A very interesting visitor-path, the evening AFTER Schering-Plough's Q1 earnings conference call live-blogging, here. . . .

Now, two-full-days later, the Wall Street Journal finally runs a story. You'll always see it first on the Web, it would seem. . . .

[WEB-EXCLUSIVE: This story had been embargoed -- at the request of the below United States Attorney -- since April 28, 2008. Tonight, Schering Plough filed its first quarter Form 10-Q, and disclosed that it has received "requests for information from U.S. Attorneys seeking similar information and documents", as those sought by the several States' Attorneys General. So, Schering has now let the world know that the US Attorneys Offices are looking at it, related to Enhance/Vytorin/Zetia. Last night, Merck made no such disclosure, in its Form 10-Q -- so we may fairly presume that the US Attorneys Offices are focusing on Schering-Plough, at least at the moment.

UPDATED: 05.07.08 PM -- Peter Rost correctly notes that our "mystery guest" found his way to this particular party, courtesy of this link, on Peter's page. Excellent stuff!

Also, David P. Hamilton, over at bnet.com's pharma site has now linked this story, as had pharmagossip, earlier. Did I mention FiercePharma? Yep, him too. Cool. Very. Cool.

05.06.08 PM -- That "prince among men" -- Ed, at Pharmalot.com -- has featured this work, on his. Woot!]

Wow. That's the set-up. Now, here's the item:

Okay -- let me take you back two weeks. . .

The Date -- One day after the Schering-Plough Q1 Earnings Conference Call, and the live-blogging of it, by this site.

The Time -- After the close of regular business, when the "real work" gets done, by the real attorneys, not the political figure-heads -- no, the very-capable, level-headed, no-nonsense, diligent career Assistant US Attorneys -- the so-called "grinders".

The Place -- Inside the US Attorney's Office in Newark, New Jersey -- More precisely, inside the Unit of that Office tasked with prosecuting Securities and Health Care Fraud [and, as ever, click to view it full-size, here]:



Wow -- Wow!! Note the path on that load: "C:\Documents and Settings\Local Settings\My Documents\Temp\RKirsch\. . . ."

Well, that would be a computer, inside the United States Department of Justice, United States Attorneys Office, loading pages from 5:16 pm, until at least 5:32 pm EDT, on Thursday, April 24, 2008. And that computer very-likely belongs to. . . .

Yep -- Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Kirsch, of the Securities and Health Care Fraud Unit of the U.S. Attorney's Office, United States Department of Justice, District of New Jersey, 970 Broad Street, Seventh Floor, Newark, New Jersey¹.

Moreover, several of the below pages (including the one imaged, as a *.jpg file, above) were loaded from the hard-drive of Robert Kirsch's computer inside the DoJ -- that means he (or someone else, using his computer) had previously-downloaded those pages, and saved them, at least for a while, to his hard-drive.

Unconvinced, are you? Then a look -- in running text -- at the Excel spreadsheet I downloaded, of part of the "visitor path", for this visit, courtesy of Statcounter.com. And remember, this is but one (of the six, just from this session), of the navigation-paths, or page-load progressions, in chronological order, from top to bottom, from that computer inside the DoJ (again, per my Statcounter.com account details):

Navigation Path

Date Time Web Page

[Referring Page:]

24th April 2008 05:16:37 PM peterrost.blogspot.com/

[Entry Page:]

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

24th April 2008 05:19:01 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/case-for-scrutinizing-analyst-opinions.html

24th April 2008 05:19:06 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/case-for-scrutinizing-analyst-opinions.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/to-more-clearly-explain-sen-grassleys.html

24th April 2008 05:20:32 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/to-more-clearly-explain-sen-grassleys.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/to-more-clearly-explain-sen-grassleys.html

24th April 2008 05:20:41 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/to-more-clearly-explain-sen-grassleys.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

24th April 2008 05:21:30 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/case-for-scrutinizing-analyst-opinions.html

24th April 2008 05:21:44 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/case-for-scrutinizing-analyst-opinions.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/fda-letter-re-vytorin-please-revise.html

24th April 2008 05:22:07 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/fda-letter-re-vytorin-please-revise.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

24th April 2008 05:22:10 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

24th April 2008 05:24:02 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/look-at-congressional-investigations.html

24th April 2008 05:24:13 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/look-at-congressional-investigations.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/fda-letter-re-vytorin-please-revise.html

24th April 2008 05:24:47 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/look-at-congressional-investigations.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/fda-letter-re-vytorin-please-revise.html

24th April 2008 05:24:55 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/fda-letter-re-vytorin-please-revise.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

24th April 2008 05:24:59 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/fda-letter-re-vytorin-please-revise.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

