Biotech Earnings Preview: A Place to Hide?

According to the Deutsche Bank team, IMS data suggest that Neupogen and Neulasta sales may also come in below consensus targets, while Epogen sales may come in slightly higher than expectations.

A focus for the earnings call may be updates on Amgen's potential blockbuster , bone-drug denosumab - possibly the timing of data on cancer patients, timeline for an FDA filing, and more on its marketing strategy.

Amgen guided to profit of between $4.25 and $4.45 a share on revenue of between $14.6 billion and $14.9 billion for 2008. Analysts expect $4.37 a share on revenue of $14.82 billion.

Celgene Oct. 23

Celgene provided an all-around earnings beat in the first two quarters. Barclay's Jim Birchenough, who named Celgene as one of the big-cap biotechs most likely to beat, expects more of the same. His team has an overweight rating on the stock.

Consensus is 39 cents a share on revenue of $592 million in the third quarter: $348 million from multiple myeloma drug Revlimid, $129 million from Thalomid, and $65 million from myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) drug Vidaza.

Toward the end of the second quarter, competitor SuperGen (SUPG Quote) said its Vidaza rival Dacogen failed a late-stage trial, increasing expectations for Vidaza sales in the second half of the year.

The company increased guidance to $1.50 a share and upped revenue expectations to $2.2 billion. The changes, however, only brought guidance up enough to meet Street expectations at that time. The Street is now looking for $1.54 a share for the year on revenue of $2.26 billion -- once again, ahead of guidance.