Tuesday's Health Winners & Losers

GeoPharma(GORX), a drug and nutritional-supplement maker, saw its shares jump after it announced positive quarterly results. GeoPharma earned $793,000, or 7 cents a share, in the second quarter, up from $514,000 and 4 cents a share a year ago. Excluding certain items, the company would have reported earnings of $1.2 million, or 9 cents a share, in the most recent quarter.

Revenue for the quarter reached $16.7 million, up 36.5% from a year ago. Shares gained 8.5% to $4.22 on much-heavier-than-normal trading. The stock had been as high as $4.64 earlier in the session.

Human Genome Sciences(HGSI) shares were edging higher after the company reported upbeat trial results for its proposed lupus treatment LymphoStat-B. The company said 449 patients with the disease were studied for 52 weeks. Of those, 321 completed a 24-week extension of the trial, which showed that the drug continued to reduce the signs and symptoms of lupus. The treatment was safe and well tolerated, the company says.

The company expects to commence phase III clinical trials, the stage of studies conducted just before a drug is submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for evaluation, before the end of the year. Shares of Human Genome were adding 0.4% to $12.33.

Express Scripts (ESRX) rose after guiding 2007 earnings above the Wall Street analyst consensus. The pharmacy-benefit manager said it expects to make $3.90 to $4.02 a share, above the $3.84 Thomson Financial target. Express Scripts said it believes its financial performance will continue to benefit from growth in generic utilization, home delivery and specialty pharmacy management; lower retail and home-delivery drug-purchasing costs; improved formulary compliance with preferred, lower-cost brand drugs; increased productivity; and capital structure improvements.

Shares rose $2.11, or 3.2%, to $68.07.