1.   Amgen Inc., a California biotechnology giant, said patients treated with its drug for rheumatoid arthritis showed improvement in as little as six months during a yearlong study.

2.   Amgen Inc. would consider buying another company to boost its drug pipeline, said Kevin Sharer, president of the biotechnology drug giant.

3.   Amgen Inc., a biotechnology giant, received regulatory approval to use its blood growth product Neupogen as a means to replace bone marrow transplants in cancer patients.

4.   Marin County is home to multimedia companies such as Broderbund and Mindscape, while Alameda County has biotechnology giants such as Chiron.

5.   Myers liked the long-term growth prospects of Amgen Inc., the Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based biotechnology giant.

6.   This, the Americans said, would not have caught the rogues but would have left Californian biotechnology giants vulnerable to intellectual-property theft.