Thursday's Health Winners & Losers

A federal contract, analyst reviews and positive study announcements tugged health stocks in both directions Thursday.

Pharmacy benefit manager MedcoHealth Solutions(MHS Quote) climbed 3.2% a day after announcing it had scored a contract to manage the mail-order pharmacy business for the Federal Employees Program (FEP). Caremark -- now part of the recent CVS Caremark(CVS Quote) merger -- used to hold the portion Medco won, but continues to manage FEP's retail pharmacy claims, a $4 billion part of the contract. Medco was up $2.51, to $79.60, while CVS Caremark was up 79 cents, or 2.1%, to $39.04.

Analysts reviews nudged a few other stocks down a bit.

Wachovia downgraded PDL BioPharma(PDLI Quote) from outperform to market perform on Thursday. The stock was down $1.56, or 5.8%, to $25.26.

Analyst Jonathan Aschoff, from Brean Murray, Carret & Co., said he expects negative phase III clinical trial data on Neurochem's(NRMX Quote) Alzhemed, an Alzheimer's disease treatment candidate. The biopharmaceutical company dropped $1.32, or 17.6%, to $6.19 on Thursday.

PDL BioPharma and Neurochem are both components of the Nasdaq biotechnology index, which was down 14.93, or 1.8%, to 811.66.

Also down, Agilent (A Quote) said Thursday it completed the purchase of Stratagene, a company that makes specialized life science research and diagnostic products, for $250 million. Subsequently, Agilent increased its guidance for third-quarter revenue to between $1.38 billion and $1.42 billion, from between $1.36 billion and $1.4 billion. The company's stock was down 83 cents, or 2.2%, to $37.54.