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            B R E A K F A S T   W I T H   T H E   F O O L
                    Wednesday, October 11, 2000

benjamin.rogers@enron.com
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-- Vince Lombardi


BIOGEN BEATS THE STREET
Biogen, the company known for the multiple sclerosis drug
Avonex, announced estimate-beating third-quarter results
yesterday after the bell.

By LouAnn Lofton

Biotech company Biogen (Nasdaq: BGEN) reported its third-quarter
(ended September 30) results yesterday after the bell. The
company's revenues climbed by 12% to $233.7 million. Net income
for the quarter was $68.3 million, or 10% higher than the $62
million Biogen earned in the year-ago period.

Earnings per share came in ahead of estimates by a penny at
$0.44. The consensus First Call/Thompson Financial estimate for
the company was $0.43. In its third quarter last year, Biogen
earned $0.39 a share.

Biogen's main revenue driver is Avonex, a drug used in the
treatment of multiple sclerosis. For its third quarter, sales of
Avonex rose 18% to $193 million. In fiscal 1999, Avonex sales
accounted for 78% of Biogen's revenues. The company said that
more than 93,000 patients worldwide are now using the drug. It
did acknowledge in a conference call, though, that the U.S.
market for Avonex is slowing.

Avonex also faces increased overseas competition in the multiple
sclerosis drug market. Here in the U.S., Avonex is protected
from competition until 2003. Biogen is working to develop
additional drugs (which it hopes will turn into additional
sources of revenue) through projects such as collaborations with
Irish drug company Elan (NYSE: ELN). The company also recently
licensed five new drug targets from CuraGen (Nasdaq: CRGN).

Biogen's president and chief executive officer, James C. Mullen,
said, "We continue with aggressive development of our pipeline
products. During the past quarter, we intensified our investment
in the important new platform technology of genomics and
expanded our long-term pipeline capabilities and basic research
programs with several collaborative agreements."

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opportunities in biotechnology, consider signing up for The
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NEWS TO GO

Hard driver manufacturer Seagate Technology (NYSE: SEG)
announced its fiscal 2001 first-quarter earnings yesterday after
the close. Pro forma net income for the quarter was $62 million
on revenue of $1.748 billion. Pro forma diluted earnings per
share came in at $0.26, which bested the Street's expectations
by a nickel.

PacifiCare Health Systems (Nasdaq: PHSY), a provider of managed
healthcare, told the Street yesterday that it sees its
third-quarter results coming in significantly below
expectations. The company expects earnings per share for the
third quarter to come in between breakeven and a loss of as much
as $0.10 a share. Analysts were looking for PacifiCare to report
third-quarter earnings per share of $1.90, according to First
Call/Thompson Financial. The company blamed higher-than-expected
medical costs for its shortfall.

The on-again, off-again talks between online delivery service
companies Urbanfetch.com and Kozmo.com are off again.
Urbanfetch.com said yesterday that it's halted negotiations to
be acquired by competitor Kozmo.com. Ross Stevens, the chief
executive of Urbanfetch.com, said, "We just didn't think Kozmo
had a profitable model, and we didn't think that Urbanfetch
Express would get the attention it needed."

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) says that an analysis of accidents
involving its Explorer sport utility vehicles was flawed,
according to The Washington Post. The analysis, which was
carried out by the Post and reported in Monday's edition of the
paper, found that Explorers have higher rates of tire-related
crashes even when the trucks are equipped with non-recalled
Goodyear tires. The analysis was carried out by looking at which
plants produced the Explorers, and what type of tire came on the
trucks from that particular plant. According to Ford, the plants
the company originally thought were putting just Goodyear tires
on Explorers were actually putting Firestone tires on about 4%
of the vehicles. Ford's vice president of communications, Jason
Vines, was quoted as saying that this new information
"repudiates the premise of the analysis."

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click.
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EDITOR'S PICK

Tom Jacobs focuses his microscope on Affymetrix, and shares his
perspective on the company's potential to be top dog in more
than one area of biotech.
http://www.fool.com/m.asp?i=150887
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