Friday's Health Winners & Losers

Acquisition and regulatory news held health indices just in the green on the cusp of the pre-Thanksgiving weekend.

Pfizer(PFE) said Friday that it would buy Coley Pharmaceutical(COLY) for $8 a share, or $164 million. (Coley shares closed at $3 on Thursday.) Shareholders holding about 27% of Coley's stock have entered into agreements to tender their shares in the offer, and the acquisition is expected to close in early 2008.

Coley focuses on vaccine technology and is a pioneer in a new class of drug candidates called TLR Therapeutics which work by stimulating or blocking important immune system receptors, called Toll-like receptors (TLRs) that direct the immune system to fight disease

Pfizer held up 10 ents, or 0.4%, at $23.39. Coley surged $4.81, or 160%, to $7.81. The stock is a component of the Nasdaq biotechnology index, which was up 0.1% at 848.21.

Also on the uptick, deCODE Genetics(DCGN) added 57 cents, or 18.8%, to $3.60, after announcing that it was launching deCODEme, a pioneering service that lets individuals get a detailed look at their own genome. The company said that through a subscription a person will send in a cheek swab and create an account that will allow them to see whether they have genetic variants associated with higher- or lower-than-average risk of a range of common diseases. The company will also provide expert analysis of the variants across their genome. The company said it will charge an introductory promotional price of $985 for a subscription.