You like earnings? We got earnings. Lilly posted a loss of $456.6 million, or 43 cents a share, compared with a profit of $926.3 million, or 85 cents, a year earlier, thanks to a $1.48 billion charge to settle various federal and state investigations into the marketing of its Zyprexa antipsychotic. If not for the charge and some other one-time items, profits would have been $1.04 a share. The drugmaker, which is paying $6.5 billion to buy ImClone Systems, lowered its 2008 earnings forecast (read the earnings release here).

Meanwhile, Bristol-Myers Squibb reported net income tripled to $2.58 billion, or $1.29 a share, up from $858 million, or 43 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding items, such as the $2 billion after-tax gain from selling ConvaTec in August and writing down auction-rate securities, earnings from continuing operations rose to 46 cents from 33 cents. Sales rose 14 percent to $5.25 billion, partly due to the weaker dollar. Pharma sales increased 15 percent - up 18 percent in the US, in fact. Sales of the Plavix blood thinner rose 15 percent to $1.4 billion (see the earnings release).