April 25 (Reuters) – PerkinElmer Inc on Thursday
reported lower-than-expected first-quarter profit and decreased
its full-year forecast as difficult economic conditions and a
stronger dollar hurt sales in Europe and Japan.

Investors used to PerkinElmer beating earnings expectations
and incrementally raising forecasts over the course of the year
punished the stock, sending it down 13 percent.

By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – Biogen Idec Inc (BIIB.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) reported higher-than-expected first quarter profit on Thursday and raised its full year forecasts, and the U.S. biotechnology said it sees its new drug Tecfidera becoming the leading oral medicine for multiple sclerosis.

Biogen management declined to give any sales details from Tecfidera’s first few weeks on the market, but Chief Executive George Scangos called the March 27 U.S. approval “a watershed event for our company.”

April 24 (Reuters) – Laboratory equipment maker Thermo
Fisher Scientific Inc, which this month agreed to
acquire Life Technologies Inc for more than $13
billion, on Wednesday reported a higher-than-expected
first-quarter profit, helped by a 10 percent rise in specialty
diagnostics sales.

Excluding one-time items, Thermo Fisher posted earnings of
$1.37 per share, topping analysts average expectations by 8
cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

April 23 (Reuters) – Amgen Inc on Tuesday reported
first-quarter sales that fell short of Wall Street expectations
for most of its biggest-selling medicines, and its shares fell
more than 6 percent.

Revenue for the quarter rose 5 percent to $4.24 billion, but
was shy of Wall Street expectations of $4.37 billion.

By Ransdell Pierson and Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – A combination of five oral drugs being tested by AbbVie Inc cured at least 88 percent of new patients with hepatitis C after only eight weeks of treatment, without raising significant safety issues, researchers said on Tuesday.

The latest findings from an ongoing trial sponsored by AbbVie, called Aviator, also showed that 96 percent of patients taking the five medicines for 12 weeks eliminated the virus, as assessed by blood tests 24 weeks after they stopped treatment.

By Bill Berkrot

(Reuters) – A combination of three experimental Bristol-Myers Squibb hepatitis C drugs appeared to be highly effective, according to data from a mid-stage clinical trial, keeping the company in the race for developing an all-oral treatment regimen for the serious liver disease.

The combination therapy, which involves three direct acting antiviral drugs that each attack different targets needed for replication of the hepatitis virus, achieved cure rates as high as 94 percent when given for either 12 weeks or 24 weeks, according to results of the small study.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As the clock ticks down to the start of a U.S. healthcare overhaul, companies from device makers to hospital chains have been surprised to see Americans make even fewer trips to the doctor’s office.

Use of non-emergency medical services has been weak for several years in the wake of a deep recession, high joblessness and the steadily rising cost of care.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As the clock ticks down to the start of a U.S. healthcare overhaul, companies from device makers to hospital chains have been surprised to see Americans make even fewer trips to the doctor’s office.

Use of non-emergency medical services has been weak for several years in the wake of a deep recession, high joblessness and the steadily rising cost of care.

NEW YORK, April 22 (Reuters) – As the clock ticks down to
the start of a U.S. healthcare overhaul, companies from device
makers to hospital chains have been surprised to see Americans
make even fewer trips to the doctor’s office.

Use of non-emergency medical services has been weak for
several years in the wake of a deep recession, high joblessness
and the steadily rising cost of care.

April 18 (Reuters) – Intuitive Surgical Inc on
Thursday narrowed its 2013 forecasts for growth of revenue and
procedures using its da Vinci surgical robots rather than
raising them as it often does when reporting quarterly results,
and its shares fell.

Intuitive said it expects 2013 procedure growth to come in
at the lower end of its previous forecast of 20 percent to 23
percent and said it sees revenue growth coming in at the higher
end of its initial view of 16 percent to 19 percent.