5 Can’t-Miss Health-Care Events This Week: Exelixis, Inc. (EXEL), Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (REGN)

With no major health-care conferences on the docket this week, and the Food and Drug Administration ruling two days early on Celgene Corporation (NASDAQ:CELG)‘s multiple myeloma drug, Pomalyst, this week’s main focus is earnings, earnings, and more earnings. Just as we did last week, we have five big names reporting, and you’d be small-“f” foolish to miss out on any of them.

The week starts off with an important report from my personal No. 1 biotech to watch in 2013, Exelixis, Inc. (NASDAQ:EXEL). The fourth-quarter report, expected Monday, shouldn’t include any major surprises. What I’ll be looking for, however, is the company’s updated 2013 sales forecast now that Cometriq, its metastatic medullary thyroid cancer drug, is available in the United States. I’d keep your eye on Exelixis’ cash balance, but I don’t anticipate that it will dip all too much. Cometriq’s sales forecast could be the factor that causes this company to move up or down in a big way.

On Tuesday, we’ll hear from Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN), developer of antibody-drug conjugates that deliver chemotherapy toxins directly to tumors. Investors will definitely be looking for an improvement in sales from Adcetris, the company’s only FDA-approved drug designed to be a second-line treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. I will be ignoring most of the Adcetris data and focusing on what upcoming data Seattle Genetics has in store. With its $3.6 billion market value, what I can say for certain is that its loss had better not be much higher (if at all) from the $0.11 per share currently forecast.

Health-benefit solutions provider WellCare Health Plans, Inc. (NYSE:WCG) steps up to the plate on Wednesday and should offer an interesting report from a value investors’ perspective, as it’s been the laggard of the group. The Affordable Care Act is expected to cap insurers’ earnings and disallow them from turning away patients with pre-existing conditions, but it also will bring millions of newly insured Americans into the fold. I suspect thast WellCare’s guidance will be in-line with, if not higher than, what’s currently projected on Wall Street as investors underestimate the cost-cutting ability of the health-benefits sector.

Finally, Thursday will bring the two most important reports of the week from the biotech sector: Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:ALXN) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (NASDAQ:REGN).