Health Stocks in Motion

Shares of Meridian Biosciences(VIVO Quote) were among the best-performing health-related stocks Friday, rising 8% after the company priced 3.3 million shares of stock.

The company is selling 1.8 million shares while the family trust of William J. Motto, the company's chief executive, is selling the rest. Meridian will receive just under $30 million in net proceeds from the offering. Proceeds will be used for general corporate purposes. The stock sale is expected to close on Sept. 21. Shares were recently trading up $1.39 to $19.09.

Syneron Medical(ELOS Quote) rose 4% after the company said that American Laser Centers would purchase $6 million worth of Syneron equipment for use in its centers throughout the U.S. "ALC, with more than 100 physician-supervised locations in the U.S., evaluated the VelaSmooth, and decided to expand the activity of its clinics from hair removal and skin rejuvenation also to include cellulite treatment," Syneron said. Shares were trading up $1.63 to $39.10.

Shares of Geron(GERN Quote) rose 2% after the company priced 6 million shares of stock at $9 apiece. The price represents a 10% discount to Thursday's closing price of $9.99. Concurrent with the stock offering, which is expected to close on Sept. 21, Merck(MRK Quote) will exercise a warrant to buy $18 million in Geron stock. Merck will pay $9 a share for each share it buys. Geron plans to use the proceeds to fund research and development, including clinical trials, and general corporate purposes. Shares were trading up 19 cents to $10.18.

Hologic(HOLX Quote) rose 13% after the New England Journal of Medicine published a report saying that digital mammograms are better at detecting breast cancer than traditional film mammograms in certain populations. While the diagnostic accuracy of digital and film mammography was similar in the fully verified group, the Journal said, "The performance of digital mammography was, however, significantly better than that of film mammography among women under the age of 50 years, as compared with those who were at least 50 years of age." The Journal of Medicine also said that digital mammography was better for women classified by the readers as having heterogeneously dense or extremely dense breasts and premenopausal or perimenopausal women.