If you hear the expression E.R. being tossed around in medical circles this week, don't assume that everyone is talking about emergency rooms -- or the hit hospital drama on NBC.
No, it's E.R. as in earnings report, as a bevy of pharmaceutical and biotechnology giants are set to disclose the numbers behind their September quarters.
Tomorrow, it's biotech biggie Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) posting its financials. Expectations loom large as the market looks for Amgen to report a 50% spurt in net profits.
Wednesday will be a huge day for the pharmaceuticals as Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY), Merck (NYSE:MRK), and Schering-Plough (NYSE:SGP) all vie for the earnings spotlight.
Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY) will be fashionably late, following its peers on Thursday. Much like Schering-Plough, troubled Bristol-Myers is in a sticky situation offering payout promises that its fundamentals can't keep.
MedImmune (NASDAQ:MEDI) will also report this week. The stock got slammed on Friday after Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) announced that it would not carry the company's FluMist vaccine this season.
Keep that in mind the next time you need an excuse to call in sick to work. As for the drug stocks in general? Let's hope they're not the ones calling in sick this week.
Do you think Amgen's earnings report will help biotech recover from MedImmune's bad Wal-Mart news on Friday? What about Amgen's new anemia drug? Is it another blockbuster? All this and more -- in the Amgen discussion board. Only on Fool.com.
