It's a classic situation of expectations getting ahead of the story.

It wasn't a great quarter, but the expectations have gotten so low on J&J that a real ho-hum quarter is actually not a bad thing.

As drug classes go, growth rates in anti-psychotics are actually quite healthy. But it's fairly well penetrated. It gets harder to grow as [the industry] gets bigger.

Can we think of this as a 10 or 11 percent top-line story again? That's unclear.

Most people in cardiology would say that more is better. If Abbott does acquire the Guidant business, there's very little overlap. There's probably not a lot of restructuring to come.

It's more than fairly priced given the lack of visibility and a more constrained hospital (spending) environment.

It looks like they kind of scraped by. Earnings were in line. Sales were a bit light, mostly on the drug side of the business. It's nothing to jump up and down about.

That is always the elephant in the room with J&J. Everyone wants to know what is going on in M&A, and they're not saying.