With at least $60 billion in U.S. annual sales of brand name medicines going off patent between now and 2012 — Medco is in a sweet spot.

The question on investors’ minds? What will spur growth beyond the generic windfall five years out? CEO David Snow told the Reuters Health Summit expansion plans in Europe will be one of those drivers, and said talks are going on right now.

Biogenerics in the U.S. will happen — it’s just a matter of when, according to Teva Pharmaceuticals’ head of North America.

George Barrett told the Reuters Health Summit that while next year is a toss-up given it’s an election year, setting up the regulatory pathway for biogeneirics to get to market is critical in the next two years ahead of wave of patents due to expire in five years.

Barrett was one of the featured speakers in the final day of the annual Reuters Health Summit speaking from our New York headquarters.

Medco’s rival last year linked-up with CVS to create CVS/Caremark. But getting into retail is not for Medco CEO David Snow.

At the Reuters Health Summit, Snow listed his concerns regarding the reatail business — mainly the perception of a conflcit of interest — that lead him to embrace a neutral role as an independent benefits manager.  

Industry critics of the FDA often charge the agency is too conservative and under funded.

But Shire Pharmaceuticals CEO Matthew Emmens tells the Reuters Health Summit there is an unrealistic expectation by society about complex drugs on the market that is making the regulatory environment  that much tougher. 

Even with a hostile $3 billion bid for Ventana on the table, Roche’s Franz Humer says you won’t find him anywhere near a mega deal in Big Pharma. A monster acquisition stifles innovation, it destroys pipelines … let Franz count the ways.

CEO Humer was one of the featured speakers at this year’s Reuters Health Summit. For more of Humer’s comments, take a look at our continuing coverage of the Summit, running through Thursday in Reuters New York offices.

The future of scientific innovation in the U.S. is in jeopardy, according to Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan.

Without support from both political parties and proper funding for the Food and Drug Administration, the U.S. will lose its leadership role in medicine to countries in Asia.

Hassan was one of the featured speakers at this year’s Reuters Health Summit, which runs through Thursday at our New York headquarters.  

Merck & Co.’s hangover from the withdrawal of its $2.5 billion a year arthritis drug Vioxx has lifted, according to Chief Executive Richard Clark, and the drugmaker is starting to flex its muscles again. 

Cardinal Health CEO R. Kerry Clark likens the efforts to lure him from Procter & Gamble into the top spot at the drug wholesaler as something of a mating dance with the company’s former chief executive.

 Bristol-Myers Squibb interim CEO James Cornelius weighs his Hawaiian vacation against taking over at the troubled drugmaker. He tells the Reuters Health Summit his name is not among the list of potential candidates for the permanent CEO job but he remains committed to staying on until a new chief is named. 

   How did HealthSouth Corp. employees greet the news that their former boss, Richard Scrushy, had been convicted of bribery? With an aquatic frolic in the once forbidden fountain.