Wednesday's Health Stock Winners & Losers

EntreMed(ENMD Quote) shares rose 6% Wednesday after the drug developer said it received a special rare-disease designation from regulators for its experimental brain cancer drug Panzem.

The designation, called orphan drug status, is granted by the Food and Drug Administration when the agency determines that a drug intended to treat a rare disease meets a significant unmet medical need but may not bring in enough revenue to make up for its development costs. The FDA designation allows a company certain tax breaks, marketing exclusivity and a possible extended patent life. Shares were up 10 cents to $1.72 in recent trading.

Shares of Biomet(BMET Quote) fell along with the orthopedic device company's fiscal fourth-quarter earnings, as it reported charges of $5.4 million due to restructuring and $9 million related to a severance package for its former CEO.

The effect of the charges may have been tempered, however, since earnings were in line with expectations and the company declared a cash dividend of 30 cents a share, payable July 21. After dipping early in the day, Biomet's shares were up 11 cents to $31.27.

Specialty pharmaceutical company Depomed(DEPO Quote) fell 5.3% to $5.85 Wednesday when the company said it entered an agreement with King Pharmaceuticals(KG Quote) to market its once-a-day type 2 diabetes drug Glumetza.

According to the agreement, the companies will share all marketing expenses. Depomed will book revenue and pay King a fee from the gross profits. Depomed will be responsible for the manufacture and distribution of the drug, while King will bear costs of using its sales force to promote the product.

"The structure of this partnership is ideal, and very important to us as we become a revenue-driven company, said Depomed CEO Dr. John Fara. "We have gained access to one of the leading pharmaceutical sales forces and commercial organizations in the U.S., while retaining copromotion rights that will allow us in the future to leverage our experience from this partnership to begin building our own sales team," the CEO said in a press release.