Gilead Sciences

"Well, Gilead is largely being driven by sales of Viread right now. It was launched a couple of years ago and continues to sell very, very well, although it does have a better resistance profile. The primary advantage of Viread is that it's only one pill, once a day. And this is in contrast to other similar drugs that are multiple pills, taken multiple times a day, and oftentimes there are food restrictions or otherwise. One of the interesting things that we think about, we like about Gilead is they just launched another drug called Emtriva. Now in approximately a year to a year and a half, we expect them to introduce a one pill combination of Emtriva and Viread."

Amgen

"What we like about Amgen is the fact that it's being driven largely by three marketed products, and that's Neulasta, Aranesp and Enbrel. Not only is Enbrel doing very well in rheumatoid arthritis, but we think it's going to be the class leader in psoriasis as well. And it's pretty low risk, because they don't have a lot of, they're not relying on a lot of drugs that are in the clinic or at the FDA right now for future growth. We think the valuations are very attractive, we think management is excellent, and they also have close to $5 billion in cash on the balance sheet, which we think they'll use to acquire some smaller companies and augment their pipeline."

Genentech

Amgen

"Amgen is one of our top holdings, as well, I think for the same reasons that Evan mentioned, and I'll mention another reason. We see the large-cap pharmaceutical companies as under a lot of pressure, because their products are becoming off patent, they're getting vulnerable to generic risk. Right now for the biotech industry, there's not a path for generics to come to the marketplace. The FDA has really halted that issue, and we don't see existing inline products -- great products like Aranesp and others, Enbrel -- having any generic threat. So they may have more competition down the line, but they won't suffer the fate of some of the products in the pharmaceutical field that have come off patent and have had major disappointments in terms of revenues and earnings for the big pharma companies."

Neurocrine Biosciences

"Neurocrine Biosciences has a new sleeping pill that we will begin to see more phase III or advance clinical trial results. They have a big partnership with Pfizer. And of course on a marketing front where you need muscle, Pfizer will be there we think very successfully. And I think insomnia is something that is probably an under-served marketplace, not one where, you know, it's like AIDS or cancer where you truly can come up with breakthroughs. But there are big market opportunities outside of those fields as well."

Millenium Pharmaceuticals

"There are a number of interesting compounds. One that just recently got a record-breaking approval from the FDA is called Velcade. Today it's for a smaller indication certainly than Avastin appears to be. And a little company that's developing it called Millennium is also a holding, more speculative in our fund, but when you see the FDA turn around so quickly on an approval, in weeks as opposed to months and years, that gets investors excited, including us."