Investors Catch Biotech Fever.

GENENTECH Inc.; GENZYME Corp.; AMGEN Inc.

This article reports on the strong performance of stocks in the biotechnology sector as of October 2005. Biotechnology company Genentech announced a 57 percent increase of earnings per share. Investors pushed the stock up 6.4 percent to $87.25, ploughing yet more money into a company that had already seen its shares rise 59.8 percent since the start of 2005. Analysts expect more good news. Genzyme announced a surprisingly strong quarter on Oct. 18. The world's other biotech giant, Amgen, will release strong numbers on Oct. 19: The consensus estimates call for earnings of 82 cents a share on sales of $3.25 billion, up 28 percent and 19.9 percent, respectively, over the same period a year ago.