Thursday's Health Winners & Losers

Shares of Nastech Pharmaceutical(NSTK) sank 6.4% to $13.17 Thursday after the company said it priced a public offering of 3.25 million shares at approximately $13.20 a share.

Novartis'(NVS) shares sank on preliminary results showing that sales of its eye drug Visudyne, which it co-markets with QLT(QLTI), fell nearly 29%.

Novartis shares were 2.5% lower to $58.06. QLT's shares were up 4 cents to $8.74 after falling earlier in the day.

Sales of Visudyne as well as OSI Pharmaceuticals'(OSIP) drug Macugen have taken a hit since the approval of Genentech's(DNA) eye drug Lucentis in June.

Shares of medical appliance manufacturer Somanetics(SMTS) plummeted 14.3% to $20.01 after the company announced fourth-quarter revenue that fell short of expectations.

The company earned $5.3 million, or 37 cents a share, in the fourth quarter, including a $3.4 million tax benefit, down from 43 cents a share in the year-ago quarter. While revenue was up 25% to $7.68 million in the quarter, analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call were expecting revenue of $8.94 million.

Shares of Barrier Therapeutics(BTRX) sank 4.7% to $8.20 after the stock was downgraded to hold from buy by analysts at Roth Capital.

"We prefer to reduce to a Hold rating at this time until further progress is achieved" in the company's research pipeline, wrote analyst Mark Taylor. He maintains a 12-month price target of $9.