24th April 2008 05:25:13 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/case-for-scrutinizing-analyst-opinions.html

24th April 2008 05:25:27 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/case-for-scrutinizing-analyst-opinions.html

24th April 2008 05:26:24 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/case-for-scrutinizing-analyst-opinions.html

24th April 2008 05:26:28 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/case-for-scrutinizing-analyst-opinions.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/look-at-congressional-investigations.html

24th April 2008 05:26:44 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/look-at-congressional-investigations.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/look-at-congressional-investigations.html

24th April 2008 05:27:06 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/look-at-congressional-investigations.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-answer-to-reader-over-at-cafepharma.html

24th April 2008 05:27:50 PM www.farmanux.com/wpnews/?p=2296

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-answer-to-reader-over-at-cafepharma.html

24th April 2008 05:28:11 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-answer-to-reader-over-at-cafepharma.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/detail-from-rico-complaint-against.html

24th April 2008 05:28:33 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/in-answer-to-reader-over-at-cafepharma.html

shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/detail-from-rico-complaint-against.html

24th April 2008 05:28:45 PM www.blogger.com/navbar.g?
targetBlogID=4241416962008169508&blogName=shearlings got
plowed&publishMode=PUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT&navbarType=SILVER&layoutType=LAYOUTS&homepageUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fshearlingsplowed.blogspot.com%2F&searchRoot=http%3A%2F%2Fshearl
shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/search?q=grassley

24th April 2008 05:30:08 PM www.blogger.com/navbar.g?

targetBlogID=4241416962008169508&blogName=shearlings got
plowed&publishMode=PUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT&navbarType=SILVER&layoutType=LAYOUTS&homepageUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fshearlingsplowed.blogspot.com%2F&searchRoot=http%3A%2F%2Fshearl
shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/search?q=grassley

24th April 2008 05:30:29 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/search?q=grassley
shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/to-more-clearly-explain-sen-grassleys.html

24th April 2008 05:30:32 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/search?q=grassley
shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/to-more-clearly-explain-sen-grassleys.html

April 2008 05:31:04 PM www.blogger.com/navbar.g?

targetBlogID=4241416962008169508&blogName=shearlings got
plowed&publishMode=PUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT&navbarType=SILVER&layoutType=LAYOUTS&homepageUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fshearlingsplowed.blogspot.com%2F&searchRoot=http%3A%2F%2Fshearl
shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/search?q=hassan

24th April 2008 05:31:37 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/search?q=hassan
shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/does-fred-hassan-even-read-his-own.html

April 2008 05:31:58 PM www.blogger.com/navbar.g?

targetBlogID=4241416962008169508&blogName=shearlings got
plowed&publishMode=PUBLISH_MODE_BLOGSPOT&navbarType=SILVER&layoutType=LAYOUTS&homepageUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fshearlingsplowed.blogspot.com%2F&searchRoot=http%3A%2F%2Fshearl
shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/search?q=ENHANCE

24th April 2008 05:32:24 PM shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/search?q=ENHANCE
shearlingsplowed.blogspot.com/2008/04/highlights-from-merck-q1-call-this.html. . . .

[five more pages of visit-paths for this visit follow. . . .]

Note that the last four entries were actually searches, run from that computer, in the "Search Blog" Tool-box, at the top of this site. Wow. Interesting, no?

Now, the user sitting at that DoJ computer apparently searched the word "grassley" twice, "hassan" once, and "ENHANCE" once.

There have been others, since, but you get the idea. My guess? AUSA Robert Kirsch was plainly looking at -- and apparently, saving to his hard-drive -- these particular pages above (as well as others), from my site. Why? Who knows?

I assure you, though, my site is an unlikely source of recreational reading for someone of his estimable gravitas. I am almost-certainly just too. . . boring. And, he seems to have saved those pages to his hard-drive; that seems less (or more?) than recreational.

As I say, that -- the visit, in itself -- is fascinating, no?

As ever -- more is very-likely to come.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Footnote 1: A technical note, here, the visit shows as emanating from inside Washington, DC -- or Headquarters for the DoJ; this is more than likely due to the fact that the DoJ's AUSA offices operate over a wide area network, for internet access, at least, using a single point of access, or node, for internet communications -- and that is likely in DC. Or, possibly (though less-likely), Mr. Kirch was at headquarters in DC, that evening. This image is genuine, as are the related visitor-paths, though, I do assure you. Of course, it goes without saying that the US Attorneys office does not comment on pending investigations -- so no inferences (either negative, or positive), as to the outcomes, focus, interests or even the reason(s) for these visits -- should be inferred by readers, from the content of this post. Do be very careful out there.]