Friday's Health Winners & Losers

If the clinical program is successful, the companies plan to submit a regulatory application for the new combination therapy in 2009. Abbott also plans to file ABT-335 as a monotherapy by the end of 2007. It's evaluating ABT-335 as a co-administered therapy with other on-market statins, in addition to Crestor, and expects to present data from the clinical trials in the first half of 2008.

Abbott added 36 cents, or 0.7%, to $51.76, while AstraZeneca tacked on 92 cents, or 1.9%, to $49.37.

Also, YM BioSciences(YMI Quote) hung on to an extra 9 cents, or 5.7%, to $1.65 after announcing Thursday after market close that the FDA cleared it to initiate a phase II trial on nimotuzumab for treatment of inoperable, treatment-resistant brain cancer in children.

Last, the FDA released a brief pre-empting an advisory meeting on Merck's(MRK Quote) HIV treatment Isentress that supported the company's findings and could potentially lead to a positive recommendation.

Isentress, known generically as raltegravir, is the first in a new class of antiretroviral agents known as integrase inhibitors to be submitted for FDA approval. They work by blocking an enzyme necessary for replication of the virus from being integrated into the subject's DNA.

Merck was up 74 cents, or 1.5%, to $50.40 Friday. Pfizer was up 37 cents, or 1.5%, to $24.92.