There's a simple way to describe leukemia - it's a blood cancer that starts in the bone marrow and is recognized by the proliferation of leukocytes, or white blood cells - but sifting through the subtypes, available treatments and would-be therapies is hardly an easy task. (BioWorld Financial Watch)

A longstanding squabble between Amgen Inc. and Johnson & Johnson over epoetin alfa ended last week with an arbitrator's $150 million decision favoring the former, just as another skirmish - not legal - began to heat up between the pair. (BioWorld Financial Watch)

Amgen Inc.'s arbitration against Johnson & Johnson over epoetin alfa ended with a bang - the pharmaceutical company must pay Amgen $150 million - but who (if anyone) should whimper was uncertain, since Amgen had asked for much more. (BioWorld Today)

Disclosing third-quarter earnings that included $186 million in U.S. sales of Avonex (interferon beta 1-a), Biogen Inc. also said it has settled the longstanding dispute with alpha interferon patent licensee Schering-Plough Corp., gaining a payment of $45 million to $50 million due by the end of the year. (BioWorld Today)