Biotech Trial Dates to Watch in '08

Next up in the 2008 biotech sector prep: A calendar of expected clinical trials.

The calendar I've put together below captures most of the major phase III studies being conducted by biotech firms for which top-line results are expected in calendar year 2008.

The list includes a smattering of important mid-stage, or phase II, studies. I purposely omitted studies conducted by large pharmaceutical firms. Those are important too, but they tend not to move stocks as much.

This clinical-trial calendar should be used as a companion to last week's calendar of FDA drug approval decision dates. As veteran biotech investors know, clinical trial results and FDA approvals move biotech stocks, so calendars like these can be indispensable tools.

Again, I want to offer thanks and credit for this calendar to Sagient Research and its BioMedTracker Web site. Sagient also recently launched a new service called CatalystTracker, which expands the reach into medical devices, specialty pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. These are paid services, but I highly recommend them to any serious health care investor.

The full list is printed below, but I want to highlight a few clinical trials that, to me, should help shape and define biotech investing in the next year.

At the top of the list has to be Myriad Genetics(MYGN) and the tandem of Elan(ELN) and Wyeth(WYE) -- both with experimental Alzheimer's disease drugs in closely watched clinical trials.