Thursday's Health Winners & Losers

Clinical data and analyst speculation pushed a few biotech stocks up on Thursday while others fell in light of earnings.

First, two stocks with data: Advanced Life Sciences Holdings(ADLS) and Amylin(AMLN).

Advanced Life Sciences rose after announcing positive results from Trial CL-05, the second of two pivotal phase III clinical trials assessing the safety and efficacy of cethromycin, a once-a-day antibiotic for mild-to-moderate community acquired pneumonia (CAP). The study results showed that cethromycin was non-inferior to Biaxin, a current standard-of-care treatment for CAP, and demonstrated favorable safety results, with reported side effects similar to or less than those seen with Biaxin.

The company said around 5.6 million cases of CAP are diagnosed each year in the U.S, resulting in an estimated total annual expenditure of $2 billion for prescribed antibiotics. CAP is potentially fatal if not treated properly, and the bacteria that cause CAP are developing resistance to current standard-of-care treatments. Shares edged up 8 cents, or 4.2%, to $1.98.

Meanwhile, Amylin said that in a 24-week phase IIa study its drug candidate pramlintide in combination with metreleptin (which requires four daily injections -- two of each component) reduced the body weight of participants in a 177-patient study by an average of 12.7%, while treatment with pramlintide alone reduced body weight by 8.4%. However, only 139 of the 177 patients were eligible to participate in the last 20 weeks of the study. Shares were trading up $1, or 2.5%, at $42.06.