Health Winners & Losers: Elan

Pharma stocks outperformed their biotech cousins Monday with a few buyout and clinical updates gracing the news wires.

After a steep drop last week -- 70% from Monday's open to Friday's close -- Elan(ELN Quote) shares did manage to regain $1.09, or 11%, to $11.02 on Monday. The stock weathered a double knock last week when it presented mixed data on Alzheimer's drug bapineuzumab and then reported two confirmed cases of a deadly brain infection in patients taking Tysabri.

Elan's bapineuzumab partner Wyeth(WYE Quote) also regained some ground, adding 87 cents, or 2.2%, to $41.11.

But Elan's Tysabri partner, Biogen Idec(BIIB Quote), relatively hugged the flatline.

Elsewhere, activist investor Carl Icahn came out about Bristol Myer Squibb's(BMY Quote) $60-a-share bid for the 83% of ImClone Systems(IMCL Quote) it doesn't already own. However, nothing promising came out. ImClone said in a press release that Icahn and the board feel Bristol's bid substantially undervalues the company. The company said in the release that it has had discussions about splitting its Erbitux franchise from its pipeline-- and that its investigating whether someone in the Bristol camp was privy to too much information.

ImClone shares were off by 31 cents, or 0.5%, at $65.03, while Bristol shares were up 28 cents, or 1.3%, at $21.39.

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly(LLY Quote) said it won't raise its $3-a-share ($64 million total purchase) offer price for SGX Pharmaceuticals(SGXP Quote).

SGX shares fell 6 cents, or 2%, to $2.96, while Lilly's shares edged up 33 cents, or 0.7%, to $47.37.

On the clinical side, Schering Plough(SGP Quote) reported positive interim topline results from a mid-stage study on its Hepatitis C candidate boceprevir. The company said that at 48 weeks, the sustained virologic response (SVR) rate in the boceprevir-combination arm, with patients taking pegintron and rebetol for four weeks before adding boceprevir, was 74%, vs. a 38% SVR for those in the control group.