penny ahead of Street estimates, full-year earnings growth came in significantly ahead of the 13% compound annual growth rate for the last three full years -- the only ones for which the data was available in the company's latest 10-K filing.

Pharmaceutical sales rose 16% worldwide to $7.7 billion, led by the company's leading Claritin allergy drug and its Intron A hepatitis treatment. Sales for Intron A, marketed as a combination treatment with Rebetron, jumped more than 50% year over year -- more than 94% in the U.S. -- and crossed the $1 billion sales barrier for the first time. Domestic drug sales grew slightly faster than international sales.

For forward-looking investors in this sector, though, the real money is made by the company that comes out with the next big drug. That's why so much attention has been paid to the daily back-and-forth between the would-be and might-be merger partners in the industry as companies seek to pair up and pool their research and development resources in hopes of finding the next big thing, providing not only future growth but a buffer against competition. Claritin is a good example, with heavily marketed alternatives on their way to market.

So you've got Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) and Warner-Lambert (NYSE: WLA) doing the bossa nova with American Home Products (NYSE: AHP) looking on, Glaxo Wellcome (NYSE: GLX) and SmithKline Beecham (NYSE: SBH) heading down the aisle, and plenty of others -- including Schering, Novartis AG, and Roche -- seen as potentially getting into the mix as well.

The reasoning should be clear enough, since (for instance) Schering spent approximately $1.19 billion on research and development last year and a combined Pfizer/Warner-Lambert, analysts say, could lay out something more in the neighborhood of $4 billion next year. "We... continued to invest heavily in research and development as compounds advance through our product pipeline," Chairman and CEO Richard Kogan said in a statement. "In 2000, we expect Schering-Plough will deliver another year of solid growth."

Will the company go it alone, though? That's likely what many investors are wondering today and perhaps what's made watching this stock a lot like tending to a child on a seesaw.

Related Links:
Schering-Plough website
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